CPS Agrees to Change Columbus to Indigenous People´s Day Holiday
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Board of Education decided in a 5-2 vote to replace the Columbus Holiday with Indigenous People´s Day.
The next day two aldermen threatened to go to war with CPS over the name change.
¨You can have your DAMN Indigenous People´s Day just not on Columbus Day,¨ thundered Alderman Nick Sposato.
How´s that for being an outright racist, believing honoring a murderer of the native population should be continued at the expense of honoring the native people.
And that´s how the mainstream media such as The Chicago Sun-Times and Wbez Radio reported the hysterical reaction from two Italian aldermen speaking on behalf of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Committee.
The corporate media here simply repeat their lies about Columbus, merely acknowledging that he did not really discover America, there were already people living here.
They write nothing about the fact that Christopher Columbus murdered and enslaved the natives, cut off their hands and forced them to wear their severed hands around their necks if they did not work hard enough to find the gold. He shipped many back to Spain to be slaves. He even boasted whipping and raping the people in his diaries.
Columbus started the holocaust of the native population here.
This Italian Committee that supposedly speaks on behalf of Chicago Italians - it does not - wants to continue the myth that Columbus is the pride of the Italian people.
There are plenty of Italian heroes, and Columbus is not one of them.
How the Columbus myth became the truth here is interesting. One video I watched stated that Washington Irving, the celebrated writer of Sleepy Hallow, wrote a book about Columbus when most people never heard of the guy. It turned into a bestseller and earned the fabled American writer a lot of money.
Today we have a star on our city flag honoring the 1892 World´s Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400 year anniversary of his landing in America. There is the Columbus Day parade every year and Columbus Day.
Yes, the Italians were discriminated against like any newly-arrived immigrants, but it was the ruling class who decided to honor Columbus and colonization. Most statutes and monuments in this city and throughout the country are sanctioned by the rulers - mostly presidents, slaveholders and generals.
True heroes like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and others did not just get a street or park named after them in this city. It only comes after a battle the people have to fight against those who rule this city. Activists are still trying to change the name of Douglas Park in Lawndale (a mostly African-American community on the West Side) - named after Stephen Douglas a slaveholder - to Frederick Douglass, the great black civil rights hero who fought against slavery.
The fight to get CPS to drop the Columbus celebration in October was hard fought. It began with students like mine who spoke out against celebrating this monster. But the person who made the change possible was Sarah Dennis, an adjunct professor and activist against racism. She spoke out constantly against celebrating Columbus and then lobbied the decision makers. After the Chicago Board of Education president told my students that they cannot do anything about changing Columbus Day because the state dictates district policy, Dennis found out that Evanston and Oak Park School Districts did not celebrate Columbus Day. So it was possible.
After a series of meetings, Dennis took it to the next level and got the American Indian Center involved to lobby the Mayor´s office to change the name. Dennis said Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked the Indian Center to meet with the Italian Committee, but the Italians refused. Instead, they focused on lobbying aldermen to not enact a city proposal outlawing Columbus celebration. They hosted a free dinner for the legislators, and dressed up female servers to serve as ¨eye candy.¨
Dennis said a big boost to end Columbus was the resolution the Chicago Teachers Union passed to eliminate Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous People's Day. She said the board of education heads perked up when she was armed with the union resolution demanding the change. The teachers spoke!
The ugly reaction of the two aldermen after CPS´s decision to eliminate Columbus Day by supposedly declaring war on CPS was purely theater on behalf of the Italian lobbyists tied to money interests. And shame on the mainstream media for reporting their erroneous comments about the Italian hero, which forced the mayor to say she will not ban Columbus Day in the city at large.
Over 5,300 Chicagoans have signed a petition supporting the name change, including principals, teachers, parents, children, 10 aldermen, state reps, state senators and an Illinois congressman.
Dennis said they found a letter by 50 Italian-American academics around the country in support of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People´s Day, with some of the scholars from Northwestern U. and Loyola U.
In an interview on WTTW, a representative from the Italian Committee said that Columbus Day is a tradition and the state legislature passed an Indigenous People's Day celebration at the end of October to not conflict with Columbus Day. However, the American Indian Center was never consulted when this law was passed. It was purely done behind closed doors to continue celebrating this monster!
Columbus tortured and enslaved Arawaks and Tainos, and he established the repartimiento system of forced labor in the desperate search for gold. These and other atrocities established a genocidal approach to colonization of the Americas and it remains a crucial aspect of Columbus´s legacy.
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Board of Education decided in a 5-2 vote to replace the Columbus Holiday with Indigenous People´s Day.
The next day two aldermen threatened to go to war with CPS over the name change.
¨You can have your DAMN Indigenous People´s Day just not on Columbus Day,¨ thundered Alderman Nick Sposato.
How´s that for being an outright racist, believing honoring a murderer of the native population should be continued at the expense of honoring the native people.
And that´s how the mainstream media such as The Chicago Sun-Times and Wbez Radio reported the hysterical reaction from two Italian aldermen speaking on behalf of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Committee.
The corporate media here simply repeat their lies about Columbus, merely acknowledging that he did not really discover America, there were already people living here.
They write nothing about the fact that Christopher Columbus murdered and enslaved the natives, cut off their hands and forced them to wear their severed hands around their necks if they did not work hard enough to find the gold. He shipped many back to Spain to be slaves. He even boasted whipping and raping the people in his diaries.
Columbus started the holocaust of the native population here.
This Italian Committee that supposedly speaks on behalf of Chicago Italians - it does not - wants to continue the myth that Columbus is the pride of the Italian people.
There are plenty of Italian heroes, and Columbus is not one of them.
How the Columbus myth became the truth here is interesting. One video I watched stated that Washington Irving, the celebrated writer of Sleepy Hallow, wrote a book about Columbus when most people never heard of the guy. It turned into a bestseller and earned the fabled American writer a lot of money.
Today we have a star on our city flag honoring the 1892 World´s Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400 year anniversary of his landing in America. There is the Columbus Day parade every year and Columbus Day.
Yes, the Italians were discriminated against like any newly-arrived immigrants, but it was the ruling class who decided to honor Columbus and colonization. Most statutes and monuments in this city and throughout the country are sanctioned by the rulers - mostly presidents, slaveholders and generals.
True heroes like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and others did not just get a street or park named after them in this city. It only comes after a battle the people have to fight against those who rule this city. Activists are still trying to change the name of Douglas Park in Lawndale (a mostly African-American community on the West Side) - named after Stephen Douglas a slaveholder - to Frederick Douglass, the great black civil rights hero who fought against slavery.
The fight to get CPS to drop the Columbus celebration in October was hard fought. It began with students like mine who spoke out against celebrating this monster. But the person who made the change possible was Sarah Dennis, an adjunct professor and activist against racism. She spoke out constantly against celebrating Columbus and then lobbied the decision makers. After the Chicago Board of Education president told my students that they cannot do anything about changing Columbus Day because the state dictates district policy, Dennis found out that Evanston and Oak Park School Districts did not celebrate Columbus Day. So it was possible.
After a series of meetings, Dennis took it to the next level and got the American Indian Center involved to lobby the Mayor´s office to change the name. Dennis said Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked the Indian Center to meet with the Italian Committee, but the Italians refused. Instead, they focused on lobbying aldermen to not enact a city proposal outlawing Columbus celebration. They hosted a free dinner for the legislators, and dressed up female servers to serve as ¨eye candy.¨
Dennis said a big boost to end Columbus was the resolution the Chicago Teachers Union passed to eliminate Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous People's Day. She said the board of education heads perked up when she was armed with the union resolution demanding the change. The teachers spoke!
The ugly reaction of the two aldermen after CPS´s decision to eliminate Columbus Day by supposedly declaring war on CPS was purely theater on behalf of the Italian lobbyists tied to money interests. And shame on the mainstream media for reporting their erroneous comments about the Italian hero, which forced the mayor to say she will not ban Columbus Day in the city at large.
Over 5,300 Chicagoans have signed a petition supporting the name change, including principals, teachers, parents, children, 10 aldermen, state reps, state senators and an Illinois congressman.
Dennis said they found a letter by 50 Italian-American academics around the country in support of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People´s Day, with some of the scholars from Northwestern U. and Loyola U.
In an interview on WTTW, a representative from the Italian Committee said that Columbus Day is a tradition and the state legislature passed an Indigenous People's Day celebration at the end of October to not conflict with Columbus Day. However, the American Indian Center was never consulted when this law was passed. It was purely done behind closed doors to continue celebrating this monster!
Columbus tortured and enslaved Arawaks and Tainos, and he established the repartimiento system of forced labor in the desperate search for gold. These and other atrocities established a genocidal approach to colonization of the Americas and it remains a crucial aspect of Columbus´s legacy.
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