VIDEO: Students split on renaming Columbus Day, despite growing push to do so

In recent years, there has been a push to rename the federal holiday "Indigenous People's Day."

Campus Reform's Eduardo Neret traveled to Florida International University in Miami to ask students their thoughts on Columbus Day.

More colleges, and even some states, have renamed Columbus Day “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” as Campus Reform has documented.

Wanting to know what students had to say about the topic, Campus Reform’s Eduardo Neret went to Florida International University in Miami just days before the U.S. holiday this year. Despite the nationwide effort to rename the holiday, effort, students’ responses were mixed.

”Sure,” one student said when asked if the day should be renamed to “Indigenous People’s Day.” 

”If he’s not a good person then why do we celebrate it?” another asked. 

“It’s very controversial,” one student said. “[Columbus] did a lot of bad things.” 

”I’m appreciative, I guess, that he found America but he did it in the wrong way.” yet another student asserted.

[RELATED: STOP Columbus Day? Big Ten student gov demands ‘Indigenous People’s Day’]

Another student added that “it was genocide when [Columbus] came here.” She added that she supports the idea of creating an Indigenous Peoples’ Day because “this was their land, this was their country.” 

Other students told Campus Reform that they support keeping Columbus Day, but also celebrating “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” another time.

“Instead of getting rid of [Columbus Day], you could just add another day [for indigenous people],” one student said. 

[RELATED: Vanderbilt marks ‘Indigenous People’s Day’ with ‘WHITE CANNIBALS’ talk]

Some students, when asked about their own knowledge of Columbus, admitted they didn’t know much. 

One student estimated that Columbus, who set sail in 1492, arrived in the Americas in 1897. 

 

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @eduneret