# Columbus Day v Indigenous People's Day v Leif Erikson Day

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbus-day-v-indigenous-peoples-day-v-leif-erikson-day/952323>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 11, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbus-day-v-indigenous-peoples-day-v-leif-erikson-day/952323 "2021-10-11T21:56:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 137

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbus-day-v-indigenous-peoples-day-v-leif-erikson-day/952323/137 "2021-10-26T21:19:16Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> You appear to be viewing the US as a white country. You are acting like 60% or so of the country is all that counts. This is absolutely not true.

I would distinguish between

1. saying the U.S. national identity is rooted in those early European colonists/explorers/conquistadors, to the exclusion of the indigenous peoples they conflicted with, and
2. “viewing the U.S. as a white country”

> [@BigT](#):
>
> The history of all Americans is American history, regardless of where they originally came from.

Assuming you meant ‘the history of all Americans, regardless of where they originally came from or how many Americans share that history, is part of our national history’, I disagree on principle. The Great Famine in Ireland is not American history despite, WAG, one in ten Americans being of Irish heritage. The French and Indian war _is_ U.S. history; however, the U.S. is properly identified with the British side and _not_ the French, regardless of how many Americans may have ancestry on the French/Canadian side.

> [@BigT](#):
>
> While l don’t think you are a bad person, you keep repeating a lot of the stuff that is considered **the problem to be fixed**. […] Columbus Day is indicative of **the white monoculture bias** that permeates our culture.

You _may_ be on to something here. My conception of nationalism is, in fact, monocultural… and my concept of national history is predominantly “white” on account of the fact that most Americans were (and are) “white”, and that the origin of this country comes from the English tradition. I do not yet see these as _problems to be fixed_; they seem appropriate to me.

But assuming “monoculture bias” is a problem, then yes, it does make sense to replace Columbus Day and nothing I have written thus far counters that argument.

~Max

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