Here Is How You Can Shape a Thanksgiving Table That Confronts Colonization While Holding Space for Gratitude

Article edited on November 24th, 2025

Once a month, in an effort to talk about something other than our kids when we get together, a group of friends and I meet to talk about a book. At our last meeting, where we discussed Killers of the Flower Moon, one of the women, a second generation Italian-American, told us the story of the holiday known as Columbus Day as told to her by her grandfather. Of course I knew Columbus was Italian, but I never realized why that mattered in the context of the Columbus Day tribute.

She started by reminding us that the first waves of Italian immigrants to America came from Sicily and other southern regions, and they tended to have darker coloring than the people descended from the British. They arrived on the tails of emancipation, as African Americans began to slowly transition to work for pay. After a century of slavery, the newly freed men and women abandoned some of the more unsavory work they’d been forced to do, and the Italians, who were the newest dark-skinned people in America, took them as the only jobs they could get.

The Violence That Targeted Early Italian Immigrants

Following the same impossible paradox that is applied to Latinos today, Italians were scapegoated for being considered both lazy and simultaneously “taking jobs away from Americans.” The anti-immigrant sentiment in the late 1800s was similar in its rhetoric to what we see today, but an armed militia took things to their most gruesome conclusion when in New Orleans in 1891 and angry mob lynched 11 Italian immigrants for a crime they didn’t commit.

The chief of police in New Orleans, a man named Hennessy, was shot and killed by unknown assailants. Witnesses claimed he uttered a racial slur against Italians as he lay dying and that was interpreted as the identification of his shooter. Eleven men were accused of committing the crime and indicted. Some of them had their day in court and were acquitted; others, did not have the chance to stand trial and were being held in jail when the news of the acquittals spread through the city.

The result — an angry mob of misinformed vigilantes stormed the jail to kill and mutilate all of the wrongfully accused, including the ones who had been acquitted and those who’d not been tried. Newspapers printed news of the atrocity as if it had been a legitimate revenge against criminals and the entire city became swept up in a self-righteous defense of the misguided mob. Though this was not the first time a group of immigrants was vilified and horrifying so, not the only time the masses turned to violence and abandoned due process, the city of New Orleans didn’t issue an apology until now, 120 years after the fact.

The Real Origin of Columbus Day

Instead, the mob’s motivation was justified by the authorities and the only thing that was done to try to smooth out relations between the Italian and U.S. governments was to institute the first celebration of Columbus day in 1896, in San Francisco, and was conceived as a celebration of Italian culture, a burnt offering to this badly bruised community. Soon, Colorado approved a statewide celebration of the day, and other states followed until it was declared a national holiday. But the thing is, at its inception, Columbus Day was not about the man or about his “accomplishments;” it was a sheepish and passive apology for a hideous crime perpetrated on the Italian community and an insufficient attempt at drawing an old and round about connection between Italy and the U.S.

Over the course of time, as this particularly ugly stain on the history of the South was best left forgotten, we started to unconsciously imbue the figure of the day, who was really more of a placeholder than a hero in this context, with the attributes of someone who positively contributed to history, culture, and society. In truth, the idea of Columbus and his henchmen “discovering” something that has already been in existence for millennia, is infantile at best. When we add to that the notion that his “discovery” resulted in the claiming of another people’s land for the Spanish monarchs and the slow and steady drain on the natural and human resources of the region, we realize we were wrong.

How Myth Replaced History

This year has shown a dramatic push toward reinserting the whole picture back into the history we tell. First, Columbus himself never landed on U.S. soil and the havoc he would wreak affected mainly Central and South America. Most importantly, though, we now know that Columbus’ arrival in America arrested the development of the cultures that already lived on those lands, resulting in the seizing of their rightful property, the enslavement of their people, and the rape of their women. 500 years later and these nations never fully recovered, much of their folklore and artifacts destroyed and forgotten.

Why Indigenous People’s Day Emerged

As we integrate this ugly side of the same story back into the narrative, many people feel strongly enough to rename this holiday, restoring it to its original use as a spotlight on a marginalized culture. This is how Columbus Day is slowly turning into Indigenous People’s Day, as more local governments agree to change the nomenclature. Just like psychologists recommend giving the injured child the attention rather than trying to discipline the child who caused the violence in the first place, we get nowhere by debating whether Columbus deserves recognition. Columbus is long gone, and the ones who need the recognition, if not straight up reparations, are the Italians for suffering the lynching and our Native Americans, who have only survived through their steely resolve and perseverance.

The Thanksgiving Story We Learned and the One We Ignored

Something very similar happens with Thanksgiving. Given the inhumanity of the Pilgrims’ actions towards the Native Americans who welcomed them to Massachusetts Bay, it is no wonder that history has largely tried to focus on aspects of that “first Thanksgiving” that are positive and uplifting. Few would bicker against the notion of having a day of gratitude and reflection. Then there’s the fact that the first white people who landed in North America were searching for religious freedom and tolerance, which makes the Pilgrims’ voyage differently intended than Columbus’ venture, which was for-profit by design.

A Future Built on Truth Rather Than Tradition Alone

Look, there’s no need to throw your turkey out the window or uninvite your family. The key to making Thanksgiving feasible, reasonable, and appropriate for our collective future is to give it similar treatment as we have to Columbus Day. It is time to educate ourselves and others, reinsert the Native American perspective into a story that is supposed to be about them, and maybe a new name. Every day we are alive and well should be Thanksgiving. And on the third Thursday in November should be all about the truth.