John Oliver does it again, ripping apart some of our most taken-for-granted racist or sexist traditions on his HBO show, Last Week Tonight.
“Columbus became famous for his discoveries. Specifically the discovery that you can ‘discover’ a continent with millions of people already living on it.”
Columbus day can very well stay, and be turned into a day of solemn commemoration and contemplation. In Germany, the day WW2 ended is also commemorated each year, in remembrance of the victims (which means the non-German and the Jewish dead). It is possible.
On a lighter note: This is a great internet comeback/insult for people who state the obvious as very profound. “You are like Columbus. You discovered something lots of people already knew.”
Two ideas I like:
The Oatmeal’s “Bartolome Day” (after Bartolome de las Casas)
Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, Happy Thanksgiving, Canada. I would gladly take an extra day of Thanksgiving over a holiday that meant practically zero to me growing up. (Yes, I was taught more or less what the video describes in the early to late ’80s; it still had basically zilch significance to me.)
Good sentiment, but I don’t know how excited the First Nations would be with two Thanksgivings in the US. That holiday’s got some issues as well. But Bartolome Day is something we could all enjoy!
I call it Native American day