The explorer and his antecedents: Columbus Day is about Italian-Americans; celebrate their achievements

File under “silly” the movement to force the rebranding of the day late-19th-century Italian-Americans christened to celebrate their heritage. They chose as their hero Cristoforo Colombo, the Italian explorer who, sailing for the Spanish crown, on Oct. 12, 1492, made landfall in what was then called the New World. Whatever one thinks of Columbus’ character — you won’t find a reflexive defense of him in this column — the man and his continent-connecting achievement unmistakably shaped world history.

It would be blind to that history to deem the name so toxic it cannot hold a holiday. If unworthy of a holiday, it’s surely unworthy of a great university. And of the name of the district where the U.S. Capitol sits. And so on.

More important, however, Columbus Day was never designed to suppress discussion of the oppression of indigenous peoples, an undeniable and shameful fact of our past that historians and all of us should openly acknowledge and discuss. Rather, the point of uplifting a man Italian immigrants themselves chose as a hero was to ensconce the place of that community in our national fabric.