Five Videos for Columbus Day
  • October 14, 2013

Five Videos for Columbus Day

Five Videos for Columbus Day

The Columbus Day holiday has always been controversial.

Peter Rothberg
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

The Columbus Day holiday has always been controversial. Observances are far from uniform across the country. South Dakota marks the occasion as “Native American Day.” In Denver, Colorado’s annual Columbus Day parade is met by protesters decrying the genocide of indigenous peoples. In upstate New York, a Native American poetry festival pays tribute to Columbus’s victims.

At the same time, many Italian-American communities fiercely defend Columbus Day, wanting to preserve the country’s most powerful symbol of the enormous contributions successive waves of Italian immigrants have made to the creation and evolution of America.

I sympathize, but still think we need to reconsider Columbus Day. Abolishing it may not be the best idea, but using the occasion to try to foster a real understanding of history would be altogether appropriate and wouldn’t require the demeaning of the proud legacy of Italian-Americans.

1. Jay Smoove, Reconsider Columbus Day

2. Savage Media, The Requiremento of 2012

3. The Sopranos, Columbus Day

4. Democracy Now, Indigenous Urge Teaching of the Americas’ Genocide

5. Crass, Where Next Columbus?

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Peter Rothberg Peter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.


Ad Policy
x

Latest from the nation

Yesterday 5:30 am

The American Fantasy of Cuba

Jafari Sinclaire Allen
June 19, 2026

The War in 3 Quotes

Steve Brodner
June 19, 2026

Animal Liberation

Praxis vgz and Peter Kuper
June 19, 2026

Lessons From the People’s Historian, Howard Zinn

Dave Zirin
June 19, 2026

How a New York Primary Wound Up at the Center of the AI Storm

John Nichols

editor's picks

VIDEO: People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than People in the United States. Here’s Why.

The Nation

Historical Amnesia About Slavery Is a Tool of White Supremacy

Mychal Denzel Smith