LA City Council Changes Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day

Christopher Columbus in SF (May Wong / Flickr / CC / Cropped)
May Wong / Flickr / CC / Cropped

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to remove Columbus Day from the city calendar and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

L.A. follows Seattle, Albuquerque, Denver, and other cities, in making this move.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, “a member of the Wyandotte Nation tribe in Oklahoma,” argued that the change to Indigenous People’s Day was part of a move toward “restorative justice.” He said, “We are not creating a racial conflict, we are ending one.”

There was disagreement, as Councilman Joe Buscaino, “a first generation Italian American,” pushed for a name that was more inclusive than “Indigenous Peoples.” But Councilman Mike Bonin, who is also of Italian descent–believed the switch to Indigenous Peoples Day was the right move, one that serves as “a very small step in apologizing and in making amends.”

The vote to end Columbus Day in LA came just two weeks after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) asked for a “review of all symbols of hate” on NYC city property. He tweeted:

Earlier this month, vandals in Baltimore smashed a 225-year-old Christopher Columbus monument as part of an orgy of attacks against historic statues, including but not limited to Confederate memorials.

Six months ago, Pepperdine University, near Los Angeles, decided to remove a statue of Columbus that had only been standing since 1992. It had originally been erected to mark 500 years since Columbus’s famous journey of discovery.

The university explained at the time:

For years the story of Columbus and the fascinating exploration that brought him to the new world was taught in schools across America. It was heroic and exciting. Later, as the impact of the arrival of explorers was assessed more fully, especially as those impacts related to indigenous people, a different view formed. Today, for many, including those within our campus community, stories of conquest and the art associated therewith are painful reminders of loss and human tragedy.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.