Happy Columbus Day, or to our friends in Seattle and Minneapolis, Happy Indigenous People Day!
Of course, for those of you who don’t get the day off (so most of you), this may be your first reminder that it is in fact Columbus Day. It’s a holiday that’s gone a bit by the wayside for some historically valid reasons.
First there’s the fact that Columbus was in fact, looking for an entirely different place and thought he had found that place when he “discovered” America, so celebrating his “discovery” of America seems a little bit inaccurate, when in reality he got lost and lucked out.
The same can not be said for the many, many people who were already living in that land that Columbus “discovered.” There is definitely something a little off-putting about celebrating a man who committed so many atrocities against the indigenous people of the land he “discovered.”
I could go on, but I’ll let John Oliver make the point better than I ever could in the video below.
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CNN: Instead of Columbus Day, some U.S. cities celebrate Indigenous People’s Day
…bi-daily smile…
