Thanksgiving in Black

Everything has an opposite: Every mountain has a valley; every knife spurns a fork; every night turns to day.

Thanksgiving Day has its opposite too—the National Day of Mourning, which honors native ancestors and the struggles of native peoples. The National Day of Mourning began in 1970 when Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder, gave a speech near the Pilgrim’s first meeting house in Massachusetts.

The Pathetic Christian Origin of Thanksgiving
Using a Pilgrim’s account of that first year on native soil, James condemned the desecration of native cultures by the Puritans. According to that account, the Pilgrims opened the graves of James’ ancestors, took their wheat and beans, and sold his ancestors as slaves for 220 shillings each.

When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863, he did it to foster unity between the North and South during the Civil War. Blacks embraced the holiday because it implied that they, as a race hated and despised, would be included in this unity. But they were unaware of how the Pilgrims treated native tribes after celebrating a harvest thanksgiving with the Wampanoag at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. Some consider this event the First Thanksgiving on American soil.

However, just as racist whites segregated themselves from blacks and considered them inferior to whites, so the Pilgrims at Plymouth never celebrated thanksgiving again with the Wampanoag or any other native tribe. Given this origin of Thanksgiving, one wonders whether blacks should celebrate Thanksgiving Day with a feast or a fast.

Celebrating Thanksgiving: Feast or Fast
Simple gratitude for what the Master of the human race has accomplished for the African American, despite the fungus of slavery and the hot volcanic ash of American discrimination and racism, enshrines the black celebration of Thanksgiving.

Turkey and cranberry sauce are the incense that commemorates victories over hate and desegregation. Sweet potatoes and collard greens memorialize the death of slavery and the triumph of freedom. Corn and macaroni and cheese praise the prosperity and security many blacks enjoy today.

But can we forget how the Sioux have suffered after their lands were stolen from them? Or how the Cherokee still faces discrimination under the vampire system of reservations? Or how some whites, and blacks, still use the term “redskins” as though it were salt and pepper, rather than dirt and grime—as though it were a pure word, like love, rather than a lewd word, like hate?

Blacks whose consciences burn with the heat of disgust prefer to give up celebration and replace it with atonement, not for sins they may have committed against the red man and red woman themselves, but because the same Pilgrims and Puritans who tortured and attempted to annihilate natives also tortured and attempted to annihilate blacks.

The Choice May Make You Mourn
So whether one celebrates Thanksgiving Day with a feast or renounces it with a fast, each has its merits and neither is a demon.

As for the National Day of Mourning, its purpose should flood every black Christian’s eyes with tears. Besides, it presents a bizarre message that is more complimentary than weird:

If when the sun rises you are happy and thankful to God for your happiness, why when the sun sets, if you’re sad, shouldn’t you thank him also for your sadness?

Be thankful when you’re sad; be grateful when you mourn. Bad times move us toward good times, because “happy are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4).