Blog #139 – Goodbye, Columbus?
Please read the article, “Goodbye, Columbus?” before continuing.
Christopher Columbus is credited with having discovered the New World in 1492, but not necessarily America (even though a lookout on his ship, Rodrigo, claimed that he saw land first). How people interpret this fact is the subject of intense historical and cultural debate across the world. The day honoring the discovery, October 12, is a national holiday, but for some historians and cultures, this day is marked as one when Spanish imperialism and genocide of the Native Americans began. Celebrating Columbus is almost as old as America itself when we saw the first celebration on the 300th anniversary of Columbus in 1792. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed it to be a national holiday, much to the approval of many Italian Americans.
Those who want to discredit Columbus Day usually start with the wave of violence, slavery and genocide of the Native Americans that began after his “discovery.” On the island of Hispanola (Haiti / Dominican Republic), the sailors left there after his first voyage were tasked with finding gold and silver and soon tried to put to work the natives of the island. In subsequent voyages, he searched Central and South America for gold, and the communicable diseases like smallpox and measles that the Europeans had would also wipe out – intentionally or not – the Native populations. Conquistadors Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro exploited divisions among the ruling tribes, Aztecs and Incas respectively, to conquer vast empires. It’s estimated that something like 80% of the 45-100 million Native Americans (historians disagree – some claimed that there were only 8.5 million Natives in all of the Americas when Columbus arrived) who lived in the New World were wiped out by disease, war, and famine brought on by discovery. Critics have claimed that the holiday should be renamed “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” to honor all the Native Americans past and present.
Here’s John Oliver’s take on Columbus Day:
But was this all Columbus’ fault? His defenders say, of course not. Diseases act in random ways and are influenced by many things including stress, food (or lack thereof), poverty and other cultural or economic factors. Discovery could have brought some of these conditions on, but they weren’t necessarily the primary cause. One historian stated in his piece that there were already different diseases running rampant throughout the Native population before Columbus’ arrival. Columbus is also given credit for having been a visionary, having convinced the Spanish monarchs to provide him with three ships to sail the Atlantic in search of a newer, quicker route to Asia around the earth. In fact, Columbus failed in his attempt to find that quicker trade route to Asia. It would be Magellan who would eventually circumnavigate the globe. And, Columbus is being blamed for what came in his wake – the Spanish conquistadors, the destruction and enslavement of Native peoples, and even the African slave trade since that was linked with the opening up of the New World. Could this attack on Columbus also be a remnant of the Black Legend that grew to fantastical proportions as exaggerated by English Protestants as a way of discrediting the Spanish Catholics? Too much, much too much indeed, to put on one man’s shoulders. Also, according to your article, some towns have resisted or affirmed their dedication to Columbus Day. Those towns tend to have large Italian populations.
People have been considering removing Columbus Day and replacing it w/ a day honoring Native Americans. Over 50 cities like Los Angeles and San Jose have removed Columbus statues, and Los Angeles has gone as far as to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day starting in 2018. The first city to do this was Berkeley, California in 1992. As of 2019, several states (including Alaska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan, and others) have replaced Columbus Day w/ something else, primarily a holiday honoring Native Americans.
Another way of looking at this is that when we celebrate Columbus Day, we celebrate America. Should we acknowledge both the good and the bad that come with America / Columbus? Or is it more patriotic to revel in America in a “Team America” way with unquestioning loyalty? Or, as the video below discusses, Columbus is a myth that we have embraced. Is this something that we should jettison?
So, do we keep Columbus Day as is (meaning that it’s an official government / bank holiday)? Or do we acknowledge Columbus Day with a solemn reminder of what happened to the Native Americans afterwards? Or do we pitch Columbus Day in favor of celebrating “Indigenous People’s Day”? Why? Or is there another option? If so, explain. Please use specific examples from the “Goodbye, Columbus?” article.
200 words minimum for your response.
Some additional resources:
History Channel – Why Columbus Day is Controversial
Smithsonian Magazine – Rethinking How We Celebrate American History
No Christopher Columbus Day should not be celebrated. Instead use this day to honor Indigenous people. Why? Because Columbus was not the original settler. There were already islanders here before him, such as the natives. He brought over disease such as smallpox and etc, that nearly wiped out many of the residents that were already here before. Also in reference to the passage it’ states that, “in subsequent voyages he searched central and South America for gold, and the communicable disease like small proxy brought over wiped out the Native Americans.” Even though Columbus is not to blame for disease he is in fact a big part in how and why they were brought over. Many lives lost due to a greedy man. And like many things in history this is biased and un informational and which is why we should honors those whole lost their live and we’re already resisdebys which where of the Indigenous de cent.
(#2) Personally, I think that we should replace the name “Columbus Day” with the name “Indigenous People’s day” to honor the Indigenous people, but I still think that we should know and teach about what Columbus did at the same time; good and bad. We should do that because even though he did help in the discovery of the New World in 1492, and he paved the way for sustained contact between Europe and the America’s, he also did more terrible things than good. He also searched Central and South America for gold. He did horrible things to the natives, spread diseases which wiped out the Native population, and set the motion for the decimation of Native populations. People say that he maybe was involved in the African Slave trade because he opened up the new world. He also was evolved in enslavement and deaths of the Natives (smallpox and measles).If we celebrate this day, that is saying that we celebrate his as a person and we definitely should not celebrate him as a person because he was a terrible, racist person. This is why I believe that we should change the name of the holiday to Indigenous peoples day, yet still think of what Columbus did.
I personally think that we should get rid of Columba’s day as a national holiday, and replace it with the holiday indigenous peoples’ day to celebrate the rich culture that was desecrated by the Europeans when they came to America. But I don’t think we should be taught that Cristopher columns are the only reason for the death and enslavement of millions. Christopher Columbus wasn’t the one who killed and enslaved all those people Christopher Columbus just found North America and told the country that hired him about it. Christopher Columbus was not a good person by any standard but today we make him out to be responsible for all of the death of Native Americans when it was not all his fault. He also even failed what he was hired by the French king to do he didn’t find a trade route to India but he did find Haiti/ The Dominican Republic and then went back to the king and told him he found India. In summary, I do think we should get rid of Columbus day and replace it with indigenous peoples day but I don’t think we should be making him out to be such a horrible monster who killed and enslaved millions.
I do not believe that Columbus day should still be celebrated because it was a tragic event especially for the Native Americans during that time. If celebrated it should be given the title of “Indigenous People’s Day”. Christopher did nothing but disturb their peace and put them through hell and back. Christopher Columbus brutally abused and slaughtered the Native Americans. He invaded their space and comfort just for his own personal embellishment. According to the article, he was violent towards them and enslaved them in their own comfort place/home. He even killed an endangered large amount of Native Americans. With that being said, you also can not discover a continent with a large population of people already existing, meaning that Christopher did not actually complete any discovery. He fantasized about his journey and created a lie for attention that sadly was carried on for years without the truth being revealed. This holiday should be used to celebrate and bring a reminder of the loss of their people and all the tragic diseases and harm caused by Christopher Columbus. Nothing he did should be celebrated but more as a memorial, he did nothing that should be remembered as an “act of service”.
Redo:
I believe that we should still acknowledge Columbus Day as a national holiday, we should still celebrate it for the discovery of our country but also as the truth behind what really happened. We could change the name to Indigenous Peoples day but we should still remember and reflect on Columbus and his past actions and choices, as well as recognize the Indigenous people that were here before us and had their land, homes, and lives stolen from them. I feel like we should recognize the horrors that occurred while not totally taking away from something that we have been celebrating for a long time. Columbus did some incredibly awful things to millions of innocent indigenous people, but we also wouldn’t be in this country without him. “Should we acknowledge both the good and the bad that come with America / Columbus?”(Stefani). I believe we should still celebrate Columbus Day as a holiday but appreciate the good and bad that came of it. Instead of only celebrating the day for Columbus and his discoveries we should consider the effects this had on millions of indigenous people. We can take time to reflect on our past choices that led to where we are now. So make the day less of a celebration and more of a day of remembrance.
I think that we should pitch Columbus day and make indigenous People’s day. But I think we still should Remember what Columbus did, I don’t think that we should celebrate what he did because his accomplishments were either already done by others(discovering the Americas) or detrimental to other people(killing and using the natives).“It’s estimated that something like 80% of the 45-100 million Native Americans (historians disagree – some claimed that there were only 8.5 million Natives in all of the Americas when Columbus arrived) who lived in the New World were wiped out by disease, war, and famine brought on by discovery.” But we should still remember what he did because it is important to history. What we should celebrate is the native that have lived in “the Americas” for centuries before the English and were used and killed for centuries after the English showed up. Native American slavery “is a piece of the history of slavery that has been glossed over,” Fisher said. “Between 1492 and 1880, between 2 and 5.5 million Native Americans were enslaved in the Americas in addition to 12.5 million African slaves”. Not only that but they were still and are still discriminated against in some parts of America.
Personally I think we should change Columbus day into “Indigenous People’s day” and recognize them. But we should also do something to recognize that all though Columbus did help discover the world he was a horrible person and committed many crimes to achieve his success. I think any statues of him should be taken down and put in a museum because its still history but in place of his statues we should put up memorials for the Indigenous people.
I believe we should stop celebrating Columbus Day and begin discussing and celebrating the culture and resilience of Indigenous people. Christopher Columbus terrorized Native Americans, yet we celebrate him as a symbol of freedom and unity. In schools, we shouldn’t be taught that Columbus ‘discovered’ America, we need to be taught about how he massacred those who already lived here. We should be told about the lives of Natives, and not in stereotypical and harmful ways. As stated in the article ‘Goodbye, Columbus?’, “Columbus never set foot in what would become the U.S…. [the vikings] predated him by nearly five centuries… millions of indigenous people had already been living in North, South, and Central America for tens of thousands of years.” From this information, we can see that keeping the holiday is not truly celebrating ‘the discovery of America’. But we also can’t completely sweep the terror he caused under the rug. While I believe that keeping the holiday will continue the spread of misinformation, turning a blind eye to it as a whole will undermine the pain that Natives still feel to this day. We need to acknowledge the horrible things that Columbus and other colonizers did, while emphasizing the cultures and strength of Native Americans.
I think that we should get rid of Columbus Day and create a new Holiday commemorating the Native that were enslaved, and murdered at the hand of Christopher Columbus. We should not celebrate a man who did such horrible things to innocent. He used them for labor unwillingly, and that is not someone we want to remember in America. We should start thinking more about all of the lives that we lost, and make time to think of the right people in this situation. Apart from Columbus being a terrible egotistical person, he is also believed to not be the first person to come across the Americas. He should not take credit for someone who did his work for him. The disease, war, and enslavement that he brought to the Americas did not help the Natives living there. Columbus Day ultimately should be turned into “Indigenous Peoples Day”. We as citizens would never celebrate the first days of slavery for Africans knowing that the horrors that took place should not be revisited in a celebratory way just as we should treat was happened to the Natives. Saying that we should change this holiday is not to say that we shouldn’t learn about Christopher Columbus because we should. We should teach about all the things that he has done. We should see inside of the life that he created for the people around him moving to America.
UPDATED VERSION:
I believe that although acknowledging Columbus Day and celebrating it for the discovery of our country was important, we should replace it with Indigenous People’s Day. Several reasons come up in the debate of why it should be taken down, one of them being that Columbus never even set foot on the land we call the Americas. It’s also important that we as citizens realize that Columbus wasn’t all perfect, rather, he committed many horrible acts of enslavement and eventually death against millions of Indigenous people. “The statue of Christopher Columbus had stood in its pedestal in Downtown Los Angeles for 45 years. Then, on October 12, 2018, it was fenced off and wrapped in plastic during the inaugural celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day.” This was a quote taken from the Goodbye, Columbus? an article, written by Lucia De Stefani. This quote portrays the rallying disapproval of the Columbus statue. Rather than shining Christopher Columbus in bright heroic lights, take the filters off and show what happened behind the scenes. These crimes committed is not something to be praised and taught to people. Instead, I suggest that we teach about Indigenous people and praise them for their hard work, contributions, and unique culture.
I think we should keep Columbus day as a holiday, because even though he did some horrible things it’s still a part of our history as a country and we can’t ignore it . For example, we still celebrate the 4th of July because it’s when our country was acknowledged as a country by the rest of the world. But when we celebrate it we dont automatically think of slavery and all of the bad things leading up to the that date. It’s all a matter of perspective and how one perceives certain things. I also think that we should have Indigenous peoples’ day be celebrated nationwide instead of just in a few states. We need to keep Columbus day as a reminder of what was and what we shall not repeat. It is always important to remember history even though it isn’t all good, because there is never any good without bad. Indigenous Peoples’ day should undoubtedly be more acknowledged than Columbus Day but not the only holiday celebrated in remembrance of the events that took place. And even though our country has had some flaws in the past we can’t let a few bad things out weigh the many good things that have happened.
I think that we need to drop Christopher Columbus Day and replace it with a different holiday that honors both the celebration of indigenous people and what they had to endure. I also think that acknowledging the discovery of America is important and needs to be celebrated, but I think that both of these events need to be celebrated together. Columbus caused many problems for many different people, “ In fact, Columbus failed in his attempt to find that quicker trade route to Asia. It would be Magellan who would eventually circumnavigate the globe. And, Columbus is being blamed for what came in his wake – the Spanish conquistadors, the destruction and enslavement of Native peoples, and even the African slave trade since that was linked with the opening up of the New World.“ We need to honor indigenous people through a new holiday because they have gone through trauma as a result of Christopher Columbus and his actions. Celebrating the discovery of America would also allow people who enjoy celebrating Christopher Columbus day as the discovery of America to do so. With the shared celebration I believe it will allow America to be celebrated how America and its founding actually happened.
I do not think Columbus Day should be kept as an official government holiday, but should be acknowledged as a reminder of the horrible things his discovery brought on Native Americans. The beginning of Columbus “discovering America” which was actually him finding the Caribbean islands, started a chain reaction of important things in todays history. It brought on trade and inspired other explorers to travel as well. A not so good thing Columbus’ discovery brought on was the start of the Transatlantic slave trade, and the enslavement of Native Americans. We should not fully abolish the holiday, because then the history will become lost and forgotten. We need to remember Columbus’ actions for what they were, and as John fuller states “Columbus’s enormous contributions, good or bad, need to be remembered”. Along with this, I think an Indigenous People’s day should be added as a National Holiday. The history of Native Americans is forgotten by Americans often times and recognition should be brought to it. The author describes that states such as Nevada have added the holiday on a separate day, August 9th. It only seems fair that the bad actions of Columbus are not forgotten because they play a part in American history, but I think that Native Americans deserve a day to be celebrated as well.
I believe that we should celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” or a holiday similar to that as a national holiday instead of “Columbus Day.” Christopher Columbus started the age of exploration, which yes, gave us the country we live in today, but, millions of Native Americans continuously had land taken, families and tribes were destroyed and enslaved, diseases like smallpox and the plague were spread and more. After that, they had to live on impoverished reservations to keep their cultures or are put in a society of the people that stripped the land away from them. Christopher Columbus and his ships weren’t even the first people to discover the Americas, that was the Vikings 500 years before them, and possibly the Chinese, Africa and maybe even Europeans from the Ice Age. That is why we should at least celebrate Native Americans for the suffering our stolen country has put them through. Some cities like Los Angeles and San Jose have already made the change by removing Columbus statues and celebrating “Indigenous People’s Day” or something similar instead. As well as several states have replaced Columbus Day with a holiday celebrating Native American people. Many Americans have said “Goodbye Columbus” and I do too.
I believe that Columbus day should be acknowledged, but not be celebrated as a national holiday, an we should instead use it to celebrate indigenous people and their past, or simply indigenous day. We all were taught and grew up to believe that Christopher Columbus was someone very important, who discovered America and was responsible for our country becoming a country. In reality, there were millions of people (indigenous people) that were in the country before him. While Christopher Columbus was partly responsible for europeans settling in the americas, which resulted in lots of infrastructure, cultures, and people that weren’t present before, he also brought destruction. As stated in the article, “it’s estimated that something like 80% of the 45-100 million native Americans who lived in the new world were wiped out by disease, war, and famine brought on by discovery.” However, Christopher Columbus did have some positive things going for him. As I stated earlier, he was responsible for European settlers coming to America. Unless you are pure Indigenous, there is a zero percent chance that you would have existed today without Christopher. While Christopher did bring things to this country that resulted in what we know America as today, he was not necessarily a great person.
I think that we should get rid of Columbus Day and instead replace it with a holiday acknowledging Native Americans and their culture. Christopher Columbus was not the original settler and was not the first to find the land, the Native Americans were. He discovered a country that already had millions of people living on it so therefore how could it be “new.” Although we can change the name I think that we should still continue to remember and be taught about Columbus. In the article it says how diseases act in random ways and can be influenced by many things including stress and lack of food. Although these factors play a role in diseases, the biggest takeaway is that even though diseases were running rampant in Native American population, More colonizers coming to the “new” country brought foreign diseases that the Natives may not have been exposed to beforehand. Not to mention the wave of violence that came after the slavery and genocide of the Native Americans that began after his “discovery.” In the end, this is why I think we should get rid of Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but still remember Columbus and what he did.
updated version:
In my opinion, we should replace Columbus day with Indigenous Peoples day, in order to honor the Natives that were captured, enslaved, and brutally murdered because of Columbus. Christopher Columbus did horrible things to the natives and is responsible, yet still has a whole holiday. There is nothing in history textbooks that talks about all the natives that died because of Columbus, but instead talk only about Columbus day, and choose to hide the truth. “Those who want to discredit Columbus Day usually start with the wave of violence, slavery and genocide of the Native Americans that began after his “discovery.” Thankfully, there are lots of people out there who feel the same way, and want to celebrate Indigenous Peoples day. As stated in the quote, these people focus on the fact how it wasn’t a coincidence that Natives were enslaved and killed right after Columbus arrived. In conclusion, I think that we should start celebrating Indigenous Peoples day instead of Columbus day, but we shouldn’t completely disregard Columbus, but instead focus on his actions and the Natives, and how his actions influenced the people around him, and even how they influenced America to this day. Indigenous Peoples day should be spent in honoring and remembering all the Natives that were enslaved and killed.
I think we should not be celebrating colombus day because of all the bad and negative things associated with it.Those who want to discredit Columbus Day usually start with the wave of violence, slavery and genocide of the Native Americans that began after his “discovery.” I think we should be instead acknowledging the history and events that had taken place,that affected the Indigenous people in such a negative way simialry to the way we acknowledge 9/11. I don’t think we should celebrate a Indigenous Peoples day because we should not just be acknowledging there culture history and people on just one day but on a frequent basis as we do other cultures and historical figures.
I don’t think that it should be known as “Columbus day” i think it should be “Indigenous people day”. There shouldn’t be a day named after someone who killed so many native americans. All Christopher Columbus did was disturb their peace and put them in such bad places. We celebrate him like he did something good with statues and paintings. The native americans kept getting their land taken away. Christopher Columbus did so many bad things to the native americans. He shouldn’t have anything named after him. Christopher Columbus took over land that wasn’t his in the first place.The things Columbus did should not be celebrated whatsoever. On the other hand he should be recognized because he was the first European to step foot on the new world. He was also a part of the enslavement of Native americans. This is why we should call colombus day “indigenous people day”
Columbus Day should be replaced with Indigenous People’s Day. Christopher Columbus caused irreparable harm to the Indigenous people of this country and should not be commemorated with his own holiday.
Many pro-Columbus Day advocates voice concern about the replacement of a holiday honoring an Italian-American hero like Columbus; to those people, I offer my wholehearted support of Fiorello La Guardia Day or Caesar Rodney Day, two Italian-American men who helped shape America into the great country it is today- and they did it without murdering and enslaving an entire population of people.
Furthermore, I think it is completely absurd to say we need Columbus Day to remember Columbus’s “enormous contributions, good and bad”, as Montana Republican John Fuller said. Representative Fuller, do you know what the “D.C.” in “Washington, D.C.” stands for?
Besides, it’s ridiculous to think that federal employees having a long weekend and people not being able to go to the bank on the second Monday of October is the only thing keeping Christopher Columbus from being completely forgotten and disappearing into the dark recesses of history. Nobody’s trying to get Columbus out of the school curriculums or erase him from the history books entirely- it’s just maybe not a good idea to have a whole federal holiday dedicated to a genocidal rapist.
I should add that Leif Erikson and his merry band of Vikings were sailing over here and hanging out in Newfoundland (which they called Vinland) before Columbus was even born, so he doesn’t even get the “first European in the Americas” title.
The bottom line is, Christopher Columbus just doesn’t deserve a holiday. And practically every ethnic group in the country has their day (or even full month) of glory: Polish American Heritage Month is coming up in October and German American Day is October 6, Irish American Heritage Month is March, Arab American Heritage Month is celebrated in April and Tartan Day (celebrating Scottish Americans) is April 6, and Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month is in May.
I am not saying that any of these people do not deserve their holidays, in fact, I think they’re great! I only list them here (and this is only a selection of heritage-based holidays in this country) to drive home the point that Indigenous people in this country, also known as the people whose country this is, have just one day of commemoration- November 26th, also known as Black Friday, our annual frenzy of capitalism that occurs the day after Thanksgiving. Indeed, Lakota activist Simon Moya-Smith said “Native American Heritage Day falls after a holiday that omits the murder and mutilation of Natives” and also noted the fact that “on Black Friday, students are not in class… we need our educators in the classrooms on Native American Heritage Day to impart upon the next generation lessons concerning our history, and, yes, our present prosperity and plight.” And although November is technically designated “Native American Heritage Month”, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump introduced November as National American History and Founders Month in 2019.
In conclusion, the Indigenous people of this country deserve an appropriate day of recognition and Columbus most emphatically does not. We cannot undo the wrongs that that man did to the Native American people, but we can attempt to do better going forward, starting by honoring and celebrating Native American history and culture for at least one day out of the year- preferably a day we’re in school, rather than getting into fistfights in Best Buy over a heavily discounted TV the day after a long feast celebrating a bunch of smallpox-ridden land thieves.
#2 (redo)
I think that the name “Colombus day” should be replaced with the name “Indigenous people’s day” as a national holiday. We should commemorate and remember the natives that were enslaved and died because of Colombus. I believe we should do this to honor the natives while still teaching about what Colombus did. A man like Colombus does not deserve to be celebrated but should be remembered. We should continue to teach about Colombus and what he did, whether good or bad. Even though he did help in the discovery of the New World in 1492 and he paved the way for sustained contact between Europe and the America’s, the natives’ land and home was destroyed when Colombus “founded” this new world. When we read chapter 4, red eyes, we read how textbooks provide us with fake information, or they don’t show the whole side of a story. This is exactly what has happened with Colombus day. We were grown up to believe that Colombus did good things while in reality, he did more bad than good. Colombus brought diseases, war, and famine which wiped out the native population. Colombus took credit for “discovering” the new world, when in fact there were already millions of Native Americans/Indigenous people that were already living there with a home and a life. This is why I believe that Colombus day should be called “Indigenous People’s day”.
I believe that Columbus Day should be pitched in favor of celebrating Indigenous peoples and culture. The “Goodbye, Columbus?” article states October 12th marks the date of discovery of America by Columbus and the start of Native American genocides and oppression. The arrival by ship of Columbus and his men impacted the Indigenous communities with diseases, war, and famine. Critics explain how 80% of the millions of Native Americans inhabiting the land mass died through out the discovery and settlement lead by Christopher Columbus. Most scholars during their history education are taught about his voyages and discoveries which are usually inaccurate considering millions of Indigenous people inhabiting the land before his discovery. What is not taught in a typical history setting are the cruel things he influenced onto the Native people; those who suffered the consequences of his selfishness through slavery, torture, and death. In conclusion, I believe our current holiday does not accurately portray Native American culture or history nor recognize their contributions to the discovery of the United States. Instead of Christopher Columbus being commemorated for inaccurate history, the national holiday should be replaced with a day dedicated to representing Indigenous peoples from the past and present day.
I think we should not be celebrating Columbus day because of all the bad and negative things associated with it. Those who want to discredit Columbus Day usually start with the wave of violence, slavery, and genocide of the Native Americans that began after his “discovery.” I think we should be instead acknowledging the history and events that had taken place, that affected the Indigenous people in such a negative way similar to the way we acknowledge 9/11. I don’t think we should celebrate Indigenous Peoples day because we should not just be acknowledging their cultural history and people on just one day but on a frequent basis as we do other cultures and historical figures. Why I don’t think we should celebrate Indigenous people’s day as a holiday is the same reason why we should not celebrate Black History Month. That reason for not celebrating Black history month as well as other months that acknowledge other cultures should not be celebrated because we should be acknowledging other cultures and history because people of said cultures should not be relegated to one month of celebrating their cultures and should be acknowledging it on a consistent basis and not forgotten about until that month.