Monday, October 12, 2009

Columbus Day in America - I'm so confused!

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Today's Columbus Day and for that I'm, well, kinda pissed off because my bank's closed by state government offices are open and I need to go to both. So, considering that I work seven days a week the idea that this is a holiday's almost meaningless but even more so because the State of California doesn't see it as a day of relaxation but the Feds do!

I remember when I was little we learned "Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492" and had to say that again and again and again. But no one told me there were no black folks working as crew on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (see, I had to memorize that too).

If you asked me as a small boy was anyone that looked like me sailing with Columbus, I'd have said "yes" because we were learning about him. That's how it goes when you're a kid: you think the subject matter has something to do with you in some way and that, in this case, there's no way Columbus would reject me.

Oh, how wrong I learned I was latter in life.

Discovering that Christopher Columbus was just another racist butthole who's first idea would be to enslave me was jarring. The first awakening to the fact that nothing is as it seemed to me as a boy. It also really caused me to take a second look at how we as a people seem to denounce critical thinking, but far more so then than now.

Today, we have blogs and vlogs!

The reality is Columbus Day is a celebration of the discovery of the new world for Italian Americans, and since I'm one step from joining Oakland's Columbo Club, I will certainly celebrate that, just as these folks are having a good time in New York City.




But Columbus Day also a time when all of us should take moment to reflect on how wonderfully diverse America has become and how we take steps to insure the development of a more perfect union.

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