My favorite holiday is New Year's Day.
I always had a rebellious streak in me; maybe I just liked to be different, but as a kid, if you had asked me, my favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. Most kids would have said Christmas, but for me, Thanksgiving was less chaotic; it was about getting people together– cousins, grandparents. My mom and uncles, and stepdad (or mother's current boyfriend), all hollering over the Dallas Cowboys game on TV. Thanksgiving was about the parade, the dog show, all the Christmas toy commercials and of course, the food. It was just a simpler holiday.
My sister and I would tape our construction paper school-art on the walls, and with the cousins, we'd compare the lack of white space on our plates after piling on the food. Undoubtedly, a.lot of it ended up in the trash: which was accompanied with a scolding from the adults and a lecture about “the starving kids in Africa”.
Does this story sound a bit familiar? Did you just let out a subconscious nervous chuckle? Yeah, I get it. I'm with ya.
You see, I grew up with privilege in Anaheim, California, where the teachers taught the colonial version of Thanksgiving. Anglo culture appropriated the Indigenous culture and we unknowingly celebrated gluttony: it was the “American way.”
Today, I feel a little embarrassed by this story, because now I simply know more than I did as a kid. I now reject the American dominant culture. I see that in order to have the excesses of wealth/consumerism today which can be arguably traced back to the pilgrims at Plymouth rock, the new Americans had to dominate the culture of a harmonious culture.
And so it continues, shown in the recent presidential election, the shimmer of power and wealth deceived the people.
I reject the gluttony and excess of Thanksgiving, black Friday ( do not even capitalize the B), and instead, I mourn for the people whose land was stolen (and still continues). I mourn for the children that were stolen from their families, forced to assimilate, sometimes beaten and murdered. I mourn for the women and people who are missing and murdered today.
Since 2015, I have supported the Indigenous Day of Mourning. I celebrate Thanksgiving by:
Acknowledging the historical genocide and resulting trauma to Indigenous People
Not eating turkey
Wearing my MMIWP red t-shirt
Talking about it
No black Friday, instead, shop small business Saturday
When gathered with family, they ask “why aren't you eating turkey?” It gives me an opportunity to gently inform them about the deception of shimmering power and greed that continues, just as it began at Plymouth rock.
