43 Comments
“Did you hear about what the Pilgrims did!?”
Tonight, Barnard’s SGA sent out an email prepping students on the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend and included this little nugget of wisdom:
Happy Turkey Week. Thanksgiving is complicated. We urge you not to forget that this holiday commemorates genocide and American imperialism. But, enjoy the week off and make it into something meaningful.
Discuss, please.
It’s about the turkey via Shutterstock
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43 Comments
@barnard '14 Oh, Columbia, always butthurt.
@Anonymous WHY DO YOU PEOPLE CARE? SERIOUSLY.
@Nicole '14 Very articulate article on this issue by journalism professor at UT Austin: http://www.alternet.org/story/68170/why_we_shouldn't_celebrate_thanksgiving
To “War on Turkey,” read anything by Dean Spade, Giorgio Agamben, A. Naomi Paik, Miriam Ticktin or many others on the slow violence that “rights” as a framework facilitates.
@Barry Manilow I would love to have one, just one holiday that doesn’t offend someone.
@Anonymous @Barry Manilow: Arbor Day
@War on Turkey I guess this is what you get when you go to a LIBERAL arts college. First they take away my RIGHT to hear “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays” when I do my shopping, now they want to take away my American RIGHT to gorge myself on a bird wrapped in another bird shoved inside the carcass of a third bird without considering the historical implications of my actions? Their PC fascist socialism makes me sick. Even sicker than that entire turducken I’m planning to eat. #amirite?
@Anonymous I’m surprised at how intensely people are reacting to this. Even if you don’t agree with what was written or don’t care, it’s not like the email said you absolutely must not celebrate, or you’re an awful person if you do. It’s just an acknowledgement of the historical context. I don’t think it’s asking too much to occasionally be reminded of this stuff.
@I see those tags And they tell me where bwog stands on the issue **fucking peachy** if you happen to be someone who found that email at all challenging and interesting. Reflecting on the problems with your privilege is something you do every day, nobody is taking Thanksgiving away but it is a colonial narrative that deserves at least some thought.
@Anonymous “American imperialism is the economic, military, and cultural influence of the United States on other countries.” I’m not sure that this is what Thanksgiving commemorates…
@um. that’s precisely what it is. the native americans weren’t part of america. we made them become a part of america through a massive physical and cultural genocide. even still, the reservations have their own tribal governments.
@woo! i love that my two favorite holidays are together as one!
@Camille '14 Hey, I fully support sparking a bit of reconsideration upon the origins of a tradition, regardless of–or perhaps, because of–how it has now come to be warmly reappropriated into a holiday of gratefulness, reconvening with family, and eating a week’s worth of white meat. We, generations later, can easily be distracted by the pleasures of long weekends and forget to reflect on the context of a celebration’s roots. We can all debate as long as we want over what really happened post-Mayflower, or over any historical event for that matter, but after all we’ve heard most of it through the victor’s lens. The point that SGA is making is: it’s complicated. Without snarkiness, without sarcasm, just with an honest urge for reflection. Acknowledging the foundation of a tradition is healthy, and aids a more holistic appreciation of what this celebration has come to be. No shame in that.
@Anonymous I totally agree. It was a little unexpected, maybe even not SGA’s job to do, but there’s no harm.
@Anonamoose Totally agree with you, except I’m more of a dark meat kinda guy.
@Anonymous i mostly agree.
but throwing in “genocide” was unnecessarily offensive to people for whom thanksgiving is meaningful.
@If the word genocide offends you if the word genocide offends you, imagine how offensive it is for the country who colonized and perpetrated genocide against you to consistently forget about your modern existence and celebrate the desecration of your people
@'14 Facepalm
@George Washington It’s really worth reading George Washington’s Procalamation of Thanksgiving to get an idea of what this holiday can stand for.
Quote: “I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks”
Here’s a link: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/GW/gw004.html. It really is just about being grateful for the good things we have in our lives. Why should this holiday have anything to do with Native Americans, or pilgrims, or any of that stuff?
@Actually Look up the Mystic Massacre of 1637. Thanksgiving clearly has a relationship to the pacification and genocide of indigenous people in the Americas. Otherwise indigenous people would not commemorate it throughout the United States as a day of mourning and remembrance. The fact that we mythologize thanksgiving as a friendly celebration only illuminates the obvious reality that generations of colonial descendants and heirs to the Pilgrims’ history are unwilling to face the truth.
But the food is delicious. Big shout out to my Wampanoag relatives for teaching the Pilgrims how to COOK.
@Anonymous This holiday is unfair to the country of Turkey for the metaphorical implications of turkey’s slaughter and consumption.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: and cue the Armenian genocide argument
@CC 14 hahahahahaha
@Wow. Sounds like they mixed up Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was to commemorate the cooperation between natives and the puritan pilgrims, when natives helped the starving pilgrim population survive their first winter. Columbus Day on the other hand just celebrates the discovery of the New World. What’s the difference? One reflects upon humility and gratitude; the other on selfish land-grabbing, wealth and greed. You might as well argue that the core (with its inclusion of Ancient Greek literature) supports prevalent themes in Greek life, including child rape and slavery. #geteducated
@Anonymous @Wow.: How dare you take to bwog to make a substantial criticism of rhetoric?!?
@can u clarify Was that “cooperation” before or after Europeans slaughtered millions of Native Americans//casually brought disease and violence to an already-occupied country?? Idk!
@Pretty obviously... before. Who would cooperate after all that? Someone doesn’t think the Native Americans were smart…
@country? countries are sooo western bro
@over it taking a craps on your white privilege from my casino.
@Anonymous make it rain #doubleentendre
@get over it We won. Your sticks and stones weren’t good enough. Enjoy your beads.
@It's also Hanukkah Which is a horrible holiday in which a savage indigenous people beat out the Greek army. It also promotes pyromania #OccupyHanukkah #MorelikeHannuKAKA
@More like... HannuKKKa
@ugh. so tiring.
@Anonymous Really SGA??
@literally Sent this EXACT text to a friend of mine the minute we got it. Too far, SGA. TOO. FAR.
Also, to those who may be wishing someone a Merry Christmas in the near future, please remember that Christmas is complicated. I urge you not to forget that this holiday commemorates genocide and Christian crusading. But, enjoy the presents and Netflix and try to make them into something meaningful.
@Adding insult to injury by claiming we get a week off
@Sherry J. Wolf It’s time that someone checked our collective privilege. Thanksgiving break should be a time to protest in the streets, not eat the fruit of American Imperialism, you cisgendered misogynists. #occupythestuffing
@Anonymous this comment gives me life
@Barnard SGA Can suck a fat one
@Commemorates my love for family, food, and wine.
@millie the dancing bear classic barnard. I love it, tbh
@Anonymous Bwog is an attention wh*re
@An attention... escort. They prefer to be called escorts.