Brown University axed Columbus Day from its calendar back in 2009 - replacing it with Fall Weekend - and is now replacing it with a name it justly deserves, Indigenous People’s Day. No longer will the second Monday of October be a celebration of Christopher Columbus, the famed Italian explorer who “discovered” America. It instead will be a day of celebration of the first peoples to live and thrive in North America. Brown is by no means the first place to do this--South Dakota renamed Columbus Day to Native American Day in 1990 and, in Berkeley, California people have been celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day since 1992. See the list of other states and cities who have nixed this day here.
Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1934 long before the concept of “Columbusing” had entered the popular lexicon.
Quick recap on who was first:
Before Columbus graced the Americas with his presence, there were already millions of people who called North America, and Hispaniola (Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) home. Columbus, rolled on up, dismissed their rich cultural heritage and baller trade system and deemed the place, “The New World”.
Celebrating Hitler Day, Oh I mean Columbus Day https://t.co/OcjVuFUjEu#INDIGENOUS#TAIRPpic.twitter.com/VnkV7sffUI
— Indigenous (@AmericanIndian8) October 11, 2015
There you go. Christopher Columbus did not discover North America, he just happened upon it, thought it was India. Countries that were 'founded up' by a legacy of colonization now have the highest levels of poverty in the world It is surprising that it has taken this long to reverse a holiday that essentially celebrates the devaluation of human lives, but that is an entirely different argument. What matters is that institutions like Brown University, and states like South Dakota (among many others) are catalyzing this change.
Anything that justifies and overly celebrates someone who devalues the lives of others should be stopped. Hopefully, their example will lead to others doing the same.