By: Basil M. Russo, ISDA National President
Let’s talk politics: the controversy over Columbus predates today’s partisan gridlock, but as we saw last summer the great navigator quickly became a volatile flashpoint during the racial injustice riots.
Lines were drawn, sides were taken, and overnight Columbus represented yet another deepening thorn wedged between conservatives and liberals.
But it’s not that simple: Italian Americans from both sides of the aisle watched in awe as belligerent protestors, eager agitators and so-called militia members sewed violence that led to the toppling of countless Columbus statues and monuments across the nation.
Our penniless ancestors literally spent years cobbling together funds to build those statues and for many of us it was heartbreaking to see their work undone, and the legacy of our elder generations disrespected.
The Italian American community fully supports equal treatment for all Americans. The racism in this country is palpable, the anti-Asian hate crimes are deplorable and the social media bluster rages on to fan the flames.
But the reality is the Columbus statues symbolize the very sort of anti-discrimination that has galvanized today’s social justice movement — and that’s not spin or hyperbole.
Our ancestors built those monuments because we, like today’s minorities, were economically suppressed, treated as outsiders, harassed, beaten and murdered because of where we came from and what we looked like.
U.S. President Benjamin Harrison organized the first national Columbus Day celebration in 1892 because the year before 11 Sicilian immigrants were clubbed and hanged in front of more than 5,000 people in the streets of New Orleans (it was one of many lynchings of Italian immigrants that you’ll never see referenced in American history books).
After Harrison’s overture, Italian neighborhoods followed suit and hosted Columbus celebrations and parades that made assimilation and acceptance into American culture possible.
Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1934, and the statues went up around the country to serve as permanent reminders that we could stand up against crushing intolerance and make our way in this nation.
Sadly, African-, Native- and Asian-Americans for too long have been saddled with what we and our ancestors endured decades ago. They deserve equal treatment, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the Italian American heritage.
Italian Americans won’t throw away our connection to Columbus because some people want to take a 21st-century lens and hold it over an explorer who lived in a much different world 500 years ago, especially when current research debunks some of the outrageous allegations attributed to Columbus.
For example, the disease Columbus’ men brought over that claimed the lives of Indigenous People wasn’t genocide; it’s no different than what we are experiencing today with the transmission of the coronavirus from country to country.
Instead of pointing fingers and decrying the folly of colonialism, let’s start a real dialogue.
Let’s come together, tell our stories, discuss the triumphs and contradictions and in the process we can once and for all find the common ground that lies beneath our feet.
If we do that, we can all move in one direction — forward.
Hon. Basil M. Russo is a retired Judge who serves as National President of Italian Sons & Daughters of America and the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO).
COPOMIAO, Councilmember Mark F. Squilla and the 1492 Society are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that was filed against the city of Philadelphia and Mayor James Kenney. The lawsuit is designed to overturn Mayor Kenney’s executive order that changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in Philadelphia and to declare Italian Americans as a protected class under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Make a Pledge and join Italian Sons and Daughters of America today.
