From the way the prominenti talk any time someone questions the celebration of Columbus Day, we’re one step away from the return of the bad old days pre-WWII in the US, we’re about to spit on the Virgin Mary, and disrespect our grandmothers. All the agita over Columbus Day denies the experiences of the people who experienced genocide and enslavement as a result of the European colonization of this hemisphere.
And, when Native Americans, Latin@s, and other People of Color speak out about Columbus Day, they’re not attacking Italians, or our culture, they’re pointing out that this country has decided that it’s appropriate to celebrate and honor a genocidal slaver. They’re not saying “let’s not celebrate Italian culture” or “let’s not celebrate the experiences of Italian-Americans”, but saying “let’s not celebrate genocide, slavery, and exploitation.”
And, with the experiences of Italian-Americans, especially with the majority of us tracing our ancestry to the Mezzogiorno, you’d think we’d have a little more understanding, instead of engaging in this simultaneous pretending that our position is oh so precarious along with a heaping dose of “well, we got ours”.
Things we need to do:
-Listen to the voices of people directly harmed by this celebration of genocide: the video at Reconsider Columbus Day, for last year, is a good baby step in that direction. But this needs to be an ongoing conversation.
-Have conversations with our families and within our communities about having a celebration of Italianità that is not connected to Columbus Day; moreover, to have a celebration that helps to develop one not tied to racism or any other form of oppression.
-Beginning and continuing dialogue between Italian-American communities and communities of color.
-Dialogue with non-Italian whites about how Columbus Day is a celebration of the continuing alternating erasure and glorification of genocide in this hemisphere, and how Columbus Day is a symbol of that, and that making Columbus Day exclusively about the Italian-American community seeks to hide the real benefits all settler privileged people receive from colonization and genocide. Too often the non-Italian white criticism of Columbus Day becomes about reiterating anti-Italian stereotypes of being violent and ignorant as a way of erasing non-Italian whites’ complicity in white supremacy.
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