Disingenuous People’s Day

The holiday that is no cause for celebration by indigenous Americans

A more appropriate name for what used to be called Columbus Day in most of the US would have been Colonialism Day, because that’s what we were celebrating — discovery of a whole hemisphere apparently ripe for exploitation by ambitious Europeans. [1]

I never thought much about this holiday except to mark it on my calendar when I went to work for the federal government and it became a paid day off. Like Presidents’ Day, this one falls on the closest Monday so we can give it the attention it deserves.

This year, I gave it more than a few seconds of thought because it offered an opportunity to tease an old friend with a call to wish him “Happy Indigenous People’s Day” instead of “Happy Birthday.” He has a young son who was home from school because of the holiday, so that was nice. His wife had to work, though, because her business doesn’t have time for such nonsense.

Nonsense it is — and worse. What ever possessed us to add insult to the injury of taking over this continent by memorializing its “discovery” by white men? Did we fail to see the hypocrisy in celebrating our freedom on Independence Day and then celebrating our occupation of America three months later?

I don’t recall seeing any reference to the holiday in the Washington Post. However, I did see the news that we were committing troops to Israel’s war effort. Then I resumed reading The Message — Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book about apartheid — which asked the questions that don’t seem to occur to others, such as why we are so committed to separate and unequal policies.

I’m very late to ask these questions myself, but I’m glad to join the conversation, because I think answering them correctly is key to our survival. They all focus on the idea that led to creating this nation — that all men (and women) are created equal. Yes or No? It’s not complicated, and yet we find ourselves in myriad arguments and endless conflict about exceptions and interpretations.

[1] After breaking the chains that bound us to England, we joined the colonial feeding frenzy by putting our own spin on it and taking the practice to unprecedented levels. If you are interested in the whole inglorious story, read Daniel Immerwahr’s book How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.