Photo courtesy starpulse.com
Everyone read Simon Moya-Smith’s 6 Banal Defenses of Columbus Day, And How You Should Respond to the Moron, right? Reading ICTMN today, specifically, an article about the fight for Indigenous Peoples Day at ground zero, Colorado. In that article is one Rita DeFrange, moron, and if this was an actual bingo game, I would have cleaned up. She managed to hit every single moron point. I think Ms. DeFrange needs about 100 copies of Simon Moya-Smith’s article, and must sit down and read it 100 times. Perhaps the points would sink in.
Rita DeFrange, president of the Columbus Day Parade Committee and a member of the Denver chapter of the Order Sons of Italy, said it’s “not fair” that city officials are taking away from one group to give to another.
“It’s a struggle for folks. The community itself is very disappointed. They don’t understand why they are being picked on,” DeFrange told ICTMN.
DeFrange said herself and her community just want to celebrate their history and heritage.
Although Indigenous Peoples’ Day supporters like McLean and Salazar say Columbus shouldn’t be celebrated because of the atrocities he brought to the Native American people, DeFrange however, believes Columbus shouldn’t be judged by today’s standards.
“Unfortunately, we’re evaluating a man by 2016 standards, when the events happened 500 years ago,” DeFrange said. “The community really needs to take a hard look at how we look at our history books.”
Members of the Columbus Day Parade Committee and Order Sons of Italy met with Salazar earlier this year to discuss resolutions that could make both parties happy.
No resolutions were met, DeFrange said.
She said she’s more than happy to celebrate the heritage of the Native American people, but just on a different day.
“It’s one day. It’s a group of individuals who value their Italian heritage,” DeFrange said. “We all value the cultures … that’s what’s so great about America. You know, let’s not take one over the other and that’s the perception that people have.”
Full story at ICTMN.
Because 500 years ago humans didn’t feel bad when they were being mutilated, raped and killed. Because 500 years ago it didn’t suck to have shit stolen from you. And because 500 years ago, Europeans didn’t have laws against people murdering them and stealing from them.
The “man of his times” continues to be the most stupid and asinine argument ever. Instantly reveals one to be a white supremacist. Also, I love how white people and Europeans are “men of their times”. I wonder if they’ll apply that to all the atrocities that were done to white people by non-whites.
Also, when did “the times” end?
Saad:
That was Simon Moya-Smith’s main point:
Yes, it really fucking does.
It is entirely possible to judge Christopher Columbus by the standards of his time. You can write all kinds of academic papers on the history of European colonialism, examining the motives, culture and reception of New World adventurers like Columbus. You can examine their lives and how contemporaries viewed them from a detached and scholarly perspective and withold any kind of moral judgment from a 21st century standpoint. Academic historians do it all the time.
But that’s not what this is. We’re talking about celebrating a national holiday in honour of the man. That’s not an exercise in 15th century history, it’s an exercise in 21st century cultural posturing. It’s making no statement at all about 15th century values, it’s saying explicitly that we, here and now in 2016, think this man worthy of public acclaim.
It should also be noted that Columbus was so bad that his very own people of his very own times sent him back to Spain in chains. Also, in one of the last threads Bartolomé de Casas was mentioned, so we have a dude of the very same times and the very same culture who saw the atrocities as what they were.
You know, I’m German. If you started celebrating Adolf Hitler Day to honour my heritage I’d be the first to metaphorically whack you over the head with a history book and tell you to fucking stop it.
Now, who’s a woman of her times, me or DeFrange?
Y’know, there are plenty of Italians who were not homicidal maniacs that could be celebrated -y’know Michaelangelo the artist, Da Vinci (artist and inventor), Dante (writer), Galileo (scientist), among many others. But no, we gotta celebrate the rapist and enslaver who thought it was just fine to feed babies to dogs. Logic!!
Plus, I am always darkly amused when I hear this argument of ‘but he was a man of his times’. This always seems to come from Christians who otherwise would argue that Gawd’s laws are unchanging, permanent and just. Then they go and make exceptions like this. No cognitive dissonance there!!