Happy Thanksgiving?
Dare I say that Thanksgiving is based in racism? I dare. It is. Growing up, my mom always did it up on Thanksgiving (and I loved her for it) and for the longest time, I believed it was a day to give thanks, we all did. Turns out it’s far more complicated and dark. Here are some highlights about the history of Thanksgiving and how it turned into what we celebrate today:
Europeans came here.
The Chief of the Wampanoags set up an alliance with the Europeans mostly to protect them against rival tribes, namely the Narragansetts.
This alliance was tested for decades by colonial land expansion, spread of disease and profiteering of resources from Wampanoag land.
Natives didn’t have private property but they had community property.
Europeans were purchasing land from the Wampanoags.
Wampanoags believed that they were buying into Wampanoag country when in reality Europeans were taking it from right under their feet.
Wampanoags had had enough and began to push back.
Natives saw that if they didn’t rise up immediately, they would quickly become landless subordinates to English authority.
This turned into war, known as King Philips War. This conflict devastated the Wampanoags and shifted the balance of power to European arrivals.
Today, Wampanoags remember the Pilgrims’ arrival to their homeland as a day of deep mourning, rather than giving thanks.
So where did the idea of Thanksgiving come from? The English have been celebrating Thanksgivings (with an s) for a long time and it was focused on fasting and prayer. In 1769, a group of pilgrim descendants started feeling threatened that their authority was waning and New England was becoming less relevant ; they also wanted to boost tourism, so what better way to do that than plant seeds of misinformation that the pilgrims were the fathers of America? Included in this misinformation campaign was a footnote that said, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.” This spread fast and wide and was soon accepted by the masses; so much so that Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday during the Civil War to foster unity.
To add fuel to the fire, toward the end of the 1800’s anxiety grew over immigration. Seriously? Yes, for real. White Protestants didn’t like the huge influx of European Catholics and Jews and wanted to advance and cement their authority over them. Seems like their thinking was the best way to do this was to create a national myth around the Pilgrims and Indians inviting them to take over the land.
Furthermore, this myth gave way to New Englanders to create a fallacy of a bloodless transition of power and governance having nothing to do with Indian Wars and slavery. This way, we could feel good about our colonial past without have to face the dark reality of what it really was. Today, we call this white privilege.
So, each year at this time I think hard and deep about tradition, comfort, and sense of self. It’s when you take the time to cast a wider net for truth and empathy that you decide, in that moment, whether to remain in denial or uncomfortable. I lean toward the latter. I didn’t for a big majority of my life because, honestly, it was far too anxiety producing for me. It took me years to work through that and understand the difference between controlling everything and everyone to make me OK to not making history and other people’s experiences about me having to feel comfortable at their expense.
I go back and forth about Thanksgiving and whether I should wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving knowing that there is a tremendous amount of pain associated with this day for Native Americans. I still celebrate but I usually keep it more to myself and use it as a time to spend with my family in a more intimate way; it’s part of how I grew up and holds some nostalgia for me but I’m now aware that Thanksgiving it’s a real thing. Am I a hypocrite? I don’t know. Maybe. But don’t think I pretend like this is a lovely holiday and I’m pretty vocal about that and what it’s true meaning is. I don’t expect everyone to be on the same page as me and see things the same way I do. As I’ve learned to be empathetic to those who’ve been sacrificed and ignored for far too long, I’ve also learned to love those who deny reality because it directly challenges who they are as ‘superior’ white people because if I only love when it’s easy, it was never love in the first place. Don’t confuse this with making them comfortable so they don’t have to deal with or realize their white privilege. I always keep that front and center and usually challenge people by asking questions they can’t answer or would be hesitant to answer because it might make them look bad. That’s all I need. The opportunity for people to question themselves instead of arguing and trying to be right. Frankly, that’s exhausting and never ever works. I would be remiss if I said that it’s my goal to make people feel uncomfortable. That is NEVER my goal, unless, of course you’re spending the night. Totally different. It is, however, always my goal to challenge you while loving you at the same time. Not an easy task, but a worthwhile one.
Happy Thanksgiving?
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thanksgiving-myth-and-what-we-should-be-teaching-kids-180973655/
