Not being in the States this year, I’m not doing much Thanksgiving celebrating (maybe I’ll find a turkey sandwich somewhere and call it a day). But I have a friend in town and we’re heading down to Berlin for the weekend, so I won’t be blogging much and comment moderation may be slow. The lovely Cara, however, will be writing here while I’m gone, so Feministe will be better than ever.
I love Thanksgiving, and I’m sad to be missing it this year. Today, some progressives are suggesting that we forgo Thanksgiving in favor of a national day of atonement for our crimes against native people (read the essay — it’s excellent). And I agree that national recognition of those crimes is long overdue. I also think there’s something to be said for a fall harvest holiday where we all take a minute to give thanks for what we have, and I see no reason why we can’t do both (to be clear, the author isn’t suggesting that we nix any thanks-giving holiday, just that we nix the official Thanksgiving because of its role in white-washing our ugly history).
This year, I’m thankful for a lot, even if I am missing turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, my grandma’s yams, and pumpkin pie. German Starbucks have really tasty goose sandwiches (I know, I feel guilty eating goose and I don’t think it would sell very well in the U.S., but it’s surprisingly delicious), so that will have to be an adequate substitute. Despite missing the fam and the food, I am very thankful that I’ve had the chance to live here for the past few months. My “thankful-for” list is exceptionally long, and I suppose that’s something to be thankful for in and of itself.
What are you all thankful for today?
Goose-eatin’ feminists.
And giblets.
Why would you feel guilty about eating goose? They probably have a better life than factory-farmed turkeys.
I’m thankful for pumpkin, in all its many forms. In fact, as soon as I get off my ass and into the shower, I’m making a pumpkin pie.
Um, I’m not actually making the pie in the shower.
Just so that’s clear.
I was gonna say, zuzu, that takes real talent. Scoot over, Martha.
I’m thankful my family is alive, safe, warm, fed, clothed, and housed with me. I’m thankful I have the means to both provide for them and myself, and still enjoy my hobbies too.
On the note about the apologists thing… I’m torn. Yes, the government should say “hey, we screwed you over in the past and we’re officially sorry”, not that it does much for them now. But bringing it to the personal level bothers me in some cases. My genealogical research indicates I come from Irish immigrants. And if people think all white people had it easy when coming to America, they need to read a history book. While I may say I’m sorry for what happened as a representative of the current country, I’m not going to personally apologize for something my ancestors had nothing to do with. Perhaps I should demand the country apologize for allowing things like indentured servitude of Irish immigrants, or the “No Paddys Need Apply” business practices.
Argh. OK, I’m gonna relax and go back to cooking my turkey. Oh, and giving thanks for all the great feminist writers out there and women that helped develop the Internet and free speech.
And Mo, after you get your apology to your ancestors, be sure to turn around and apologize yourself, this time on behalf of your even-longer-ago ancestors who undoubtedly raped and pillaged there way into Ireland.
We’re all descended from right bastards. Kind of silly to pretend the US is special – American exceptionalism in reverse.
I am thankful for getting to spend Thanksgiving with a group of awesome progressive friends instead of fighting with yucky conservative relatives
And I’m thankful for booze, lots of booze
Yeah, I think there should absolutely be an annual day of recognition of the genocide(s) perpetrated against native people, but not Thanksgiving.
Yes, I understand why some argue why it should be Thanksgiving, but I still disagree. In the US today, Thanksgiving is just a day to sit around and eat oneself into a food coma surrounded by friends and family, and appreciating all that.
Maybe I’m being selfish and offensive, but Thanksgiving means well, happiness, for millions of people –the huge majority of whom are descended from immigrants who arrived in the US last century (and had very difficult lives filled with prejudice and discrimination), long after the worst atrocities were committed against the indigenous peoples of the land.
I’m not celebrating Thanksgiving this year at all, though to be honest it’s not for those reasons. I found the article very intriguing though. I’m not sure I want a “National Day of Atonement” in those exact words, partly because I don’t know how anyone atones for something that huge and horrible which has been ignored for so long, and I don’t know if the day would end up helpful if people just use it to abstractly atone. But to have people realize what really happened and the real history of Pilgrims and Thanksgiving is pretty valuable, so maybe if the emphasis is on education and action… (not that I can even say at this point what can be done.)
I’m thankful for some things though! I’m thankful I have a job. Which I will be working at tonight.
Among my ancestors are 4 Pilgrims- William Mullins, his daughter Priscilla, her future husband John Alden, and Edward Winslow. There are probably others, but those I can list off the top of my head. I have no problem or inner conflict with Thanksgiving whatsoever.
For me, it’s a time to reflect and go over a mental “harvest”- have I tried to help others? Have I triedto do more harm than good? What can I do better? Can I teach my kids these lessons?
I’m thankful that my husband cooks a wonderful meal every year while I start untangling Christmas lights, and that we have managed to have a safe and warm home for our family. We are very lucky.
Wow, Miss Sarajevo, your sentiment was talked about in the linked article
While I think the idea of a “day of atonement” is a nice one, there should be much more than a day. We should properly acknowledge and celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month, which is (hello!) November!
I’m thankful for my family and how comfortably I am fortunate enough to live.
I am also thankful that my Pear Pie w/Gruyere cheese crust (the pie from Pushing Daises) and my apple+pear cobbler with cheddar cheese crust went over HUGE! :D
Sorry that was me above, the computer keeps switching my names!
That is a lot of self-criticism BS. I really don’t see why I should “atone” for something I had no part in, nor did my ancestors –because they were in Europe at the time, living their oppressed peasants lives.
As I said, I’m all for a solemn national day of recognition of the genocides perpetrated against native peoples, but not a “Day of Atonement” –to atone, someone must have done something wrong. In this country, where the majority of people are descended from 20th century immigrants, even the idea of cultural responsibility doesn’t apply.
Should an immigrant who moved from Mexico in the 1980s have to “atone”? What about the grandchild of Eastern European Jews who immigrated in the early 1900s? What about someone who came to the US as a refugee from Liberia in 2003?
So, should it just be Americans of European descent, regardless of whether they’re pilgrim-descended New England WASPs or Kosovar Albanians who haven’t even lived here a decade?
(sorry if this is a re-post, the site is displaying weirdly on my work computer!)
Having a best friend who thinks my presence makes the holiday special.
Mo-
I think if you currently have white privilege, regardless of what your ancestors actually did or went though, you are benefiting from what happened to the native peoples, as well as what happened to other peoples.
My southern ancestors were too poor to own slaves, but I, as a white person, still benefit from slavery and white privilege. I think it’s important personally recognize the benefits and privileges one has been given because of the oppression of others and not only apologize for it, actively work against the system that hands out unearned privileges and benefits.
Nate, this is constructive. However, apologizing for something one already fights against (white privilege) and did not choose in the first place, is nonsense. Recognition, yes. Apology, no.
And furthermore, the argument that people should “apologize” for something like white privilege I believe dilutes and perverts the idea of collective responsibility. Same goes for the native peoples genocide argument.
Provided you are also an American citizen, Nate, you, like me, share part of the responsibility for the atrocities that have been committed by our government in Iraq and elsewhere –regardless of how or if we voted.
Why is this different than sharing responsibility for genocides of native peoples?
Two main reasons:
1) We were living, agency-possessing adults cognizant of what was happening during the run-up to the Iraq War and the beginning of the “War on Terror” –as well as all the events that have followed.
2) Despite how we voted, we did not do everything possible to force the abusive regime from power once its crimes became known to us. If we (and our fellow citizens ) had, the Bush Ad-ministration would have been gone by now, and those bearing criminal guilt would be facing justice.
I will say, “I am sorry for what was done in my name in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and here in the United States, and I am sorry for not doing all I could to stop it. I accept my role in the events that caused so much suffering to so many, and will do my part to atone for this.”
I will not say, “I am sorry other white people, who died long before I was born or my ancestors set foot in this country, committed vicious genocides against the native peoples of North America.”
Do you understand the difference?
I’m thankful for every new day that I’ve not been picked up for being awol. and soy nog. and aged rum.
I’m thankful I’m not a turkey.
Oh wow. :(
Good luck to you.
Miss Sarajevo-
I’m not quite grasping the relationship of your response to my post.
I might need a clarifier. Are you saying that apologizing for being the beneficiary of oppression is the same as apologizing for the system that oppresses?
Also, just to be clear, I’m currently operating off the definition of apology as remorse for something wrong, not apology as a defense or justification of something done.
Perhaps it was insensitive to have instituted a national day of thanksgiving. It seems to be a particularly rough time for the self-loathing.
What I am saying is, we should understand what things we bear some responsibility for, and what things we don’t.
I don’t quite get what you mean by this question.
Remorse is tied to an wrongful act or wrongful omission of action, it is quiet different from either guilt or responsibility (both also separate concepts.) I cannot be remorseful if I have nothing to be remorseful for, as is the case with things like slavery and genocides of native peoples.
If I was German and my grandparents had been Nazis, I could have an inherited feeling of guilt (which is a subject for another discussion altogether) simply for being related to them, but that is not the same as guilt itself.
As an American now, I can and do feel responsibility (knowledge that my actions were part of and contributed to the larger context in which crimes were allowed to take place, and people were harmed) for what my country has done in my lifetime, while I was old enough to oppose it but failed to do so in a consequential way.
We can and should work against injustice, but it is important that we understand that a person can be guilty or responsible only for what she or he does or fails to do during her or his adult life, no more.
Agree with the observance of Native-American month with more educational activities and media programs to increase awareness and to remember our country’s genocidal treatment of Native Americans.
Irish descendants owned slaves in the antebellum south, took part in the physical and cultural genocide of Native-Americans, and it was highly probable that they tried to differentiate themselves from being associated with African-Americans through various racial discriminatory acts to differentiate themselves from the African-American population they were sometimes conflated with by the ruling WASP elite.
Moreover, if you had any Irish ancestors in California during the 1880′s and ’90s, you may want to look up the role of Irish immigrants/descendants in racially motivated anti-Chinese violence in that state. First learned about this in a high school US history class. More interestingly, one Poli-sci instructor of Irish descent, on his own initiative, apologized for any part his ancestors may have had for that violence to the Chinese students in the class when discussion of the anti-Chinese exclusion acts and discrimination came up.