As we organize to overturn the celebration of Columbus, it's worth
asking why he is so revered in the U.S.. Columbus didn't, after all, set
foot on the mainland continents. He
died convinced that he had reached Asia by the Western route. Yet
countless places across the country are named after him. In fact, the
honoring of Columbus goes hand in hand with our nation's embrace of
conquest and white supremacy.
For 18th century colonists who were revolting against the British
crown, Columbus was a useful figure for constructing a national myth. He
offered a lineage to European colonialism while bypassing the history
of the British Empire's settlement in America--for which the patriots
owed their immediate presence in the country, but which they were trying
to distance themselves from as they waged a revolution.
President Benjamin Harrison decreed the celebration of a holiday in
honor of Columbus in 1892, on the 400th anniversary of his mission.
Harrison presented a myth that dates the beginning of the American
project--not with the American Revolution in 1776, but with Columbus'
violence in the Caribbean nearly 300 years earlier.
Indeed,
Harrison's celebration of Columbus' voyage--the first national one--came
at a particular time in the ongoing war of the U.S. against Native
peoples. Just two years before, the Army carried out its notorious
massacre of Lakota people at Wounded Knee.
The "Manifest Destiny"
spirit of the time further comes through in Harrison's description of
the colonial success of Columbus and the U.S. as God-given: "[L]et there
be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence for the devout faith
of the discoverer and for the divine care and guidance which has
directed our history and so abundantly blessed our people."
It
was Democrat Franklin Roosevelt who became the first president to
proclaim Columbus Day as a federal holiday after a joint resolution
passed by Congress in 1934.
In a 1940 statement on the holiday
that Roosevelt used as part of his preparation for war, he called on
Americans to continue Columbus's mission of projecting Western
civilization: "The promise which Columbus's discovery gave to the world,
of a new beginning in the march of human progress, has been in process
of fulfillment for four centuries. Our task is now to make strong our
conviction that in spite of setbacks that process will go on toward
fulfillment."
If any doubt remains about whether Columbus Day is
about the celebration of colonialism, white supremacy and the
whitewashing of the ongoing genocide against the Indigenous peoples of
the Americas, look no further than the latest presidential proclamation
of Columbus Day from Donald Trump:
"The permanent arrival of
Europeans to the Americas was a transformative event that undeniably and
fundamentally changed the course of human history and set the stage for
the development of our great Nation. Therefore, on Columbus Day, we
honor the skilled navigator and man of faith, whose courageous feat
brought together continents and has inspired countless others to pursue
their dreams and convictions--even in the face of extreme doubt and
tremendous adversity."
(Continued)
Christopher Columbus committed atrocities against the Indigenous peoples he encountered
