Unlike the other Democrats, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation honoring Christopher Columbus on Columbus Day.
“Today, we celebrate the proud heritage of Italian Americans in our Nation, whose contributions and character have shaped our country’s soul,” wrote Biden.
VP Kamala Harris hasn’t released anything about today, but every other Democrat and Biden department has referred to today as Indigenous Peoples Day.
As I noted in my previous post, it reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of The Sopranos.
Biden reminded everyone why we have Columbus Day.
It’s not just because Columbus discovered the Americas.
It’s because Italians suffered discrimination for a long time:
For many Italian Americans, the lives of their ancestors in this country were not always easy. In addition to the challenges of starting life in a new land, they also faced discrimination. Columbus Day was founded by President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 in response to the horrific, xenophobic attack that took the lives of 11 Italian Americans the year before. In the face of hate, Italian Americans persisted — advancing our Nation and challenging us to live up to our highest values.
Thank you, President Biden. No one ever talks about that lynching. It was one of the largest lynchings in American history.
The city of New Orleans accused Italians of murdering Police Chef David Hennessey in March 1891.
A gunman shot him. When asked who did it, Hennessey whispered an Italian slur. From The History Channel:
“Sicilians were viewed by many Americans as culturally backward and racially suspect,” writes historian Manfred Berg. Because of their dark skin, they were often treated with the same contempt as Black people. They were also suspected of Mafia connections, and their family networks were closely watched by the New Orleans police.At the time of Hennessy’s murder, a feud had broken out between two Sicilian families, the Provenzanos and the Matrangas. Hennessy kept close watch over the Matrangas and earned their enmity when he helped capture and deport a crime boss the family defended. But he had other enemies, too: As chief of police, he made a series of unpopular decisions to consolidate the force, and helped collect taxes on brothels and gambling houses.His assassination—and accusation—fanned the flames of anti-Italian sentiment in New Orleans. Police rounded up hundreds of Italians, even those who didn’t seem to be associated with the attack. Local papers fueled the fire, demanding justice and declaring nine men who were arrested on suspicion of a connection to the murder guilty before they were even tried.
The jury found the men not guilty. It ticked off the citizens:
In response, thousands of angry residents gathered near the jail. Impassioned speakers whipped the mob into a frenzy, painting Italian immigrants as criminals who needed to be driven out of the city. Finally, the mob broke into the city’s arsenal, grabbing guns and ammunition.A smaller group of armed men stormed the prison, grabbing not just the men who had been acquitted or given a mistrial, but several who had not been tried or accused in the crimes. Shots rang out—hundreds of them. Eleven men’s bodies were riddled with bullets and torn apart by the crowd.Outside the jail, the larger mob cheered as the mutilated bodies were displayed. Some corpses were hanged; what remained of others were torn apart and plundered for souvenirs.
Let’s not forget the discrimination against Italians (and Irish!) at the turn of the century.
It didn’t help that so many of these Italians and Irish were Catholic, too. A double whammy for them.
They also suffered from the same stereotypes that led to the hatred against them in the 1800s: uneducated, criminals, lazy, and uncivilized.
Look, I don’t care if Biden did this to undermine Harris or as a stab at Democrats who pushed him out.
It needed to be said. Someone needed to tell everyone why Italians celebrate Columbus Day.
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