Columbus Day. Everybody loves a day off, but honestly, does the United States really want to continue celebrating the name of a man who was a slave owner, a slave trader, a greedy, cruel, vicious dishonest brute? A lot of people have been asking that question.
The demythologizing of Columbus has begun; an engaging and chilling example can be found in the comic strip story by Matthew Inman. [His exposé is based on information from A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, both of which use primary sources such as eyewitness accounts, journal entries, and letters from Christopher Columbus himself. It’s worth reading.]
In recognition of the genocide started by Columbus’s invasion of the not so new “New World,” some communities have renamed Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day or Native American Day to recognize and honor the native people whose lives, communities, and cultures have continued to suffer . South Dakota has renamed the day as Native American Day and this year Vermont (I love Vermont!) is celebrating Indigenous People Day.
Matthew Inman recommends renaming Columbus Day as Bartolomé Day after Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), a settler in the New World who initially participated in atrocities committed against Indigenous Peoples by Spanish colonists but ultimately came to reject all forms of slavery. Although his name will never catch on for a U.S. holiday, he appears to be a man very much in the image of John Newton (1725–1807), who wrote Amazing Grace .
Our most recently named federal holiday is Martin Luther King Day, honoring a man who is an icon of the nonviolent pursuit of civil rights and social justice. Let us not forget that Columbus is also an icon; he represents what is most repellent, most harmful, and perhaps most dangerous in many segments of the United States today. Greed was his predominant motive. He lusted for wealth in the form of gold but enslaving and selling men for labor and women for sex would do. He relentlessly pursued power. He did not hesitate to use military violence to accomplish his goals. Sound familiar? Are these the people whom we want to represent the United States?
Recognizing that Columbus is the anti-hero surviving in our culture will not be pleasant, but it is a task that is long overdue. Maybe today should become U.S. Redemption Day.
