FAKE OUTRAGE ALERT—University of Oregon Edition: “‘A celebration of the ongoing genocide’: Workshop suggests ‘reparations,’ ‘National Day of Mourning’ to ‘decolonize’ Thanksgiving.”
THIS IS A SENSIBLE APPROACH TO STUDYING HISTORY: “Trouble in the Time of Thanksgiving: How Our Fraught History Can Still Be the Source of Unity.”
VIRTUE SIGNALLING AS A WAY OF LIFE: “No, Thanksgiving Isn’t About ‘Genocide And Violence’.”
Gyasi Ross, a Blackfeet (Native American) author (Huffington Post, Gawker, and Indian Country Today) attorney, “rapper, speaker and storyteller,” explained on MSNBC the other day, speaking of the Mayflower Pilgrims, “Instead of bringing stuffing and biscuits, those settlers brought genocide and violence.” Speaking of Thanksgiving, Ross adds, “That genocide and violence is still on the menu.” . . .
Today the left professes to despise colonialism and to see nothing but the usurpation of people and destruction of the environment as the consequence. This is a little odd, given that the left also generally favors the abolition of national borders.
I don’t know if that applies in Ross’s case. He may want to keep the borders (or perhaps expand them) of the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The loss of control of land, loss of independence, and other indignities by Native Americans were experienced by many as a dismal fate.
But history is complex. Some Native Americans embraced Western civilization; some sought a synthesis of tradition and the West; and some, like Ross, found places within the Western tradition where accusation and anger became a new kind of currency.
In that vein, hating Thanksgiving, like hating Columbus, has become a ritual. Some people watch the Macy’s Parade; some watch football; some enjoy the homecoming of relatives; some offer God sincere prayers of gratitude. And some make up stories about violence and genocide.
Read the whole thing.
HISTORY IS A COMPLEX THING IF YOU’RE ACTUALLY HONEST ABOUT IT: “Whose Land Did Native Americans Steal Before Europeans Stole It From Them?”