How I stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid
I have stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid of the holiday.
Over the past few years a growing number of white people have joined the longstanding indigenous people's critique of the holocaust denial that is at the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday. In two recent essays I have examined the disturbing nature of a holiday rooted in a celebration of the European conquest of the Americas, which means the celebration of the Europeans' genocidal campaign against indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States. Many similar pieces have been published in predominantly white left/progressive media, while indigenous people continue to mark the holiday as a "National Day of Mourning" (http://www.uaine.org/).
In recent years I have refused to participate in Thanksgiving Day meals, even with friends and family who share this critical analysis and reject the national mythology around manifest destiny. In bowing out of those gatherings, I would often tell folks that I hated Thanksgiving. I realize now that "hate" is the wrong word to describe my emotional reaction to the holiday. I am afraid of Thanksgiving. More accurately, I am afraid of what Thanksgiving tells us about both the dominant culture and much of the alleged counterculture.
Here's what I think it tells us: As a society, the United States is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt. This is a society in which even progressive people routinely allow national and family traditions to trump fundamental human decency. It's a society in which, in the privileged sectors, getting along and not causing trouble are often valued above honesty and accountability. Though it's painful to consider, it's possible that such a society is beyond redemption. Such a consideration becomes frightening when we recognize that all this goes on in the most affluent and militarily powerful country in the history of the world, but a country that is falling apart -- an empire in decline.
Thanksgiving should teach us all to be afraid.
Although it's well known to anyone who wants to know, let me summarize the argument against Thanksgiving: European invaders exterminated nearly the entire indigenous population to create the United States. Without that holocaust, the United States as we know it would not exist. The United States celebrates a Thanksgiving Day holiday dominated not by atonement for that horrendous crime against humanity but by a falsified account of the "encounter" between Europeans and American Indians. When confronted with this, most people in the United States (outside of indigenous communities) ignore the history or attack those who make the argument. This is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.
In left/radical circles, even though that basic critique is widely accepted, a relatively small number of people argue that we should renounce the holiday and refuse to celebrate it in any fashion. Most leftists who celebrate Thanksgiving claim that they can individually redefine the holiday in a politically progressive fashion in private, which is an illusory dodge: We don't define holidays individually or privately -- the idea of a holiday is rooted in its collective, shared meaning. When the dominant culture defines a holiday in a certain fashion, one can't pretend to redefine it in private. To pretend we can do that also is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.
I press these points with no sense of moral superiority. For many years I didn't give these questions a thought, and for some years after that I sat sullenly at Thanksgiving dinners, unwilling to raise my voice. For the past few years I've spent the day alone, which was less stressful for me personally (and, probably, less stressful for people around me) but had no political effect. This year I've avoided the issue by accepting a speaking invitation in Canada, taking myself out of the country on that day. But that feels like a cheap resolution, again with no political effect in the United States.
The next step for me is to seek creative ways to use the tension around this holiday for political purposes, to highlight the white-supremacist and predatory nature of the dominant culture, then and now. Is it possible to find a way to bring people together in public to contest the values of the dominant culture? How can those of us who want to reject that dominant culture meet our intellectual, political, and moral obligations? How can we act righteously without slipping into self-righteousness? What strategies create the most expansive space possible for honest engagement with others?
Along with allies in Austin, I've struggled with the question of how to create an alternative public event that could contribute to a more honest accounting of the American holocausts in the past (not only the indigenous genocide, but African slavery) and present (the murderous U.S. assault on the developing world, especially in the past six decades, in places such as Vietnam and Iraq).
Some have suggested an educational event, bringing in speakers to talk about those holocausts. Others have suggested a gathering focused on atonement. Should the event be more political or more spiritual? Perhaps some combination of methods and goals is possible.
However we decide to proceed, we can't ignore the ugly ideological realities of the holiday. My fear of those realities is appropriate but facing reality need not leave us paralyzed by fear; instead it can help us understand the contours of the multiple crises -- economic and ecological, political and cultural -- that we face. The challenge is to channel our fear into action. I hope that next year I will find a way to take another step toward a more meaningful honoring of our intellectual, political, and moral obligations.
As we approach Thanksgiving Day, I'm eager to hear about the successful strategies of others. For such advice, I would be thankful.
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Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism of the University of Texas at Austin and a board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center, http://thirdcoastactivist.org/. His latest book is All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice (Soft Skull Press, 2009). His film, "Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing," has been released by the Media Education Foundation. http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=141
Jensen also is the author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). His articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html.
Jensen can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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Re: How I stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid
By Miller, Erwin at Dec 17, 2009 09:29 AM
Before Columbus sailed the Atlantic, he was a slave trader for the Portuguese, transporting West African people to Portugal to be sold as slaves. The Columbus legacy is steeped in blood, violence, and death.
Why Transform Columbus Day?
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance actively rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism. We also reject historical misconceptions regarding Columbus and his "discovery" of the Americas.
By saying NO to Columbus and his day we are saying YES to a new future of mutual respect, collaboration, and equality,
a future that respects...
Join us as the struggle continues.
COLUMBUS DAY WAS BORN IN COLORADO IN 1907
Transform Columbus Day!
CHALLENGE THE ROOTS OF RACISM IN AMERICA
Columbus is responsible for the murder of millions of indigenous people.
Columbus was a slavetrader in Africa before invading America. He began the slave trade in the Americas. He deserves no holiday, no parades, no statues.
Columbus Day celebrates the doctrine of discovery – the legal process that stole Indian people's territories, and that continues today.
Columbus brought a philosophy of domination to the Americas that persists today – domination of other peoples, domination of the environment, domination of other belief systems, domination of women by men.
Transform Columbus Day Alliance 2007 Blog
The tcda blog (www.tcda07.blogspot.com) was created as a place to share experiences and information from the Columbus Day confrontation. You can post your story either as a comment (which can be as lengthy as you like, of course) or by sending it to Carol Berry (chickasaw303@ yahoo.com) who will post the narrative for you.
Media Release May 27, 2008:
Denver's Ultimate Persecution of Columbus Day Resisters Begins Tomorrow
Vindictive Trial of the Elderly and Disabled Shows City's True Colors
In the news:
A sorry attempt at apology
Standing up for a cause - and then going to jail
Photos from TCD 2006 (click on a photo for a larger image)
photos courtecy of Richard Myers. For more photos go to Rebel Graphics and Fire Witch Rising
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About the implementation of such ideas
By Alevizos, Ioannis at Nov 23, 2009 16:18 PM
The factual basis of the article and of all this discussion is of course correct but to the extent that for the collective American it is unknown , announcing it on that particular date (even if it were possible , which it isn’t) would just be spoiling really good and personal memories of family gatherings etc. of people most of whom also, each one personally, were good and kind (even if goodness was helped by ignorance; let’s give, at least for argument’s sake, all benefit of the doubt to the saying “ignorance is bliss”). A more appropriate day would be Columbus day, but this choice doesn’t affect the technical problem of how to brief wide audiences. Wide audiences are usually briefed by state education, but this is out of question. Education through alternative, Z-like, media has the well known problem that it reaches numbers of people that are very smaller than the critical number needed to affect any decision making, and also has the well known problem that among the people it reaches it affects mainly the ones already affected (the so-called “proselytizing the priest “ effect). Is the situation like that everywhere? Let’s not analyze how many are countries are like that, and how many aren’t (this has been done extensively by many authors, but here it would affect the focusing on the point to be made, for readers that haven’t seen such analyses and would also seem repetitious to readers that have seen the present author’s such analyses) ; to fix ideas let’s see how a, very detailed, documented, lucid, and overall valuable, such briefing is made by Chomsky and how it is made by Neruda. (Note that the problems of the Chomsky way in the issue of reaching wide audiences do not have to do with money: not only his Z-like writings are free-of-charge, but also the book from which we will borrow a paragraph is available for free through just googling it (Year 501, The Conquest Continues) Chomsky mentions that a method of inexpensive genocide practiced by the conquistadores (and inaugurated by Columbus) was titled “the method of ripe fruit” and consisted in having people tie ropes with hangman’s nooses on many branches of high trees and then wear them around their necks and jump, then after vultures and time worked for a while “ripening them like fruit”, their killers made other people climb to let the previous dead fall and wear the nooses around their own necks and jump and so on (why should they obey? Because this was the kind track, the euthanasia option, the other course (like the choice for rebels) was to die after being mutilated, impaled, burned, quartered etc) Let’s see from that book something related to this again: (in Chomsky’s wording)
“Columbus Columbus Americas France
Let’s see in Neruda’s way (from “Canto General”) two poems:
LOS LIBERTADORES THE LIBERATORS
Aqui viene el arbol , el arbol Here comes the tree , the tree
de la tormenta, el arbol del pueblo. of storm, the tree of the people.
De la tierra subes sus heroes Its heroes rise up from the earth
como las hojas por la savia, as leaves from the sap,
y el viento estrella los follajes and the wind spangles the whispering
de muchedumbre rumorosa, multitude’s foliage,
hasta que cae la semilla until the seed falls
del pan otra vezla tierra. again from the bread to the earth.
Aqui viene el arbol , el arbol Here comes the tree , the tree
nutrido por muertos desnudos, nourished by naked corpses
muertos azotados y heridos, corpses scourged and wounded
muertos de rostros imposibles, corpses with impossible faces
empalados sobre una lanza, impaled on spears
desmenuzados en la hoguera, reduced to dust in the bonfire
decapitados por el hacha, decapitated by ax
descuartizados a caballo, quartered by horses
crucificados en la iglesia. crucified in church.
Aqui viene el arbol , el arbol Here comes the tree , the tree
cuyas raices estan vivas, whose roots are alive
saco salitredel
sus raices comieron sangre, its roots consumed blood
y extrajo lagrimasdel
las elevo por dus ramajes, raised them through its branches
las repartio en su arquitectura. dispersed them on its architecture.
Fueron flores invisibles, They were invisible flowers,
a veces,flores enterradas, sometimes buried flowers
otras veces iluminaron other times they illuminated
sus petalos como planetas. its petals like planets
Y el hombre recogio en las ramas And in the branches mankind
las corollas endurecidas, harvested the hard corollas
las entrego de mano en mano passed them from hand to hand
como magnolias o granadas like magnolias or pomegranates,
y de pronto, abrieron la tierra, and suddenly they opened the earth,
crecieron hast alas estrellas. grew up to the stars.
Este es el arbol de los libres. This is the tree of the emancipated.
El arbol tierra , el arbol nube. The earth tree, the cloud tree.
El arbol pan, el arbol flecha, The bread tree , the arrow tree,
el arbol puno, el arbol fuego. the first tree , the fire tree.
Lo ahoga el agua tormentosa The stormy water
de nuestra epoca nocturna, of our nocturnal epoch floods it,
pero su masil balancea but its mast balances
el ruedo de su poderio. the arena of its might
Otras veces, de nuevocaen
las ramas rotas por la colera, by wrath fall again
y una ceniza amaneazante and a foreboding ash
cubre su Antigua majestad covers its ancient majesty:
asi paso desde otros tiempos, just as it survived times past,
asi salio de la agonia, so too it rose from agony
hasta que una mano secreta, until a secret hand,
unos brazos innumerables, countless arms, the people,
el pueblo, guardo los fragmentos, preserved the fragments
escondio troncos invariables, hid invariable trunks,
y sus labios eran las hojas and their lips were the leaves
del inmenso arbol repartido, of the immense divided tree,
diseminado en todas partes disseminated everywhere
caminando con sus raices. walking with its roots.
Este es el arbol , el arbol This is the tree , the tree
del pueblo, el arbol de todos pueblos of the people, of all the peoples
de la libertad, de la lucha. struggling for freedom.
Asomate a su cabellera: Look at its hair:
toca sus rayos renovados: touch its renewed rays:
bunde la mano en las usinas plunge your hands into the factories
donde su fruto palpitante where its pulsing fruit
propaga su luz cada dia. propagates its light everyday.
Levanta esta tierra en tus manos, Raise this earth in your hands
participa de este splendor, partake of this splendor
toma tu pan y tu manzana, take your bread and you apple,
tu corazon y tu caballo your heart and your horse
y monta guardia en la frontera, and mount guard on the on the frontier,
en el limite de sus hojas. at the limit of its leaves.
Defiende el fin de sus corollas, Defend the destiny of its corollas,
comparte las noches hostiles, share the hostile nights
vigila el ciclo de la aurora, guard the cycle of the dawn
respire la altura estrellada , breathe in the starry heights
sosteniendo el arbol, sustaining the tree , the tree
el arbol que crece en medio de la tierra. that grows in the middle of the earth.
LA UNITED FRUIT CO.
Cuando sono la trompeta, When the trumpet blared
esturvo todo preparado en la tierra, everything on earth was prepared
y Jehova repartio el mundo and Jehova distributed the world
a Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda, to Coca Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, y otras entidades, Ford Motors and the other entities
y otras entidades: and the other entities:
La compania Frutera Inc. United Fruit Inc.
se reservo la mas jugoso reserved for itself the juiciest,
la costa central de mi tierra, the central seaboard of my country
la dulce cintura de America.America
se reservo la mas jugoso reserved for itself the juiciest,
la costa central de mi tierra, the central seaboard of my country,
la dulce cintura de America.America
Bautizo de nuevo sus tierras It rebaptized its lands
como “Republicas Bananas”, the “Banana Republics”,
y sobre los muertos dormidos and upon the slumbering corpses,
sobre los heroes inquietos upon the restless heroes
que conquistaran la grandeza, who conquered renown,
la libertad y las banderas, freedom and flags
establecio la opera bufa, it established the buffoons’ opera
la opera bufa: the buffoons’ opera
establecio la opera bufa, it established the buffoons’ opera
la opera bufa: the buffoons’ opera
enajeno los albedrios it alienated self-destiny,
regalo coronas de Cesar, gave as gifts Caesar’s crowns,
desenvaino la envidias, unsheathed envy,
atrajo la dictadura de las moscas, attracted the dictatorship of flies
moscas Trujillos, moscas Tachos, fly Truhillo, fly Tahos
moscas Garias , moscas Martinez, fly Garias, fly Martinez
moscas Ubico fly Ubico
moscas humedas de sangre humilde y mermelada, flies soaked in humble blood and jam,
moscas borrachas que zumban drunk flies that drone
sobre las tumbas populares, over the common graves,
moscas de circo, sabias moscas circus flies, clever flies
entendidas en tirania. versed in tyranny.
moscas de circo, sabias moscas circus flies, clever flies
entendidas en tirania. versed in tyranny.
entendidas en tirania. versed in tyranny.
Entre las moscas sanguinarias Among the blood thirsty flies
la Frutera desembarca, the Fruit Co. disembarks,
arassando el café y las frutas, ravaging coffee and fruits
en sus barcos que de- for its ships that make dis-
slizaroncomo
el tesoro the treasures
de nuestras tierras de nuestras tierras of our lands of our lands
sumergidas. that are submerged
Mientras tanto, por los abismos Meanwhile in the sugary
azucarados de los puertos, abysses of the seaports
caian indios sepultados collapsed Indians , buried
en el vapor de la manana: in the mist of the morning:
un cuerpo rueda, a body rolls down
una cosa sin nombre, a thing without name,
un numero caido, a fallen number,
un racimo de fruta muerta a bunch of lifeless fruit
derramada en el pudrilero. dumped in the rubbish heap.
Now: poetry, besides having the ability to capture the heart of the matter of issues, in dense, thus brief, but also easily comprehensible, phrases (of which the documentation can be left to essay formats in articles by commentators) also has the advantage of affording to be put to music, and when poems become songs they are easily heard and memorized (or at least imprinted subconsciously to be retrieved upon seeing things illuminating them or being illuminated by them) Also, unlike articles read in isolation and discussed in small groups , songs are heard in public areas, by many people at the same time, to all of who the main points of it are communicated, only the details are elaborated individually , later and spontaneously. Clearly this is a higher means of education. For example the whole “Canto General” would be played, in world premiere, in a stadium in Chile, but the concert was cancelled because some weeks before its day Pinochet’s coup of 9/11/73 took place, Allende , and many others, were killed, and many many others were captured, imprisoned etc, a week later Neruda died of cancer, the concert was played in a Greek stadium after Greece’s junta fell in 1974 (its composer was the Greek composer-activist Mikis Theodorakis, in US usually referred to as the composer of the theme of Serpico, or the soundtrack of Zorba the Greek, or, of course, of the soundtrack of Z. One can easily hear the two songs, seeing the orhestra, not the stadium, by googling with the song titles, poet and composer names and the words Canto General on youtube).
Upshot: What Jensen wants to affect theUS
Acknowledgments: I thank fellow Z-Spacer Hernán Espinoza for a discussion of the above in e-mails and for his constant encouragement to write several things, this one among them. His friendship and company from a distance is a source of joy, data and inspiration.
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Re: About the implementation of such ideas
By Alevizos, Ioannis at Nov 23, 2009 16:36 PM
PS: I forgot to mention that the translations of Neruda's poems into English I had copied from the pamphlet accompanying a CD of Canto General; if someone wants them I'll fetch the CD and write here which orhestra's rendering that translation accompanied and , if mentioned there , who the translators in the pamphlet were.
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Cassandra
By Hegarty, Terence at Nov 21, 2009 20:04 PM
Robert, you are Cassandra. So is Joel Kovel (see his piece on Copenhagen). You get to the root which is despair and you struggle out only to find you are alone. There are many of us who have been through that dark night, and we are each of us alone.
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Narrow the Target
By Davidson, Carl at Nov 21, 2009 06:33 AM
>>How can those of us who want to reject that dominant culture meet our intellectual, political, and moral obligations? How can we act righteously without slipping into self-righteousness? What strategies create the most expansive space possible for honest engagement with others? <<
Good questions. I'd suggest narrowing the target. Instead of taking on the whole 'dominant culture' at once, including a majority of the population, why not enjoy reconnection with family and friends at Thanksgiving, celebrate those ties, and get some signatures on petitions to free Leonard Peltier and end the Iraq-Afghan wars. Afghanistan especially, since its 'Long War' advocates are borrowing from the 'long war' tactics in our own antitribal warfare of the 19th Century.
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Re: Narrow the Target
By Wolfe, Marthe at Nov 22, 2009 14:54 PM
Sounds a little too much lilke trying to have your cake and eat it , too!
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Re: Re: Narrow the Target
By Davidson, Carl at Nov 22, 2009 17:19 PM
Cake? In this case, it's the pumpkin, sweet potato and apple pie. My task for the family gathering this year is to make one of each from scratch. My nudging everyone on the wars is expected along with desert and coffee.
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Re: Re: Re: Narrow the Target
By Wolfe, Marthe at Nov 23, 2009 11:42 AM
I guess that is gringo humor?
You plan to celebrate grnocide against Native Americans and justify it as a pigout to end the war?
Nudge, nudge.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Narrow the Target
By Wolfe, Marthe at Nov 23, 2009 11:43 AM
I guess that is gringo humor?
You plan to celebrate genocide against Native Americans and justify it as a pigout to end the war?
Nudge, nudge.
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