Many people hate this name because they find the character of the man reprehensible. Many also argue that since he wasn’t the first person from the Eastern Hemisphere to come to the Western Hemisphere his name shouldn’t be enshrined in the name of a holiday.
To my knowledge there isn’t a single historically significant person who we today could call a wholly good person. Setting this aside momentarily. Columbus is arguably one of the most significant people in all human history. We describe the Americas before European contact as Pre-Colombian, we could describe the entire world similarly. It would take too long to list all the ways the world is different after Columbus. Just listing the foods would take too long. Just listing the places named after Columbus is exhausting: a country, a Canadian province, two us state capitals, the us capital, the second largest city in Panama, cities/towns/villages all over the Americas and streets, rivers, and lakes as far off as Italy and the Philippines.
Most people know that Brazilians speak a Portuguese dialect while the majority of South and Central America speak a Spanish dialect. This is because in 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral accidentally discovered Brazil while trying to go around the Cape of Good Hope. In some alternate reality there’s a Cabral Day and a pre-Cabralean America and all those placenames are named after Pedro Álvares Cabral.
It isn’t the man that causes me to call it Columbus Day it is the immensity the historical significance that does. The man did some terrible things. Unfortunately, when you study history that’s how it just goes. If you discount every historical person based on whether they meet modern ideals of good and evil then history books will become rather slim. History is full of people who do good things and bad things but they all do significant things.
If you want to call it Indigenous Peoples Day thats great. The same day can have multiple holidays. If you want to call it Columbus Day that’s great too. Let’s just remember that it’s easy to celebrate what we see as good while forgetting what’s uncomfortable and they should go hand in hand.
You’re right, we should judge Columbus based on the times he lived.
Bobadilla reported to Spain that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. He claimed that Columbus regularly used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartholomew on “defending the family” when the latter ordered a woman paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut because she had “spoken ill of the admiral and his brothers”. The document also describes how Columbus put down native unrest and revolt: he first ordered a brutal suppression of the uprising in which many natives were killed, and then paraded their dismembered bodies through the streets in an attempt to discourage further rebellion…
In early October 1500, Columbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard La Gorda, the caravel on which Bobadilla had arrived at Santo Domingo. They were returned to Spain, and languished in jail for six weeks before King Ferdinand ordered their release.
I think the point is that even by the standards of his time, he was horrible. And that was an era where a common legal execution method was strapping you to a wagon wheel and beating you to death over the course of an hour. He was horrible compared even to that.
If it’s very important to you then you could get signatures supporting changing the name to America’s Day or you could petition your state or local government. Things can be changed it just needs someone to enact that change.
I call it Columbus Day.
Many people hate this name because they find the character of the man reprehensible. Many also argue that since he wasn’t the first person from the Eastern Hemisphere to come to the Western Hemisphere his name shouldn’t be enshrined in the name of a holiday.
To my knowledge there isn’t a single historically significant person who we today could call a wholly good person. Setting this aside momentarily. Columbus is arguably one of the most significant people in all human history. We describe the Americas before European contact as Pre-Colombian, we could describe the entire world similarly. It would take too long to list all the ways the world is different after Columbus. Just listing the foods would take too long. Just listing the places named after Columbus is exhausting: a country, a Canadian province, two us state capitals, the us capital, the second largest city in Panama, cities/towns/villages all over the Americas and streets, rivers, and lakes as far off as Italy and the Philippines.
Most people know that Brazilians speak a Portuguese dialect while the majority of South and Central America speak a Spanish dialect. This is because in 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral accidentally discovered Brazil while trying to go around the Cape of Good Hope. In some alternate reality there’s a Cabral Day and a pre-Cabralean America and all those placenames are named after Pedro Álvares Cabral.
It isn’t the man that causes me to call it Columbus Day it is the immensity the historical significance that does. The man did some terrible things. Unfortunately, when you study history that’s how it just goes. If you discount every historical person based on whether they meet modern ideals of good and evil then history books will become rather slim. History is full of people who do good things and bad things but they all do significant things.
If you want to call it Indigenous Peoples Day thats great. The same day can have multiple holidays. If you want to call it Columbus Day that’s great too. Let’s just remember that it’s easy to celebrate what we see as good while forgetting what’s uncomfortable and they should go hand in hand.
You’re right, we should judge Columbus based on the times he lived.
I didn’t say that we should judge him by the standards of his time. I did say that he did terrible things.
I think the point is that even by the standards of his time, he was horrible. And that was an era where a common legal execution method was strapping you to a wagon wheel and beating you to death over the course of an hour. He was horrible compared even to that.
I never made the argument that he wasn’t terrible
I enjoy this nuanced perspective. In light of all that, I will now call this holiday Fuck Columbus Day.
That’s entirely your right
So why can’t we name it America’s day. We just need to stop using people names for shit.
If it’s very important to you then you could get signatures supporting changing the name to America’s Day or you could petition your state or local government. Things can be changed it just needs someone to enact that change.