Trump Lionizes Columbus Because, Not in Spite, of his Atrocities

Today is what we here in Ithaca recognize as Indigenous People's Day. In many parts of the United States, however, today is Columbus Day. Ithaca and various other progressive locales were inspired to change the designation in light of the fact--long known to historians and anyone who took the time to read accounts such as Columbus's own letters and reliable secondary literature--that Columbus enthusiastically captured, enslaved, and sent to Europe numerous native people, as well as expropriating their land, gold, and other resources. The most lethal impact of Columbus's voyage and the ensuing establishment of European colonies in the new world came from diseases to which the indigenous population had no immunity, and while the introduction of new microbes was not intentional on the part of Columbus or the conquistadors who followed him, they were not exactly unhappy about the fact that the depopulated lands left many fewer people who would resist colonization and created space for European colonists and the enslaved Africans they brought here involuntarily.

The belated realization that Columbus's voyages unleashed untold suffering led communities around the country to rethink celebrations of his legacy. Renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People's Day was a way to honor his victims.

So, of course, Donald Trump has decreed today be celebrated as Columbus Day in a Proclamation that contains not a word recognizing the harms Columbus caused or even the fact that there were human inhabitants of the Americas before European colonization. The closest it comes to the latter is its assertion that Columbus brought "with him the rich traditions of Western civilization," which might be thought to tacitly recognize that there were people here already, albeit people to be regarded as savages on whom Columbus bestowed the gift of Western civilization.

Needless to say, there is no acknowledgment in the proclamation of what else Columbus brought with him or exactly what was encompassed by the tradition he brought. For example, it does not mention the timing of Columbus's travels. He embarked on his first voyage from Spain on August 3, 1492. That was just three days after the deadline for that country's Jews who had not converted to Christianity to leave the country of their birth and in which their ancestors had been resident for 15 centuries.

In Trump's proclamation, Columbus is "one of history’s greatest heroes" and "a legend whose vision, fortitude, and perseverance unleashed a dynamic of history that led to the creation of the greatest, freest, and most just Nation in history." The proclamation is not merely blind to the damage Columbus did but styled as a purposeful repudiation of it. It proclaims that "we will never allow his legacy to be erased by radical extremists." By describing the historically well-grounded view of Columbus as an agent of expropriation, slavery, and (inadvertently) disease as the product of "radical extremists," the proclamation means either to deny that history or to celebrate it.

Or perhaps both simultaneously. Just as Holocaust denial goes hand in hand with antisemitism, so denial of the catastrophe Columbus caused for Native Americans can be understood as an expression of animus rather than mere indifference towards Native Americans. Trump's Columbus Day Proclamation is of a piece with his calling Elizabeth Warren "Pocohantas" as a term of derision, his re-renaming Denali "Mt. McKinley," and his efforts to pressure the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians to revert to their racist names.

A case can be made for continuing to honor those of America's founders who were enslavers. Without in any way excusing their inexcusable actions, one can say that we honor Washington, Jefferson, and Madison for their honorable deeds that gave us ideals and institutions we still value. We can honor them despite, certainly not because they enslaved fellow human beings. I recognize that even then, one could reasonably disagree and wish to see no enslavers honored, regardless of whatever other good they did. But at least it's possible to want to continue to honor our deeply flawed Founders based on the despite/because distinction.

By contrast, there is virtually nothing about Columbus worthy of honoring. Despite all of its over-the-top rhetoric, the closest Trump's proclamation comes to tying Columbus to anything resembling our national ideals is the assertion that Columbus's voyages were a but-for cause of European colonization of the new world, which was a but-for cause of the American republic.

That's a grossly inadequate justification. Had Columbus not voyaged west across the Atlantic, soon enough some other European would have. True, history then would have unfolded differently in ways that might have ramified to the present. Perhaps the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English colonists would have ended up settling different lands with different resulting countries. However, the contingency of history has nothing to do with Columbus in particular. It's simply a butterfly effect. Go back far enough in history and virtually anybody (even a butterfly) can be the but-for cause of the world looking the way it does today.

There is one tiny point the proclamation makes that gives pause. It states that "Columbus Day also holds special significance for our incredible Italian-American citizens." Columbus was born and raised in Genoa, and many Italian-Americans take pride in the connection that Columbus Day creates with their heritage. Still, if we wanted to have a national holiday celebrating a great Italian-American, there is no shortage. We could honor Enrico Fermi, Fiorello La Guardia, Joe DiMaggio, or . . . and yes, I mean this as trolling, but not entirely as trolling, . . . Anthony Fauci. Even so, the argument would need to be made for honoring the individual qua individual. We have no national holiday celebrating our incredible citizens whose ancestors came from England, Scotland, Germany, Ireland, China, Nigeria, India, or anywhere else. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is of course of special significance to Black Americans, but he is honored for what he did to advance shared ideals.

That leads me back to where I began. If Columbus Day were to be officially re-designated as Indigenous People's Day, that would be anomalous. It might lead to inter-group resentments over competitive victimization. Perhaps it would be better to rename the day for a particular Native American, like Ely Parker or Sarah Winnemucca. Both were real people and thus leave at least somewhat complex legacies, but that is true of anyone a nation chooses to honor. And whatever difficulty we might have in finding an honoree to replace Columbus, nothing justifies continuing to honor him with a national holiday.

-- Michael C. Dorf