MORE CITIES are questioning the celebration of Columbus Day on Oct. 12.
At least nine more U.S. cities will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day instead, according to AP report, including Albuquerque, Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota and Olympia, Washington. They will be joining Minneapolis and Seattle which made decided to switch the emphasis last year.
Oct. 12 has long been a celebration of Italian contributions to America because Christopher Columbus was Italian.
Critics of Columbus Day say American should not be celebrating an event that led to the destruction of pre-Columbian civilizations and the decimation of the people who were already living here.
The drive to change the emphasis is a growing movement to recognize the more historically accurate impact of Columbus's arrival on the shores of a land that he thought was India.
Don't get me wrong, the arrival of Columbus is no small matter. His voyage sparked an era of exploration by European nations, but history classes should also teach the after-effects, including the exploitation and genocide of the people who occupied the lands being "claimed" for those European powers.
Perhaps not coincidentally, on the eve of Oct. 12, California's Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would prohibit schools from using the name "Redskins" as their mascot.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 30 introduced by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, will prevent public schools from using a term that American Indians regard as offensive, starting in 2017.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment