In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the United States began re-examining previously idolized historical figures. Among these figures is Christopher Columbus, who is routinely used as a symbol of daring exploration, with his notoriety best highlighted by Columbus Day being a federal holiday. However, for America, Christopher Columbus marks the start of a tradition of abhorrent treatment of the Indigenous Peoples which lays the foundation for Indigenous land to be viewed through a lens of commodity by settlers who justified their actions through Christianity. Columbus Day wasn’t recognized as a federal holiday until 1937, over four hundred years after Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas. When President Benjamin Harrison first proposed a national celebration of the holiday in 1892, he cited it as a day for Americans to, “devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life” and called Columbus, “the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.” The idea of this holiday was then picked up by Italian Americans, particularly the Knights of Columbus who are a “Catholic Fraternal Organization,” as a way to boost the social status of Italian Americans in the early 1900 During this time, over four million Italians had just immigrated to the United States and were often socially excluded, not falling into the standard definition of “white” at the time. …show more content…
The celebration of Columbus, particularly rather than Italian Americans generally, however, overlooks a few crucial details. The first is the fact that Columbus didn’t land in North America, nevermind the land that’s now considered the United States of