"Thanksgiving is much more than a lie "

[donsu]

http://www.blackcommentator.com/254/254_cover_end_of_american_thanksgivings.html


The End of American Thanksgivings - A Cause For Universal Rejoicing


Nobody celebrates Thanksgiving quite like Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders” as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity.

We at BC are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity’s deliverance from the rule of evil men.

Thanksgiving is much more than a lie – if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the “flaw” in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events – subsequently revised – were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise – Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously – an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two.

The last Act in the American drama must be the “root and branch” eradication of all vestiges of Act One and Two – America’s seminal crimes and formative projects. Thanksgiving as presently celebrated – that is, as a national political event – is an affront to civilization.

-snip-

Thanksgiving is quite dangerous – as were the Pilgrims.

-very long historical snip-

We began this essay by saying that “the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy.” We firmly believe this. The wired world works against the Bushites insane leap to global hegemony, while creating the material basis for (dare we say the words) brother- and sisterhood among humankind. It becomes clear that the fruits of millennia of human genius cannot be captured and packaged for the enrichment of a few for much longer – and certainly not by a cabal that cannot see beyond the bubble of its own, warped history. The dim outlines of a new and more democratic world order can be seen in the often tentative, but sometimes dramatic actions of movements and nations determined to construct a fairer way to live. As the world witnesses the brutality, stupidity and sheer incompetence of the Pirates currently at the helm of the United States, the urgency of a common, alternative human project becomes apparent to all. The “end of history” that the Bushites triumphantly announce is really the end of them, through a process they have accelerated with every deranged action and delusional strategy they have undertaken since 2001.

They are like men in quicksand. White racism as a global scourge will sink with them, and eventually whither to a mere prejudice rather than a world-threatening menace.
-snip-
----------------------------


I agree with every word of this article

and I have not 'celebrated' thanksgiving for decades. and before that I had to 'celebrate' or fight a three family attack.

[happyslug]

1. And ignoring the fact the First NATIONAL DECLARED Thanksgiving was in 1864?

Washington did issue a Day of Thanksgiving for the passage of the Constitution, but it was a one time event. A few other Presidents made declarations but most follow Jefferson's lead and avoid doing so. Now states did HAVE Thanksgiving days prior to the 1860s (Mostly New England) but No National Thanksgiving till 1864 when Lincoln declared A Thanksgiving day for the victories of the Union Army in 1864. Lincoln made sure the day was AFTER the 1864 elections (Which varied by state, as election day was NOT set by Congress till the 1880s). This was repeated by President Johnson in November 1865 and every President afterward till FDR (Who tried to move it up a week, some states agreed other disagreed so in the late 1930s Congress passed the first LAW regarding Thanksgiving Day).

The Movement to make the Pilgrims the center of the Thanksgiving day feast did not really start till the 1880s. This was part of the re-writing of history every society does every so often. People in the North wanted to bring the southern states back into the union, emotionally as while as legally (i.e. for the South to look as their country being the US NOT the Confederacy). Many of the most anti-slavery advocates had been tied in with the old Puritan elite of New England. The New England Elite and the Southern Elite had been at dagger's point since New England became the center of Colonial American with the landing of the Puritans in 1630 (and New England subsequent rapid movement to be the more populous Colonial Section). By switching Thanksgiving to the Pilgrim's landing in 1620, at a time where more people lived in Virginia then New England, it moved Thanksgiving from being Puritan New England Holiday to the National Founding of America. Boston was a rival to Virginia and the South, Plymouth was a lonely outpost, like Jamestown. Thus the shift represented no major changes in HOW New England viewed Thanksgiving, but made it more acceptable to the South.

My point here is Thanksgiving is NOT from the 1600s, but the period 1850-1890. In that period is transformed from a New England (or people whose ancestor lived in New England) holiday to a National Holiday. It went from a Pseudo-Religious holiday that replaced Christmas in Puritan New England, to a Secular end of the Harvest celebration and a day to give thanks for the good that occurred in the previous year. This really came to a head during the Civil War when New England Troops were able to Celebrate Thanksgiving with NON New England troops for the First time. Even today there is a Tendency in the Military to have their "Holiday Meal" between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and thus cover both Holidays). With the growth of Gift Giving related to Christmas becoming more and more the norm after 1830, Thanksgiving started to become the start of the "Holiday Season" (The real merger did not occur till after 1900, but you have hints of it even before the Civil War).

Just some background on Thanksgiving and how it started out as a Celebration of the ending of Slavery and how that fact was covered up when White Southerners still resented that fact.

[Annces]

2. Interesting

Makes a lot of sense.

[L. Coyote]

5. Giving thanks for the continent stolen by genocide by eating Native domesticates

Irony with added insult.

Contact population estimate for USA is 12 to 25 million.
1850 Native American population was 250,000.

Estimated number of Natives to perish from Contact: 60 million.

Conquest, Lament and Reconciliation in America
http://jqjacobs.net/writing/intgrstd.html#conquest

Conquest is not without consequence. The present day conditions, views and issues of the surviving indigenous populations in the Americas have historical and cultural roots. Accurate assessment of causal factors of present day social problems and their effective mitigation can benefit from understanding historical and cultural contexts. This article presents a synopsis of the history of conquest of the aboriginal nations in the United States as prelude to discussion of consequential present day economic, social and health problems. Finally actions to reconcile historical injustice and concurrently allay continuing negative effects of the conquest are proposed.

Between 1778 and 1871 the United States forced from aboriginal occupants the cession of nearly a billion acres of land, much more than half the nation's total territory at that time. United States law rests fundamentally on the right of discovery, the presumption of the right to claim title of lands occupied by Indians. The conquering Europeans rationalized the genocide, enslavement, exploitation, dislocation and marginalization of aboriginal populations and the conduct of invasion, military aggression, dispossession and territorial expansion in the Americas by dehumanizing aboriginal cultures as savage, pagan, ignorant, unclothed, etc.

In the United States territorial conquest and imposition of sovereignty and governance was followed by a coercive assimilation policy combining military force, relocation, containment, dependency, proselytization and cultural regulation, including prohibition of traditional ceremonies and objects. Forced separation, institutionalization and language deprivation of indigenous children in European cultural tradition schools was also affected. In 1887 the Mission schools on reservations were ordered by the Indian commissioner to use English only. Children were castigated for using Native languages. Indigenous people went to jail or were otherwise persecuted for using traditional cultural objects.

...............

[SharkSquid]

14. Actually the first thanksgiving was 1789

by GW, to give THANKS FOR THE NEW CONSTITUTION....

[Breeze54]

16. I agree!

But I guess it was just a proclamation at that time and not a National Holiday.

Lincoln made it a National Holiday.

[Breeze54]

15. Quite interesting!

Thanks for that! ;)

[Igel]

3. African slavery began long before the pilgrims.

Although there wasn't just a great deal of African slavery in N. America, at least not in British-controlled and -settled territory.

Mostly that's because there wasn't just a great deal of British-controlled territory occupied by Brits.

Go to Spanish- and Portuguese-controlled territory, sure. Go to Arab territory, and there's no shortage. Even a bit in Europe.

But I see your point. Having such an unconstitutional holiday instituted after defeating the South ... a fight by the North to ensure the permanent chattel-slavery status of black Americans surely clinches your point.

(Need I use emoticons?)

[msongs]

4. africans enslaved each other long before they met any europeans - slavery is ok in the bible -

in our family thanksgiving is being grateful for what we have now, we do not reference any of that old and invalid revisionist historical stuff. there are no pilgrims present. we do not honor the christian (pilgrims = christian, brits = christian, spanish = christian, portuguese = christian etc) holocaust against the first immigrants to the currently called north american continent.

all the historical baggage is irrelevant for our celebration of today. it is valid in other discussions not related to what we actually celebrate now.

Msongs

[L. Coyote]

13. Guess again. The myth of Thanksgiving is real, Pilgrims and Native foods

Why do you suppose the menu is Native American foods? Turkeys were domesticated by Native Americans in the prehistoric era, etc. This article is about the holiday and the myth associated with it. The historical facts are relevant, and to obfuscate or deny those facts is either blindness or apologism.

[malaise]

6. Interesting but he did leave out the

Irish poor who were initially treated just as badly as the indigenous people and Afro-Americans.

[DS1]

7. waaaaahHH!!! waaaahh! wwaaaahhhH!!!

WAAAAAAHHHHHH!

fucking crying like this is why liberals never get anything done

oh. look how mean we all are!

[WilliamPitt]

10. I can't get behind that perspective.

The new book I am (kinda sorta almost) writing nowadays would take time to explain I don't have right now (airport trip to pick up girlfriend), but one big theme will be this:

"In America, it isn't the lies that are killing us; it is the myths that are killing us."

Expose a lie for someone, and they'll usually be grateful to you. Expose or deflate one of the myths that serves to define their world and comfort their doubts? You'll have made an enemy for life.

The myth of needing SO MUCH DEFENSE (WAR) SPENDING so America stays strong is how they have stolen a lot of our future right from under our noses.

The myth of THE ENEMIES WHO SURROUND US that are GOING TO DESTROY AMERICA ANY MINUTE UNLESS...fill in the blank, this one takes all comers and has been the law of political gravity for more than 60 years.

The myth that CAPITALISM IS GOD'S FAVORITE ECONOMIC PARADIGM is another good one that has done unimaginable damage.

The point?

Sorry, yeah, the point is that history needs to be rehashed, retaught, sometimes in startling fashion. The myths are what give our foes their power, the myths give them cover, the myths have greased the skids for decades upon decades. Pop the myths, and all sorts of eyes will start seeing differently, brows will furrow, and that'll be something of a beginning.

Yeah, sometimes it seems like self-flagellation, but we won't ever make one bit of difference unless the myths we sleep by get stripped off the bed. The T-day garbage exposure is a good example.

mho.

[L. Coyote]

12. DITTO that. And what better occassion for correcting myths than the holydaze they attach to.

We also need new ones, like MLK Day, to celebrate liberation from past myths.

[gratuitous]

8. Still under whitey's heel

So, on a day of national thanksgiving, there are still some people so under the heel of whitey that they can't appropriate the holiday for themselves, but only understand it in a context given it by some white guys a long time ago?

But it's hard, powerful hard, to buck the prevailing social ethos. Christmas for the vast majority is an orgy of capitalistic consumerism, and has been for decades. Stan Freberg captured it and put it in amber with his track "Green Chri$tma$" back in 1958. Easter is a day for stuffing kids with sugar and cholesterol. Independence Day is a day for blowing shit up. Memorial Day means a three day weekend. Mindless consumerism abounds on practically every holiday.

It's up to each individual to choose for himself or herself what a holiday means. Isn't that part of that "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" that we have as inalienable rights simply by being human? If a person can't celebrate a holiday without buying into whitey's gloss, there is indeed a problem, but it may not be with whitey.

[jpgray]

9. I'm thankful for amusing hyperbole

"It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity."

This sounds like all the Thanksgiving celebrations I've been to. :eyes:

In truth it's a meaningless cipher of a day wherein people have an excuse (or obligation :P) to get together with family and eat lots of food. Nobody gives the day any meaning beyond that, or if they do it's a vague idea of ersatz pilgrims being saved by ersatz Native Americans in a Hallmark diorama. There are big black hats with buckles and many feather headdresses, fringe, you get the idea.

[Breeze54]

18. I think family's use it now, as a tool, to torture the rest of the family!

I mean that! And it's all subliminal and a lot of times out right hostile! It's always now about who's house will you go to and who will host it this year and who's invited first and who's not invited at all or overlooked and that in itself becomes a tool for sibling rivalry and that adds to the one-up-man-ship between family members and the constant competition of who gets Ma & Pa the better gift or everyone the better gift and it goes on and on and on.... and that's how, imho, it's not a celebration of thanks or the harvest anymore. It's deteriorated into a competition.

But I've had a couple of rum & cokes tonight too! :P

[L. Coyote]

11. Cover-Up Day is April 22. It is illegal to write anything whatsoever about

Just for fun I wrote a tongue-in-cheek political manifesto declaring April 22 as Cover-Up Day, during Iran-Contra, after I discovered this April 22 decree from Inquisitional Spain, from when every word in every book had to be approved for print, and book burning achieved it's greatest zeal:

My translation from the Codice Franciscano of the Royal Decree relative to the General History of the things of New Spain:

"The King.
Mr. Martin Enriquez, our Viceroy, Governor and Captain General of New Spain, and President of our Royal Audience thereof.

From some letters which you have written us we have understood that Brother Bernardino of Sahagun of the Order of Saint Francis has composed a Universal History of the most noted things of New Spain, which is a very copious computation of the rites, ceremonies and idolatries which the indians used in their infidelity, divided into twelve books and in the Mexican language; and though it is understood that the zeal of said Brother Bernardino has been good, and with the wish that his work bear fruit, it does not seem convenient that this book be printed or distributed in any form in those parts, for (some origins of consideration) several reasons; and so we command you that after you receive this our decree, with much diligence you procure those books and without there remaining original or some translation, you send them with good security on the first occasion to our Council of the Indies, for their review; and you are given notice to not consent that in any form some person write things which appertain to superstitions and the way of life which these indians had, in any language, because so agrees with service to God, our Lord, and (with) our (service)."

Madrid, 22nd of April of 1577.

Signed: "I the King"

Cover-Up Day is celebrated with a TRUE festival, and document shredding, a la Ollie North, is not allowed.

Then, a few years later SURPRISE, SURPISE when Nixon died on Cover-Up Day!!!!

[alarimer]

17. National Day of Gluttony

Followed by the National Shop Til You Drop digusting display of corporate greed.

[rasputin1952]

19. I have a problem with this ...

"White racism as a global scourge will sink with them, and eventually whither to a mere prejudice rather than a world-threatening menace."

Racism is universal, it is not restricted to whites. One of the great breeding grounds of racism is when people that are essentially racists, start blaming others for racism.

Racism is a fear that is born from the lack of reasoning that we are all human beings. Without the base realization that we are all humans, racism and fear run rampant. Even those of us with the best of intentions, often fall into he trap simply because we refuse to start at the basic level by looking at all people as human being.

There are, to be sure, horrid individuals in every aspect of humanity and every society. These individuals should be dealt with on a separate level by exposing their lies and obfuscations. When people of similar ideas come together, they become somewhat powerful, and inspire fear where people allow them to. by standing up to racists, particularly on an individual level, we can defeat this scourge.

It takes courage and knowledge, but it can be done. Each time one person stands up and dismantles the arguments any racist has produced, we gain on the human level. When we allow any racist to push forth their ideology, we all slip back into a darker place where fear reigns and the flames of racism are fanned.

Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern racism is running rampant because we are not calling the people who purvey such hatred to task. Valid complaints need to be addressed, but they cannot be addressed by by more racist comments.

If we are to judge people, we need to do it on an individual basis, not a race, religious, class sex or sexual orientation basis. To be blunt, if someone is a "bad" individual, he/she should be dealt with, but we cannot fall into the trap where race, the class, religion sex or sexual orientation has any bearing on the situation.

True Justice is blind to such things.