It’s “Thanksgiving” in the USA today… thanksgiving for whom? is a great question to be asking.
USAmerican “Thanksgiving” appears to be weighted in the direction of settlers and colonizers. If you are an indigenous “American” or an African “American” or anyone – for that matter – who doesn’t neatly fit conveniently within this country’s myth of exceptionalism, the national expression of thanksgiving may be truly hard to swallow… or even a kick in the teeth.
Is this a day when white people give thanks for their European ancestry? Is it a day to give thanks that one was NOT here when the Mayflower landed? Or to give thanks that one family wasn’t enslaved? Should it be called “Better Them, Than Me Day”?
Fostering gratitude is a vital life practice… a measure of gratitude can is needed to get out of bed every morning, but who controls one’s narrative of gratitude?
I have been really taken by the wisdom of Common’s latest release. He is a prophet to be sure. On this day I am giving thanks for Common.
Peace, dwight
