Word: columbus
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Each October, when Americans celebrate Columbus Day, they celebrate Christopher Columbus’s 1492 “discovery” of North America, a continent already home to hundreds of thousands of indigenous inhabitants. In other words, to celebrate Columbus Day is in part to assume that American history, a trajectory that stretches back for centuries before 1492, begins with the presence of white European explorers—an assumption that smacks of an outmoded, Eurocentric worldview. And while the holiday’s national importance has thankfully diminished in recent decades, the trend away from celebrating Columbus...
First of all, the relevance of Christopher Columbus to the specific history of the United States is dubious at best—the man was an Italian hired by the Spanish crown who landed in Latin America rather than in Boston or in the Chesapeake. If anything, his arrival in the “New World” marks the dawn of an era of European expansion and exploitation, which devastated Native Americans and other indigenous populations. And considering that Columbus Day is the only American national holiday (aside from January’s Martin Luther King, Jr. ,Day) still...
...would thus be a positive force countering the lingering Eurocentrism in American history if there were at least one holiday commemorating and celebrating Native Americans. Some states like South Dakota and Alabama have already taken the initiative to rename Columbus Day within their own borders, but, on the national level, Columbus Day is still a federal holiday, which should no longer be the case. Replacing Columbus Day with a holiday celebrating Native American culture will do much to bring this country to the realization that its history consists of many episodes less wholesome than the common image—real...
...while a nominal change of the Columbus Day holiday is a start, this country can do much more to challenge the unfortunately widespread Eurocentric approach to American history. For the most part, today’s American children and high-school students are taught that American history begins in 1607, the year the Jamestown settlement was established. Such an approach to American history is as inappropriate as it is inaccurate. And although replacing Columbus Day would certainly be a step in the right direction, we hope that the change would inspire a stronger commitment to teaching the true trajectory...
...neither will Columbus Day itself, at least not anytime soon. While there have been some efforts to get its federal-holiday status revoked, many seem content to simply ignore the holiday entirely. The two exceptions are retailers, for whom Columbus Day is the first big sales opportunity after August's back-to-school rush, and those who have repurposed the holiday into something less problematic (South Dakotans, for example, celebrate Native Americans Day instead). But relax, weary workers. Thanksgiving's little more than a month away, and that, at least, is a federal holiday most of us can agree...