Mussolini was Italian, so was Al Capone—and you know what? I don’t feel any pride for them either. I have much more affection for Al Pacino, Martin Scorcese and Rudy Guiliani.
Columbus was the first. Columbus was the first in a long line of European explorers and trappers and pillagers and settlers to “discover” the pristine land later called the Americas and come face to face with its people. The history from that point forward, from an Indigenous point of view, can best be described as 500 years of cultural and physical genocide.
Personally, I'd settle for a day to celebrate Martin Scorcese...
ReplyDeleteGreat post. It is important that Italian-Americans speak of like this-since there's no pride in genocide. However, I might add to the debate by saying that one of the reasons to reject Columbus is to avoid embracing demagogues who my make apologies for the Louima and Diallo travesties. We Italian-Americans can do much better than that.
ReplyDelete