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Thanksgiving
Let's find some other day and reason to give thanks in the United States.
Let's find some other day and reason to give thanks in the United States.
Let's find some other day and reason to give thanks in the United States.
Let's find some other day and reason to give thanks in the United States.
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White Canadians and First Nations Canadians tend to tell different stories about how "chill" Canada is, I find. But as I'm neither First Nations nor Canadian, I can't speak for them.
I think the implication here is that I was parroting back the opinion of a white Canadian? My comment was very vague, because I don't think it's fair to say that the opinion of a single First Nations woman is representative of all First Nations people, and I didn't want to present my comment as "well if one First Nations person says it's okay than it must be". I mentioned it because it was, to me, an interesting comment, and I thought there might be a slight chance that someone else would have further insight. It's not exactly a vast readership here on one lone journal on Dreamwidth, but you never know.
There are plenty of harvest festivals left in the world that don't take active or passive pride in the genocide of a continent of people -- why is your own personal enjoyment of holiday food more important than that?
Shit, do I really come across as someone who's trying to say that my enjoyment of holiday food is more important than recognizing the reality of history? I'm trying to verbalize my issues with the holiday while acknowledging my conflicted relationship with it. It's an ongoing process of reflection and reevaluation, and obviously I've got a long way to go.
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I definitely don't mean to imply that First Nations people have a monolith opinion either. Or that anyone does, honestly. It's more that I have an attempted policy, "if there's a significant controversy over whether X thing harms other people, and I'm not one of the people harmed by X thing, then it's better if I steer clear of the minefield and leave it for the actual people involved to reclaim or reject as they see fit." I know that I and the rest of European-descended North America have more or less done nothing but profit by European conquest of Native land, so it'd be in poor taste for me to pass positive judgment. If other people with more of a stake in it want to do so, that's their prerogative. Me, I think I'm better off putting in doleful little reminders of history where I can fit them in -- I think the U.S. has enough enthusiastic Turkey Day celebrators as it is, it's not going to miss me from its ranks.
Basically, is it likely that a large number of people might be hurt by my not celebrating Thanksgiving? Probably not. Mainstream U.S. traditions can fend for themselves, I'm pretty sure. I celebrate Christmas, but I don't think it needs defending in the States. I don't know if anyone would be directly harmed by my celebrating the holiday, but the possibility's higher than the other way around.
I'm not much of a fighter and I don't give up a lot of things for the benefit of people in the world, not nearly as much as I should. I still support a lot of exploitative industries with my money. I still shop at places like Wal-Mart and Target if I'm scrimping. But I figure I'd be incredibly remiss if I couldn't at least do this much.
Anyway, that's my two cents. I don't mean to cast aspersions on your priorities or how seriously you take it all, I'm sure you do and it's a complicated issue. I'm merely stating the stakes as I perceive them, and it's a pretty grim subject.
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