So why are you doing this? Why are you celebrating a holiday that means nothing more than surrounding yourself with undesirable people and consuming more food in a day than a homeless child has consumed this month? Perhaps I should make clear to whom I am posing such a question. This question is for everyone except for French Americans, English Americans, Italian Americans, and Spanish Americans. By Spanish I mean having ancestry that originates from Spain. We all know that Thanksgiving is a lie. Yet, this lie has been told in our schools for centuries. We all know that celebrating Thanksgiving is like celebrating slavery. So why do we do it? It would seem that there is always an excuse for celebrating the genocide of the Native people. Where does that leave decolonized people like myself? What do we say to those who insist on celebrating the genocide of our people? I don't have all of the answers but here are the answers you may want to try when faced with these common excuses.
Indians are dead so what's the big deal?
Natives are not dead. Though many tribes are extinct, many more are still surviving. This is why you should not only end the Thanksgiving tradition but also stop teaching about us in the past tense form. You should also stop teaching the false brotherhood born from the first Thanksgiving.
It's only one of two times of the year when I can get together with everyone in my family.
If you require a genocidal holiday as an excuse to bring your family together, you have bigger family issues to resolve. A turkey dinner won't be effective.
We don't celebrate Thanksgiving. We gather and talk about what we're thankful for in general.
So, you use a genocidal holiday as an excuse to do on one day, what you should be doing on a daily basis? Perhaps you should revive the tradition of Sunday dinners around the dinner table to fill the void of not celebrating Thanksgiving.
We praise the Lord, Jesus Christ on Thanksgiving. We thank him for all that he has done for us.
Christianity was forced upon Blacks, Natives, Asians, Mexicans and many, many more people. It was done so by way of slavery and torture. You should not be praying to a Christian God at all unless you are a descendant of the people who forced it upon your ancestors in the first place, like the French, Spanish, English or Italians.
I stand in solidarity with Native Americans but Thanksgiving isn't bad anymore. We've changed what it means.
Did the N-word change meaning and cease being painful because we used it more? Did the R-word? How does time or frequency of celebrating the holiday suddenly turn it good? How can you stand in solidarity with Natives if you are perpetuating the cycle of intergenerational trauma every time you celebrate the holiday?
Not gonna lie, I just really love the food on Thanksgiving.
Then serve it all month long. The food you eat isn't Thanksgiving food, its fall food. All of this food is seasonal. So make those dishes every Sunday until you've had your fill. It will bring your family to the table and you get your mac and cheese fix.
Know any more excuses that need responses? Comment below or Tweet me @theredhousewife. Also follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
