This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 14, 2022
Genocide is bad. That should be easy for people to agree on, but in this time of extreme politics, where some embrace cruelty in a never-ending effort to win at any cost, that is not necessarily the case.
Columbus Day again spurred debates over whether that man should be honored, whether celebrating Italian American heritage should use him to do so, and if Indigenous Peoples should be the focus of the day.
There is so much history behind every aspect of this, from how terrible Columbus was to the fact that his Italian connections did not extend far beyond him being born there. There are the realities that Italian Americans, who were horribly discriminated against when the began emigrating to the United States in large numbers in the late 1800s, absolutely deserve a day to celebrate their heritage, but that the use of Columbus to do so was out of necessity, as he was a historical figure of Italian birth that they realized Americans had mythologized.
There is also the cruel irony that Columbus, whose genocide killed millions of Indigenous People, now shares a day of honor with the group that he massacred, sold into sex slavery, and brutalized in countless other ways. There are many ideas on how to move forward on this matter, but quite simply, Indigenous Peoples and Italian Americans both deserve special days, but Columbus most certainly does not.
“…when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE…”
Kanye West tweet, October 8, 2022
Unsurprisingly, some do not want change and cannot move beyond the idea of Columbus being at the center of the holiday. However, it should be a surprise that there are people with influence who celebrate his genocide and celebrate Indigenous people being exterminated.
President of the New York City Young Republican club, Gavin Wax, tweeted on the holiday, “I am grateful that a fellow Italian brought Christianity and Western Civilization to the New World and eventually paved the way for the rightful destruction of the human sacrificing Aztec Empire.” Michael Ragusa, a 2023 Republican challenger to Councilman Brannan, tweeted, “The Aztecs slaughtered 84,000 of their own people… but f**k Columbus,” along with several other tweets that day about the Aztecs.
The implication is that genocide of all Indigenous People was justified since the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice. Historically, the connection is completely wrong, as Columbus encountered the Taíno on Caribbean islands, while the Aztecs were massacred by Cortés in Mexico decades later. Putting aside the two being unrelated, it is incomprehensible that people are making arguments in favor of genocide.
This has become a feature of the rhetoric from some public figures today. Last week, a leader of Russian-backed separatist forces in a Ukraine, Pavel Gubarev, threatened Ukrainians that if they do not accept Russian rule, “We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.” High-ranking Kremlin officials have stepped up threats to use nuclear weapons on Ukrainian people. And rather than these remarks causing far-right figures here in the U.S. to distance themselves from Putin’s illegal war, it has only seemed to spur more vocal support from them.
It should not be hard to disavow genocide, whether it be one that occurred hundreds of years ago or one that is being threatened today. The actions and statements of Kanye West are infinitely less consequential than genocide, but his tweet last week that he was going “death [sic] con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” is the type of hateful talk that gives a green light to many to be antisemitic and target Jewish people. Again, rather than condemning West and his words, so many on the right bristled at those who criticized him and, instead, carried on when his social media accounts were locked over the tweet.
This embrace of cruelty was seen last week when years-old audio of President Biden talking to his son about his drug addiction was released, in which he said, “I called to tell you I love you. I love you more than the whole world pal. You gotta get some help.” Conservatives, who frequently talk about how Fentanyl destroys families, were quick to mock that particular father’s pleas to his son, portraying it as weakness, because the cruelty is the central piece of their ideology.
