This article provides some interesting insight into Columbus and how he was rescued from obscurity to become the subject of a holiday, through an effort by the US to show it was a world cultural power, and to denigrate Spain’s influence in the New World (as Columbus was Italian).
An additional ingredient I’ve heard previously is that Columbus was latched onto by the waves of Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th Century — this same time period — as an example of how they, too, were part of the whole America thing (since there was a lot of push-back against them being here as non-Anglo, swarthy Mediterraneans, and Catholics to boot — some things never change).
Indeed, some overly-earnest Italian-Americans are outraged of discussions about replacing Columbus Day with “Indigenous People’s Day,” seeing it as an affront to them. Let me say, as someone mostly of Italian descent, I don’t at all take losing Columbus Day as an insult.
Sometimes it’s okay for heroes to have feet of clay. It renders them more human, helps us battle our own hubris, and gives hope that even our imperfect selves can do something great. But Columbus, as it turns out, was a hot mess of an individual, noteworthy for one achievement that, in retrospect, was instrumental in widespread death and destruction. And he was kind of a dick, too. A national celebration of him is not only not warranted, actually having it is an affront to Italian-Americans.
Not surprisingly, the Federalist is running this particular article, suggesting that replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Days is awful because Native Americans were all cannibals, human sacrificers, torturers, murderers, and slavers. Yeesh.
http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/09/indigenous-peoples-day-far-worse-columbus-day/
How about 'American Peace Day'?
(Cue evil laughter. Lots of it.)
We have the same dilemma in Australia. The bashing into submission of the natives was usually ignored by the dominant colonial population when national or State foundation days were marked. Now there's a developing argument about the dates of commemoration and what these occasions should be called.
Slightly apropos, I saw a post on Instagram recently by a person with an inferior grasp of nuance. It was about a fashion show held to "celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the death of Gianni Versace".
Travis, we Muricans danced along to "Beds Are Burning" while wondering about the cold 45 degree desert and not much else.
And this whole episode also shows that identity politics was not something newly invented during the 1960s. I didn't realize, however, that one reason to promote Italianism was to denigrate Spanishism.
Related 1892 chatter – ask a conservative WITHOUT historical perspective to support the introduction of the original (1892) Pledge of Allegiance. Just don't tell the CWHP that the original pledge not only omits God, but also omits any direct reference to the United States of America. Heck, the person could be pledging allegiance to a Confederate flag…but that might be attractive.
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
https://youtu.be/ejorQVy3m8E
It's so easy to sing a song. Then hard decisions come along:
mobile.abc.net.au
Yeah, the Italian-Americans were trying to push aside the racism they were getting esp at end of 19th century, and in doing so pushed that right along to indigenous people. The whole thing is a complete mess.