It’s strangely appropriate that Columbus Day follows a week of assigning blame on white masculinity for the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
We still know very little about Stephen Paddock and why he decided murder dozens of people at a country music concert in Las Vegas. With no obvious motive, leftist journalists and academics have taken to blaming the violence on “white supremacy” or “white rage.” (RELATED: Media, Journos Unite Against ‘White Men’ In Wake of Las Vegas Shooting)
Apparently a white man shooting at a lot of white people is somehow a reflection of the nefarious influence of white supremacy on our society.
That leads us to the one of the (allegedly) worst white guys in history, Christopher Columbus. The holiday dedicated to him is the most controversial in America, with its critics seeing it as a celebration of a genocidal maniac.
The intent of Columbus Day is to honor the man whose voyage led to the European colonization of the Americas and the eventual creation of the United States. Without the Genoese explorer, few of us would be on this continent right now and the U.S. would have never come into being.
Columbus has always had his detractors in the U.S.. In the early 20th century, WASP-y nativists weren’t fond of honoring an Italian Catholic as the discoverer of America at a time when Italian Catholics were immigrating en masse to America.
These anti-Columbus Americans preferred to honor Leif Erikson instead, a Nordic who the new immigrants from southern Europe couldn’t claim as their own.
The reason for the old animosity of Columbus was due to his status as a symbol for Catholics and Italians. The reason for the new animosity is the view that European discovery of America was a great crime that we should look at with shame, not honor.
Leif Erikson would make a more worthy figure for today’s left-wing consensus, as his voyage remained little known and led to no long-term settlement. Europeans going back and never returning would have been better, according to the present social mood.
The implications of the negativity is that the New World was a great place before Columbus arrived, with the natives living in perfect harmony with one another and nature. But then the Europeans came, and these peace-loving people were ruined forever.
That’s why we should celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the place of Columbus Day, as it is more worthy to honor the Amerindians than it is the Europeans who conquered them.
It is one of the great fallacies of our time to imagine the natives as peaceful people who would have loved to live side by side with Europeans. One of the first tribes Europeans came in contact with were the extremely violent Caribs, a name that “cannibal” was derived from. According to the great American historian Sameul Eliot Morison, that derivation owes to the people’s fondness for eating their fellow man and they ferociously fought the Spanish.
A few years later, the Spanish came in contact with the Aztecs, a culture that had reached civilization, yet based their society around human sacrifice. The primary aim of Aztec warfare was not to kill their enemies, but to capture the opposing warriors in order to slaughter them in their grisly rituals.
The tribes the English settlers encountered in what would become America were similarly violent and unwelcoming to the newcomers. As is the case throughout human history, conflict resulted when two unfamiliar groups both settled on the same land. The Europeans won this conflict, a fact that is now to be treated with shame.
The preference for Indigenous Peoples’ Day over Columbus Day is fitting with the times we live in. When public discourse over the Las Vegas shooting is dominated by talk of white supremacy and white privilege is a popularly believed notion, it’s certain that we don’t want to celebrate holidays honoring European conquerors.
While living in a country based on European ideas of democracy, speaking a European language and with a majority of its population descended from Europeans, we’re supposed to all feel bad that Europeans came here in the first place. It doesn’t matter that we are a country that owes its existence to Columbus and other explorers.
The New America would rather believe the indigenous peoples are our real founders.
The new American identity is one that is primarily negative. The roots of our nation are inherently rotten. Our history is one of genocide and slavery. The flag and national anthem represent white supremacy. White people, which includes all members of the Constitutional Convention, have always been a blight on this land.
Guilt is supposed to be induced at every sign of traditional Americana. The first step in overcoming this guilt is to tear down all the symbols and figures who represent the bad, old America that didn’t apologize for its history and roots.
Columbus, the man who initiated European colonialism, is the penultimate figure for the America that needs to be replaced.
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