Stephen Colbert digs into the "white Christian establishment" and its defense of Columbus Day

A Seattle school board is renaming the holiday "Indigenous People's Day." Fox News is not pleased.

Published October 10, 2014 3:48PM (EDT)

As the "white Christian establishment" will tell you, Jesus and Christopher Columbus sailed (walked?) across the Atlantic Ocean hand-in-hand a couple hundred years ago to claim America. They became BFFs with the animals and the Native Americans already there and shared the farmland and everything was pretty swell, so now we celebrate the occasion with Columbus Day.

"Secular progressives," history books and now a school board in Seattle disagree, however. The board recently voted to observe "Indigenous People's Day" instead, reminding us that Columbus's troops slaughtered countless natives in order to take over the land that he colonized for Europe.

The vote did not go unnoticed by Fox News, who fear that their beloved Columbus Day is under attack. And, thankfully, their anger did not go unnoticed by Stephen Colbert:


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

MORE FROM Prachi Gupta


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Christopher Columbus Columbus Day Fox News Seattle Stephen Colbert Video