Medill Columbus Day

Word Limit: 475–500

Jillian Boucree was 17 when she stopped seeing Christopher Columbus through a schoolhouse rhyme.

The Denison University freshman, now 19, had grown up learning about a daring Columbus, master of the ocean blue and surveyor of a new world.

It was not until Boucree’s sister sat her down on Columbus Day in 2018 that her image of the explorer changed. The two had the day off from their school in Bethesda, Maryland, but her sister told her the school was neglecting the millions of Native Americans who died after Columbus’ 1492 voyage in observing the holiday.

“My sister said the holiday was basically bull, and we should still celebrate it but not as we do now,” Boucree said.

Boucree said this led her to favor celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. According to an October 2019 College Pulse poll, 79% of college students feel the same. Indigenous Peoples Day has been observed for the first time in 11 states since 2019, according to CNN, and young Americans are increasingly protesting Columbus and questioning how he is viewed in history.

For Paula Delfin, 18, a freshman at Georgia Tech, the first step to spreading an accurate image of Columbus is through education.

“[My Columbus education] was very vague,” Delfin said. “We just learned that he came over and discovered America and that was that. They really skipped over the fact that a lot of Indigenous people were harmed as an effect of his discovery.”

If students learned more about Native American populations after Columbus came, Delfin said, the holiday could continue to be celebrated without Columbus at its center.

Further disapproval of Columbus’ legacy was displayed this summer as statues of him were removed or defaced in cities like Boston, Chicago and Baltimore. To some Italian-Americans, though, Columbus, who was Italian, and his statues are beacons of belonging in a once-foreign land.

This year, 36 states celebrated Columbus Day on Oct. 12, according to CNN, as Italian communities across the country rallied for the restoration of his statues. However, according to University of Southern California freshman Evelyn Drews, this passion for Columbus does not fully extend into the younger Italian generation.

Drews is 75% Italian, and said her Italy-born grandparents, as well as the rest of her family, have never felt much of a connection with Columbus.

“[Columbus Day is] not something that we’ve really ever celebrated or talked about because I feel like it’s more of an American thing,” Drews said. “My family just doesn’t really do anything for it. It’s definitely more of a day off.”

Cade Thompson, a freshman at Stony Brook University, also said he feels indifferent about the holiday. He said he acknowledges the widespread decimation of America’s native population after Columbus arrived, but thinks the discovery of the Americas still deserves recognition.

Thompson added that his hometown of Exeter, New Hampshire had just one student of color in its public high school’s graduating class this year, so the race-related issues attached to Columbus Day have never directly impacted him.

“To me, [celebrating Columbus Day or not] won’t make much of a difference,” Thompson said.