My "Thanksgiving"?
Nov. 25th, 2021 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blimixThere's a stanza in Don Henley's song, "My Thanksgiving":
"The trouble with you and me, my friend, is the trouble with this nation: Too many blessings; too little appreciation."
Translation: "As a wealthy, straight, white, abled cis-male, I don't have to deal with the problems that the rest of you keep talking about. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stop complaining, and just be thankful for what you have."
Fuck you too, Don.
There are other things I wanted to do today. But silence is violence. So let's talk about the trouble with this nation.
The Puritans were basically the Nazis of their time. They didn't flee religious persecution; they got kicked out for being too fucking violent. They founded this country on their ideals: White supremacy, Christian supremacy, authoritarianism, and gleeful murder. These ideals are the bedrock of the right wing and of all power in the U.S.
To be clear, by "authoritarianism" I don't mean, "People in power get to tell others what to do". I mean, "People in power get to do whatever the hell they want to those with less power, up to and including genocide, and are not held accountable for it."
The first Thanksgiving celebrated the successful massacre of several hundred Pequot villagers.
The famous "sale" of Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets was made by a tribe that did not live there, to colonizers who brought with them the unspoken notion that owning property means kicking everybody else off.
General Custer did not make a "last stand". He and his troops were on friendly terms with the tribes they were visiting until he decided to attack them. Despite the fact that this violated his orders, the U.S. government was incensed that a powerful white man had suffered the consequences of his actions, at the hands of non-white people. They took out their wrath on Indigenous peoples throughout the country.
I trust I don't have to get into the concentration camps, the reservations, and the Trail of Tears.
The term "concentration camps" does not compare the U.S. to Hitler. Rather, Hitler compared himself to the U.S.: He cited our genocide, and our concentration camps in particular, as the inspiration for his.
"Indian boarding schools" that served as both assimilation and concentration camps were hotbeds of disease, abuse, and neglect. Thousands of Indigenous children "disappeared" (died) in those genocidal schools.
Enforced poverty is genocide.
Nuclear waste contaminating reservations is genocide.
Taking away Indigenous children because they are in poverty is genocide. Giving funds to foster parents, which could have helped the children in their homes, well... That's some salt in the wounds, right there. Also hella sus.
Missing and murdered Indigenous women: Genocide.
The destruction and contamination of Indigenous land by pipelines that were deemed too dangerous for white settlements: Genocide.
Oh, and will someone kindly tell me what happened to all the water protectors who were "arrested" at the Dakota Access Pipeline and never seen again?
Genocide is not a shameful chapter of this nation's past. It's what this nation still is, and will continue to be, as long as it is ruled by the Puritan notion that white Christians have a free pass to kill people.
I'm happy to not celebrate Thanksgiving as such. I just wonder: If today is to be a day of mourning, how is it different from all other days?
"The trouble with you and me, my friend, is the trouble with this nation: Too many blessings; too little appreciation."
Translation: "As a wealthy, straight, white, abled cis-male, I don't have to deal with the problems that the rest of you keep talking about. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stop complaining, and just be thankful for what you have."
Fuck you too, Don.
There are other things I wanted to do today. But silence is violence. So let's talk about the trouble with this nation.
The Puritans were basically the Nazis of their time. They didn't flee religious persecution; they got kicked out for being too fucking violent. They founded this country on their ideals: White supremacy, Christian supremacy, authoritarianism, and gleeful murder. These ideals are the bedrock of the right wing and of all power in the U.S.
To be clear, by "authoritarianism" I don't mean, "People in power get to tell others what to do". I mean, "People in power get to do whatever the hell they want to those with less power, up to and including genocide, and are not held accountable for it."
The first Thanksgiving celebrated the successful massacre of several hundred Pequot villagers.
The famous "sale" of Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets was made by a tribe that did not live there, to colonizers who brought with them the unspoken notion that owning property means kicking everybody else off.
General Custer did not make a "last stand". He and his troops were on friendly terms with the tribes they were visiting until he decided to attack them. Despite the fact that this violated his orders, the U.S. government was incensed that a powerful white man had suffered the consequences of his actions, at the hands of non-white people. They took out their wrath on Indigenous peoples throughout the country.
I trust I don't have to get into the concentration camps, the reservations, and the Trail of Tears.
The term "concentration camps" does not compare the U.S. to Hitler. Rather, Hitler compared himself to the U.S.: He cited our genocide, and our concentration camps in particular, as the inspiration for his.
"Indian boarding schools" that served as both assimilation and concentration camps were hotbeds of disease, abuse, and neglect. Thousands of Indigenous children "disappeared" (died) in those genocidal schools.
Enforced poverty is genocide.
Nuclear waste contaminating reservations is genocide.
Taking away Indigenous children because they are in poverty is genocide. Giving funds to foster parents, which could have helped the children in their homes, well... That's some salt in the wounds, right there. Also hella sus.
Missing and murdered Indigenous women: Genocide.
The destruction and contamination of Indigenous land by pipelines that were deemed too dangerous for white settlements: Genocide.
Oh, and will someone kindly tell me what happened to all the water protectors who were "arrested" at the Dakota Access Pipeline and never seen again?
Genocide is not a shameful chapter of this nation's past. It's what this nation still is, and will continue to be, as long as it is ruled by the Puritan notion that white Christians have a free pass to kill people.
I'm happy to not celebrate Thanksgiving as such. I just wonder: If today is to be a day of mourning, how is it different from all other days?
