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Why do Americans want to abolish Columbus Day? Here's why Christopher Columbus was dubbed ‘genocidal piece of s**t’

Expressing their hatred for the explorer, many people took to Twitter to highlight how 33 statues were taken down in the US this year

Going by Julian calendar, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus stepped foot into America on Monday, October 12, 1492, and the day is celebrated as Columbus Day every year. He set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the Far East only to land at the New World. In some Latin American countries, it is also known as Día de la Raza or the Day of the Race. For a long time now, many campaigns on behalf of Indigenous people have been set up to abolish the celebrations.

To honor Native American people, Indigenous Peoples' Day was as a counter-celebration held on the same day as the federal holiday of Columbus Day. First started by Berkeley, California, in 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus, many other cities joined in to protest the historical conquest of North America by Europeans. In the 2010s, various other cities and states took it up.

As of now, 13 states — including Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, DC, Wisconsin — do not celebrate Columbus Day. Moreover, South Dakota officially celebrates Native American Day instead.

“Columbus was a murderer. Columbus was a thief...” Loud cheers from a crowd were heard following a rally in support of Black and Indigenous people at Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain on Friday, July 17, evening. In no time, protesters surrounded the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park and attacked it with the intention to topple it down. Before that, a video on Twitter showed the statue of Christopher Columbus being taken down in Little Italy, Baltimore early in July. And on Tuesday, June 9, a sculpture of Christopher Columbus was pushed into the Fountain Lake in Byrd Park in Richmond, Virginia.

In fact, on July 24, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the removal of a controversial Christopher Columbus statue from the city's Grant Park amid tense clashes between police and protesters in the region. The mayor's decision to remove the statue was in contrast to her earlier stance where she opposed its removal, stating that it would erase the history of Columbus. Lightfoot, earlier, had also shunned calls to rename the Columbus Day holiday amid rampant widespread protests in the country against racism and glorification of racist figures in history.

Expressing their hatred for the explorer, many people took to Twitter to highlight how 33 statues were taken down in the US this year. "In 2020, at least 33 Christopher Columbus statues have been taken down or are in the process of being removed from US," one tweet read adown in a Democrat mob riot? Surely even morons such as you see the irony in that?"

Soon, the micro-blogging site was flooded with calls to #AbolishColumbusDay. In fact, some started posting it one day ahead. "Tomorrow is Columbus Day, the day where we celebrate Christopher Columbus “discovering” America. However, this is nowhere near the truth. The ugly reality is that Columbus used violence and slavery to take advantage of the Native Americans, he forced many Native Americans to convert to Christianity and brutally killed off most of the Native American population. In addition to this, he spread many deadly diseases to the indigenous tribes, which ultimately killed millions of Native Americans," one posted, and another tweeted, "Daily reminder Christopher Columbus was a genocidal piece of shit. Abolish Columbus Day."

"F**k Christopher Columbus #AbolishColumbusDay," one tweet read. Another said, "It’d be a shame if everyone shared this. No reason #AbolishColumbusDay." Giving it a political twist, a third chimed in, "One more thing to add to the @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris post-election todo list. #AbolishColumbusDay #IndigenousPeoplesDay."