It’s Official: ​“Italian Heritage Day” Replaces ​“Columbus Day” In New Haven

October has been officially designated by the State of Connecticut as Italian American Heritage & Culture Month for at least 5 years

That's 31 days to honor the contributions of ALL Italian Americans

Please don't think this patronizing decision to override a federal holiday is something to be appreciated

Knowcolumbus.org

Call it what you will, Italians will be celebrating Columbus Day. Please move your Italian Heritage Day to another date as WE celebrate Italian Heritage Day...Every Day.

Lets try not to turn this into just Pizza and Pasta or seen as an Italian version of Cinco De mayo holiday to sell Corona and Chipotle, but I don't hold much hope. When will the debate begin that Italian-Heritage Month have 31 days while Black History Month has a mere 28?

OhHum: you're certainly entitled to celebrate what you wish to. But you are not entitled to speak on behalf of all Italian Americans. Leave me, my family and the Italian American communities I am a part of out of your proclamation. Many of us have always skeeved Columbus and others have more recently come to understand the damage his idolization has had on our own ability to know and appreciate our unique, largely southern Italian peasant culture, language and working class history. This is to say nothing of the destruction cause by him and his crew on the indigenous cultures and societies whom were here long before he 'discovered' anything.
No one individual or group speaks for the entirety of an ethnic or racial group. I know I don't. So please don't act like you do. This holiday frees us up to celebrate however we wish.

The by-line on the pro-Columbus website shared by DollyN is 'nothing that results in human progress is achieved with unanimous consent.'

A tyrant's slogan, if ever there was one.

Crazy the way some people are so wrapped up in the Colombus "debate". He didn't even discover North America, while another Italian - Giovanni Caboto - did! Why aren't these folks, who are clearly so passionate about history, celebrating the man who actually "discovered" North America. Maybe it is because they don't actually know much about history and are just living and breathing right-wing talking points.

Either way, this sounds like a nice comprise, and compromise is the essence of democracy. Go team!

@JProvanzano
" But you are not entitled to speak on behalf of all Italian Americans. Leave me, my family and the Italian American communities I am a part of out of your proclamation."

Done. Your out.

@John Tulin
Of course he didn't discover America. He discovered Wooster Square. That's why his statue was there. But thanks for the history lesson.

THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE AND IS LITERALLY AN EXAMPLE OF WHITE APPEASEMENT.

Christopher Columbus was CONTRACTED to do this on behalf of the Spanish government. This is like saying a real estate broker BUILT YOUR HOUSE.

By refusing to name this "Indigenous People's Day" we're just perpetuating anti-Indigenous sentiment, which is really just a fancy term for "racism directed towards Indigenous people", and erasing their existence.

Great work all around, everyone.

It's nice to know that SOMEONE is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as we sail toward hearings on the next Supreme Court justice.

Italian American Heritage Day to celebrate the people who faced many struggles and prejudice when emigrating here from Italy.
We still need an Indigenous People's Day, to recognize the descendants of the original civilizations of these continents who were doing just fine until Europeans showed up on these shores to murder, rape, steal their land, perpetuate genocide, and systematically destroying their way of life, and who are still struggling to this day to be treated as equal to Americans of European descent. I vote for it to be the day before the first known European set foot in the New World. (Unfortunately we don't have documentation of the very first Europeans that set foot here, the Vikings, so I figure we go with the first documented European.)
And Juneteenth to celebrate the Americans of African decent who were brought here against their will, enslaved and struggle to this day to be given the same rights and respect of Americans of European descent.
And let's change St Patrick's Day to Irish American Heritage Day, to celebrate the people of Irish descent who faced many struggles when they immigrated here, and faced discrimination similar to the Italians during their largest wave of immigration here.
Let's celebrate and honor groups of people, and ideas, rather than naming days and places after individuals who may be flawed and controversial and then we won't have to keep taking down false idols as we face that people are human, and therefore are imperfect.

This move does nothing to smooth over the insult to Christopher Columbus and his contribution to history as well as Italo-Americans who honor him. The insult is real and it was as intentional as the attack on all Western culture and civilization. It will always be Columbus Day; call it what you wish.
Western culture has proven to be far superior to others in achievements (not in innate personhood or humanity) but in art, music, philosophy, science , and law. Bad mouth it all you wish. The facts speak for themselves. Propaganda changes nothing.

CityYankee- Many indigenous societies had agriculture and cities while others in Europe were still living in caves or huts. Their histories, and the histories of other colonized people have been cut violently short. So you judge cultures based on their status 500 years ago who were not allowed to fully evolve thanks to the actions of a culture you claim to be superior. You claim those are just the facts but offer none. Your true intentions here are transparent.

Dear JProvenzano, 500 years ago Europe was in the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. What was the rest of the world doing at that time? Those are the facts. Read a history book and you will find it. This is not to say that other cultures have not had golden ages or achievements but they are not at the same level as Western Civilization. You can have your opinion but you can't change the facts.

City Yankee- the Mayans, the Incas, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Persians(Iran), the Chinese, and others in both the Americas and Africa and the Middle East and Far East developed mathematics, written language and feats of construction that we still don't completely understand how they did it without modern technology, and other innovations of advanced societies while Europeans were still living in huts and caves. If you studied the histories and the archaeology of other cultures besides the Western Europe and Greece and Rome, you would realize that human societies throughout the globe have tremendous and advanced accomplishments prior to the time periods that you cite.

Dear Heather-- Did I not say that other civilizations had achievements and golden ages? I say that comparatively, Western Civilization achieved more

What bothers me about this, is that whole
Bunch of well to do white folks who are only ever ethnic when they choose to be, crying about a calendar recognition. The fact that in this city they have a whole neighborhood, that welcomed and revealed a whole bunch of bigoted hate from community leaders to local thugs, is all anyone needs to know in order to see this as a farce. Sick of majority folks faking the funk.
It's a cultural slap in the face to take that holiday and just say forget about the atrocities committed against native people, just keep it with the white folks. unbelievable. Really ignorant.

ISEERACISM: I think you are blinded by your own obsession with racism; which is a kind of racism in itself. You want all "white" holidays removed and replaced with the victim group du jour. Why? Make an indigenous people holiday of its own. Last time I checked, there were 365 days in the year. Pick a day. They don't have to appropriate other days and you have no right to tell me what to celebrate because that is what this is really all about. You want to tell others who to honor or celebrate . Nobody makes you celebrate it. You don't have to celebrate Christmas because I understand that Jesus is also too white. So go to work on Dec 25th and refuse gifts and refuse parties. Ignore Columbus Day. Celebrate what you want and leave others to their celebrations.

CityYankee: It's a no from me, dawg.

As someone who holds a degree in Black Studies, is specifically trained in Critical Race Theory (CRT), and is actively studying the impact of Euro-centric philosophies on government structures, I can confidently say that you are wrong. See more below!

CRT believes that race, like many other things, is socially-determined, meaning it has a very real impact on society and our lives, but it was constructed by man, for man, and we should ask ourselves in moments when we see it (and especially in moments when we "don't") "What is it doing here? What function does race play?" This can be particularly challenging in the post-Civil Rights era, but it can still be done.

Your claims that despite being only 9.8% of the world's population "Western culture has proved to be far superior to other cultures in terms of achievements" seems color-blind on its face, which is why you can call people "oBsEsSeD wItH rAcE", but that's false.

Given the need for social politesse, you've made a racially-coded statement and are able to dance around language to pretend otherwise. We know this because (1) in general conversation, words like "European" and "Western" are meant to mean "white" while everything else just means "everyone else". (2) We can affirm this by using word replacement: if we replace "Western" with "Black", it would undermine your claim, however when we replace "Western" with "white": "White culture has proven to be far superior to other cultures in terms of achievements", not only does the phrase read clearly, but it reveals itself to be little more than a statement of white superiority (i.e. supremacy) which is based less on "fact" as you claim, but is just a taken-for-granted assumption. This is also a function of whiteness: to claim that because a bunch of white people believe it, it's a "fact".

Reality: if People of Color make historical impacts and there are no white people around to hear it, yes, it does still make a sound.

City Yankee- without the invention of language, writing and mathematics by people in the Middle East and North Africa there would be no Western Civilization accomplishments. Just because our society relentlessly promotes Western Civilization's accomplishments, doesn't mean it was the most prolific or the best accomplishments of the entire world. Any archeologist or historian worth their salt who has studied other cultures around the globe and the richly diverse and astonishing accomplishments other cultures have made, would argue differently. We need more teach a more globally inclusive history to everyone about all of the world's culture's accomplishments, not just the ones that Western culture touts.

Agree whole-heartedly, Heather, and I hope it is taught that cultures do stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before them. It is the process of downgrading Western Culture to build up other cultures/civilizations that I object to. You don't have to tear one down to appreciate another; don't you agree?

posted by: CityYankee on September 22, 2020 4:45pm

Dear JProvenzano, 500 years ago Europe was in the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. What was the rest of the world doing at that time? Those are the facts. Read a history book and you will find it. This is not to say that other cultures have not had golden ages or achievements but they are not at the same level as Western Civilization. You can have your opinion but you can't change the facts.

Read this book.

They Came Before Columbus
THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN ANCIENT AMERICA
By IVAN VAN SERTIMA

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/182744/they-came-before-columbus-by-ivan-van-sertima/

Also Columbus was actually Jewish.

Linguistic traits in his writings led them to believe Columbus was raised learning Ladino, a hybrid form of Castilian Spanish, comparable to Yiddish, which was spoken by Spain's Sephardic Jewish community.Simon Wiesenthal suggests that the motive behind Columbus' voyage was to find a safe haven for the Jews.

Christopher Columbus, Secret Jew

https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Christopher-Columbus-Secret-Jew.html

I can check out the book, threefifths, so can't reply on that. But so what if Columbus may have been Jewish? There were and are Jews in many countries.

If we don't like Columbus because of his explorations led to enslavement, murder, and genocide, why would we celebrate the indigenous peoples of the Americas, many of which engaged in the same practices and worse. For example, unlike the Aztecs, Inca and Haida cultures, the Spanish did not practice human sacrifice. Into the 1980's, indigenous peoples in the Amazon jungle were raiding neighboring tribes to steal children, killing adults as they did. Infanticide was also the fate for disabled infants and twins. The Americas weren't a Peaceable Kingdom before Europeans arrived, which is why natives often welcomed Europeans as allies against native enemies.

Uh Oh, 1644. Now you've done!! Gone and told the truth to people who don't want to hear it. Indigenous cultures are gentle and funloving and peaceful. That is the current narrative . Otherwise-- they can't be better than Europeans so we have to make up a lot of stuff to tear down the West and replace it with societies that are close to what you described ; even in 2020.

Duck, 1644--- the slings and arrows are comin/

1644- the Spanish Inquisition was the form of human sacrifice that the Spanish Catholics practiced. A great many Sephardic Jewish communities were wiped out of Spain at this time, and many fled to the New World to survive. Because much of the Caribbean and Latin America was under the control of the Spanish, the Jewish people converted to try to save their lives or hid their faith in the Americas, and practiced their faith in secret. So, yes, the Spanish sacrificed humans in the name of religion. Please read more about the history you weren't taught in schools. You'll find you've been fed bunch of half truths, a biased version of the facts, an ethnocentric version of history, but if you dig deeper, you'd be astonished at the amount of history you weren't taught.

City Yankee- to say that other civilizations and their accomplishments were just as great as Western Civilization and its accomplishments is not tearing down of that civilization. it is simply acknowledging that many other civilizations were just as great. And we should be honoring all the groups of people who made our country great, and our world great, and continue to contribute to the world's greatest achievements. But we need to stop worshiping individuals, because they are human, and therefore they are flawed, regardless of what group they identify with.

Heather C.: I didn't expect the Spanish Inquistion!
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsefeg
Yes, Europeans have warred, tortured and killed for religion. However, the killing was not essential to their religion, it was a means. As you concede, in general those persecuted might have avoided persecution by adopting the persecutors' beliefs. Henry of Navarre got Paris and France for a mass. I doubt the Aztecs' victims had a way out. As for my education, I think it's pretty good, and broad. My parents were born and raised in the Orient, my uncle lived with the Haida in Skidegate for 20 years, my father worked with indigenous American peoples from 1965-1990, as well as some in Papua New Guinea, Two of my cousins are First Nations. As a young boy, I visited with Harold & Gladys Tantaquidgeon. I have traveled to every continent but Antarctica. My most memorable college course might be a seminar on the Iroquois with George Miles. Read the Jesuit Relations.