Many critics argue it’s inappropriate to celebrate Columbus, whose 15th- and 16th-century campaigns through Central America and the Caribbean Sea resulted in the killing and enslavement of many Indigenous people. Why would anyone attach themselves to such a flawed character who stands for unspeakable crimes against humanity? We can do better.Columbus Day has been federally recognized for nearly 100 years, but the holiday is increasingly polarizing. The only consolation is that they are bird toilets. These statues of evil men are everywhere in town plazas across the Americas (including New York City). They only conquered by betraying their hosts. Ouch! Conquistadors were Common CriminalsĬonquistador where worse than common criminals. If you didn’t provide enough gold to the Spanish colonizers, they cut off your arm. Columbus and his relatives repaid this kindness by enslaving the Taíno. The Taíno showed them where it was and said they could take whatever they wanted. When Columbus encountered the Indigenous Taíno in the Bahamas, he and his crew were lost and going to die. Indigenous Peoples Saved the Columbus Expedition But to claim a reward, Columbus lied and said he saw land first, but didn’t report it. Even the “Discovery” Was Based on a LieĬolumbus Day commemorates the day around Octowhen the expedition of Christopher Columbus sighted land in what is now the Bahamas.īut even that pivotal moment was based on a lie. He had brought them such riches that the Spaniards eventually let him go, but never let him have power again. It didn’t work, but that was the beginning of this mess.Īfter his voyages, Columbus was so infamous for the maltreatment of Indigenous peoples that his own Spanish sponsors called him back to Spain, jailed him, stripped his power, and put him on trial. He tried to start the TransAtlantic Slave Trade by selling Indigenous Taíno in Spain. It turns out that Christopher Columbus was himself an evil man. Christopher Columbus Was Personally an Evil Man Columbus Day When there were no Indigenous workers left, the Europeans began kidnapping and enslaving Africans, and worked them to death too. We are taught that Indigenous Peoples just gave up and died, but actually they were worked to death in slave labor camps by the colonizers. Can you imagine the shock of being the 1 in 20 who survived? For perspective imagine that everyone who died of Covid is alive, but all of us now living are dead. Most Latin Americans reject Columbus because he unleashed a multi-dimensional Indigenous genocide that began with an pandemic with a 95% death rate. Columbus Unleashed a Pandemic, Genocide, and The Atlantic Slave Trade We were taught colonial fairy tales, but now you can’t say you didn’t know. That’s why the Italian American community holds so tightly to Columbus.īack then the scholarship about the evil of Columbus himself, and the evil he unleashed on the world was not general knowledge. Italians went from being considered “others” to just being Americans. government started Columbus Day to send the message that Italians are Americans too. There was a lynching of Italian Americans that became an international incident. This nonsense stills devils American life. People don’t want to talk about it, but it is our American history. Lynchings, murders, rapes, maimings, burnings – you cannot process the inhumanity – even against women and children, continuously and for no reason at all. They became targets by association.Īmerican racism is so violent that it is difficult for many of us to fully comprehend ~ unless you are on the receiving end. They took work that had formerly been done by the African Diaspora, lived in and married into African communities. It’s only 100 miles from Africa so Italians were comfortable with mixing. The US celebration was founded to stop the lynching of Italian Americans by white supremacist Confederate Southerners.Īfter the US Civil War (1860-1865), many Italians who migrated to the United States came from Southern Italy. The US national holiday is still called “Columbus Day.” We fully support changing the name of the day, but it will take an act of Congress to change it. The NYC Department of Education now celebrates “Columbus Day” as Italian Heritage Day / Indigenous Peoples Day.

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