Today in the United Snakes States of America, millions will be sitting down to gluttonous feasts of dead meat, baked sweets, and enough grease and salt to tranquilize a horse in the name of giving thanks. But before you tuck in your bib, allow me to slap you in the face with a helping of Black consciousness:
Celebrating Thanksgiving in America is like Germany celebrating the Holocaust. This should be a day of mourning and remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people slaughtered at the hands of WHITE CHRISTIANS…who gave their food and lives so that their oppressors could live.
For those of you who weren’t taught the real story in school, it went something like this….
The First Thanksgiving
We don’t know exactly how things went down back in 1621, but we do know that many of the early American colonies at that time had been settled by the Pilgrims who, in the face of persecution, fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established “as plantations of religion”, and wanted to create “a city on a hill” or a “holy experiment,” whose success would prove that God’s plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness.
And at the time, America was just that – a wilderness.
The harsh New England winter was punishing. Many Pilgrims died of disease and starvation. If it weren’t for the Wampanoag Indians, the would have all been killed off. Unfortunately, this wasnt the case. The Wamanoag rescued these settlers and they, in turn, celebrated with a feast of Thanks to the Indians. Beyond the first joint “Thanksgiving,” there were no further meals of mutual peace, dependence, and friendship.
In 1637, Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop ordered the massacre of thousands of Pequot Indian men, women and children (using the Bible to justify his actions). Winthrop’s actions set off a demonic campaign of extermination for the purpose of claiming America in the name of God and church, and to systematically plunder the resources of the Native Americans.
The final result was the near extinction of every single indigenous tribe in the United States and Canada, and anywhere from 10 to 30 million people dead.
10 to 30 million people. Dead.
Eventually, the words of thanksgiving prayers involved the recognition and celebration of the colonists’ victory of “oppression” of the “heathen captives.” In other words, the Pilgrims actually tried to convince themselves that they were the ones being oppressed by the Indians, and were forced to fight back!
Now today, we find that the so-called “holiday” has been completely white-washed (pun intended) as a time for family, football, fat shit, and “giving thanks”.
As Black Conscious men and women, we know the truth: that Thanksgiving marks the beginning of one of the worst human injustices — the suppression, oppression, and near annihilation of the Native Indians. In one word:
Genocide
This was the worst atrocity in recorded history. Worse than the Holocaust. Worse than slavery.
The genocide of the native Americans is estimated by David Stannard in his American Holocaust, 1992, pp. 74-75, p.151 to be 100 million people for the hemisphere and 18 million for the area north of Mexico. The deaths associated with the slavery trade, by contrast was estimated to be 28 million people (cf., Stannard, p. 151), and the holocaust of the Jewish people was estimated to be 6 million people.
According to 1909 Census, the number of Cherokees was 369,035, Navajo 225,298, Sioux 107,321, Apache 53,330, Cheyenne 11,809 and Comanche 11,437. In the 1910, the total population of North American Indians was about 400,000, down from about 18 -19 million in 1492. (Provided by this site)
Besides, What Do We Have To Be Thankful For?
Someone mentioned on our Twitter timeline that I should be grateful that I live in the richest nation on Earth, and not in some African mud-hut village.
My reply was: “I can’t tell the difference”.
Sure, the cars, stores, and television channels are nicer here in America.
However, unless you belong to the 2 percent representing the United States ruling class you should not be thankful at all. As Black men and women in America, we are manipulated, discriminated, hunted down in the streets by police, robbed of our hard-earned wealth, ridiculed and mocked within the media, and constitute the highest murder rates, HIV rates, heart disease and diabetes rates, dropout rates, foreclosure rates, bankruptcy rates, illiteracy rates, and incarceration/recidivism rates.
If the cops don’t kill you, the McDonald’s will. Welcome to America, Black folks!
Those mud-hut villages don’t look so bad now, do they?
Indeed, I would be more thankful for a country that lives according to its principles, allows the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all its citizens, and acts as a beacon of hope, light, and help to the rest of the world. All the things America has NOT been for Africa and her children since the inception of this country.
But If You Must Observe Thanksgiving…
…Then observe this holiday for what it really should be: a day of mourning and remembrance for the countless millions who died so that white invaders and butchers could have the space to build their churches, bars, and shopping malls. This day should be used to reaffirm what should be America’s promise to itself…that never again would this country stain its hands with the blood of innocent indigenous for the sole purpose of acquiring land, resources, or out of pure bigotry.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. America continues to slaughter the indigenous people of the world for the same reasons they massacred Native Americans. In Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and all across Africa, the United States is directly involved in acts of military aggression against the indigenous people of the world.
Those of us who believe in original values, and who assert our Black consciousness refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving. Whether or not you believe and assert the same, I hope that after reading this article, you will at least take some time to reflect on those who died so you would have an excuse to fill your gullet with poisonous genetically modified “food”.
Peace.
Asad
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