Thanksgiving Day aka Natives National Day of Mourning
As I have gotten older I have tried to look at each one of our national holidays and think about its original meaning as well as how it has affected people of color. Once again the media and history books continue to paint a picture that is far from accurate about the events that caused what we call "Thanksgivings Day". For many descendants of Native Americans today marks another anniversary of the beginning of the end of their rule of this land that became The United States of America. Each Thanksgiving day they are reminded about how the Europeans came over with their guns and smallpox and changed the course of history in this land forever.
Now I'm not saying that this holidays isn't a great one, because at the end of the day who doesn't like family, friends, football, and food. However in order for us to truly celebrate this holiday the way it has been intended for us to celebrate it, we first must acknowledge the original wrong that was done in order for this such day to be created. Americans today believe that Thanksgiving celebrates a bountiful harvest, but that is not so. What really happened that fall was after a colonial militia had returned from murdering the men, women, and children of an Indian village, the governor proclaimed a holiday and feast to give thanks for the massacre. He also encouraged other colonies to do likewise - in other words, every autumn after the crops are in, go kill Indians and celebrate your murders with a feast.
So today while you are with you family and friends, take time out to think about all those who were not able to make it to this year's thanksgiving, think about all the things that you are truly thankful for, and also reflect on all those Native Americans who lost their lives and love ones so that this day might be possible.