Columbus Day has rolled around once again, with the usual controversies.
Are you a bad person if you recognize Columbus Day? Are you hopelessly woke if you recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day?
As the above video shows, Italian Americans in New York City already feel slighted by the city’s divisive new mayor on this day. Mamdani no doubt loathes Columbus Day and everything it stands for, though he also chooses to live in the United States.
There is nothing wrong with having an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. On the contrary, it might actually be a good idea.
We have all kinds of holidays, after all. We even have an Albanian Heritage Day (May 19) and a National Dog Day (August 26). If we can make room for those two days of commemoration, then surely we can have an Indigenous Peoples Day.
The controversy arose not because of the holiday itself, but because of the deliberate attempt to replace Columbus Day with a competing holiday.
Indigenous Peoples Day could have been another national commemoration. Instead, it became an attempt to erase Columbus Day, and that brought about some bad feelings and controversy.
But then again, that was the intention all along. October 12 was not chosen at random.
-ET