A Day, To Be Sure

More like "Emily For Local Municipal Office"

Oct 12, 2021

While I may be out of the metaphorical E4P office today, I didn’t want it to pass us by without acknowledging all of the things taking place on October 11th.

1. Indigenous Peoples’ Day

In a move to replace the problematic holiday formerly known as Columbus Day, President Biden issued a proclamation last Friday to recognize October 11th as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

This in and of itself is not dramatic. As NPR writes:

Indigenous Peoples' Day advocates say the recognition helps correct a "whitewashed" American history that has glorified Europeans like Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who have committed violence against Indigenous communities. Native Americans have long criticized the inaccuracies and harmful narratives of Columbus' legacy that credited him with his "discovery" of the Americas when Indigenous people were there first.

However, Columbus Day is still a federal holiday which reminds us that the proclamation is a very small first step and there’s so much more we can all do to course-correct the generational harm inflicted on Indigenous people.

While this is easily just a second step that should be followed by a long walk and eventually an even longer run, it’s important to recognize we all live on (stolen) native land. This map —although not a definitive resource— is a guide to figuring out which native peoples your land once belonged to. From there, do some Googling!!!1

Before we move on though, I just want to take a quick dig at Christopher Columbus that I feel doesn’t get said enough. None of this is to take away from the fact that, like most men in history, Columbus was despicable. We need to talk about this history instead of glorifying his story and singing fun rhymes about the year he set sail because that is America’s actual history.

But more so than all of that… he was also really bad at his “job.” Think about it: he wanted to go to Asia and he ended up in North America. Like what??? His whole thing is to be a navigator and he navigated himself in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go???? We glorified a man who can’t read his own damn maps for how long????

Again, this is so far from the most important critique to be had about Columbus, but someone had to say it.

2. National Coming Out Day

According to E4P’s favorite historian, National Coming Out Day was first celebrated in 1988 and

the initial idea was grounded in the feminist and gay liberation spirit of the personal being political, and the emphasis on the most basic form of activism being coming out to family, friends and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person. The foundational belief is that homophobia thrives in an atmosphere of silence and ignorance, and that once people know that they have loved ones who are lesbian or gay, they are far less likely to maintain homophobic or oppressive views.

MIT professor Edward Schiappa proved this when he tested the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis using the show Will & Grace to see “whether exposure to gay men on Will & Grace can influence attitudes toward gay men in general.” Ultimately, Schiappa found that “increased viewing frequency and parasocial interaction were found to correlate with lower levels of sexual prejudice.”

But it’s important to note that no one should feel obligated or pressured to come out to anyone or in any way that is uncomfortable to them for any which reason. NCOD should be a celebration, not a burden to bear.

Just another fact that goes without saying pitched as a hot take here on Emily For President.

3. International Day of the Girl

Established by the United Nations in 2012, observing the International Day of the Girl

supports more opportunity for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based upon their gender. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, and protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage.

Basically, what we discuss most weeks here in this newsletter.

I HAVE A REQUEST FOR YOU!!!!!

Thank you for reading down this far!!! I appreciate it and have one small follow-up request: if you have any opinions on America’s student debt crisis or want to share your own student debt story, please participate in this survey for next week’s E4P!!!!!

There is an option to remain anonymous, and it’s open to people of all ages. (Even Boomers— scout’s honor!!!!!) I would really love to hear from all of you and thank you in advance!!! See you back here next Monday :)