Thanksgiving
More and more I find myself reading Indian/Native American diaries on dK. (I use both terms because so do the diarists.) This one is still in the Community Spotlight. The history it teaches should be taught in schools, IMHO, beyond a vague mention of how Killing The Natives Was A Bad Thing (But We're So Much More Enlightened Now!). No, really, we're not.
I grew up in New England, so I got a heavy dose of the First Thanksgiving mythos. (Glad to see it's being challenged in at least one school, which BTW is right next door to Plymouth.) That mythos continues to be used as propaganda, whether overtly racist or (in the case of Lush Rimjob) using racist dogwhistles.
I myself do have a formal meal with loved ones on the last Thursday of November, which I don't think is wrong to do. But I am put off by all the moralistic masturbation about it as "a day to be thankful," and not only because I'm an atheist and I find that social pressure to be grateful, like social pressure to forgive, has a lot of nasty implications to it. I also find it grotesque in light of the genocide.
I have no patience whatsoever for comfortable white people who say things like, "But that was centuries ago, and all countries have done things like that." You may or may not have noticed that there has been an international attempt to improve standards of wartime conduct over, oh, the last sixty years or so. It might be honored more in the breach than the observance, but at least there are now trials for war crimes, and sometimes there is justice.
And if you think the marginalization of Native Americans is a thing of the past, you need to pay some fucking attention, and you can start with this link I posted in the first paragraph, then see this public post of mine from July. If you read articles like those and think, "Well, OK, but it's their fault that they're poor and have a lot of alcohol problems - they have casinos, for fuck's sake," you need to (a) stop conflating all native tribes in the U.S.; (b) gain a basic understanding of sociological concepts that explain the impoverishment of certain groups, which doesn't require taking a course in sociology; and (c) pull your head out of your ass and realize that you sure as shit didn't get where you are solely by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (or because gawd favored you).
Additional links: United American Indians of New England, Pilgrim Hall (which posts a speech by Indian activist Russell Means), and the Wikipedia page for the National Day of Mourning. The Discussion page for the WP article is testimony to why this subject remains important.
Unlocked.
This entry was originally posted at http://ms-daisy-cutter.dreamwidth.org/1732084.html. Please comment there using either your DW account or OpenID.
I grew up in New England, so I got a heavy dose of the First Thanksgiving mythos. (Glad to see it's being challenged in at least one school, which BTW is right next door to Plymouth.) That mythos continues to be used as propaganda, whether overtly racist or (in the case of Lush Rimjob) using racist dogwhistles.
I myself do have a formal meal with loved ones on the last Thursday of November, which I don't think is wrong to do. But I am put off by all the moralistic masturbation about it as "a day to be thankful," and not only because I'm an atheist and I find that social pressure to be grateful, like social pressure to forgive, has a lot of nasty implications to it. I also find it grotesque in light of the genocide.
I have no patience whatsoever for comfortable white people who say things like, "But that was centuries ago, and all countries have done things like that." You may or may not have noticed that there has been an international attempt to improve standards of wartime conduct over, oh, the last sixty years or so. It might be honored more in the breach than the observance, but at least there are now trials for war crimes, and sometimes there is justice.
And if you think the marginalization of Native Americans is a thing of the past, you need to pay some fucking attention, and you can start with this link I posted in the first paragraph, then see this public post of mine from July. If you read articles like those and think, "Well, OK, but it's their fault that they're poor and have a lot of alcohol problems - they have casinos, for fuck's sake," you need to (a) stop conflating all native tribes in the U.S.; (b) gain a basic understanding of sociological concepts that explain the impoverishment of certain groups, which doesn't require taking a course in sociology; and (c) pull your head out of your ass and realize that you sure as shit didn't get where you are solely by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (or because gawd favored you).
Additional links: United American Indians of New England, Pilgrim Hall (which posts a speech by Indian activist Russell Means), and the Wikipedia page for the National Day of Mourning. The Discussion page for the WP article is testimony to why this subject remains important.
Unlocked.
This entry was originally posted at http://ms-daisy-cutter.dreamwidth.org/1732084.html. Please comment there using either your DW account or OpenID.