Thanksgiving is the Expression of the Colonizer, Then and Now

by Danny Haiphong

“As the capitalist economy developed, plantation elites created a system of white supremacy to empower every white settler to protect the profits of chattel slavery.”

At this stage of history, most people outside of the US know that the dominant narrative of Thanksgiving is a pack of lies. But in the US, this is not the case. White supremacy and imperialism shape all aspects of life, making Thanksgiving day a politically useful tool for the ruling system. Every November, the ruling class greases its misinformation machine to erase its history of genocide and colonialism from historical memory in place of the myth of white benevolence. President Lincoln started the process by making Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 to revive white racial solidarity in the midst of the Civil War that threatened to tear apart the nation. Ever since, white America and broad sections of the oppressed have sat down to a meal once a year to "celebrate" the supposedly peaceful dinner between the Wampanoags of New England and the English settlers in 1621.

Historians differ on the facts of the 1621 feast and some believe the Wampanoags were not invited at all. Others believe Lincoln distorted the story from a multitude of meals because the English depended on the Wampanoags for survival. Yet, the significance of the Thanksgiving narrative is not limited to the facts of the meal. The same forces that plundered New England and North America remain the rulers of the imperialist system they set into motion. This historical truth is the reason why Thanksgiving continues to be an American tradition. For white America and the tiny minority of people around the world with a stake in US imperialism, the truth about Thanksgiving is worthy of the highest degree of suppression. The task of resistance forces, freedom fighters, and revolutionary organizations is to keep historical memory alive so we can erase the forces of suppression from existence.

The truth is that the same English settlers who supposedly took part in a peaceful dinner with the Wampanoags went on a hunting expedition of each and every indigenous tribe in the region in their quest for expansion. It wasn’t until the settlers decimated the Wampanoags and traveled further into the New England region that Thanksgiving really began. In 1637, the English colonizers massacred the Pequot tribe in what is now Connecticut. Over 700 Pequots were killed in the massacre. Governor John Winthrop declared the day “Thanksgiving.” After each subsequent massacre, the settlers would celebrate gratitude for their plunder by giving thanks.

“Scholarship like Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz's Indigenous People's History of the United States is ignored in academia and popular culture.”

Since Thanksgiving was made a national holiday, the history, culture, and self-determination of existing indigenous peoples have been officially usurped by white decadent rule. Racism permeates so deeply into American culture that some believe indigenous people do not exist at all. Scholarship like Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz's Indigenous People's History of the United States is ignored in academia and popular culture. The living and breathing struggle of indigenous peoples against the Keystone pipeline and other violations of sovereignty remain outside of American political discourse.

But the plight of indigenous peoples of continental North America is not merely a side-story of the imperialist system. Rather, it marks the beginning of capitalist development and white supremacy in North America. The early English capitalists and colonizers paraded their colonial missions in North America as a service of "civilization" for the native. As the capitalist economy developed, plantation elites created a system of white supremacy to empower every white settler to protect the profits of chattel slavery. Today, US imperialism "civilizes" oppressed peoples of the world with a heavy dose of super-exploitation and repression. The difference between then and now is that instead of the ruling class rising to prominence off the backs of oppressed people, imperialism is crashing and burning.

The inevitable and permanent crises of imperialism have left the ruling class weaker economically and politically. The ruling class has been forced to lash out on the world with its military to maintain power. Both domestically and abroad, US imperialism terrorizes oppressed people and frames it as a colonial mission, albeit in different language than 17th century colonialism. When the US teamed up with its reactionary allies in NATO and the Gulf Cooperation Council to overthrow Libya and commit mass genocide of Libya’s Black population, the imperialists framed it as a "humanitarian intervention." The entire War on Terror, from the drone strikes to the military interventions, has been dressed up as a Western rescue mission supposedly designed to save inferior peoples in need of imperial medicine.

It is important that any analysis of US imperialism returns to the source. What US imperialism does abroad is directly connected to the struggle of oppressed people in the belly of the beast. When Michael Brown was first murdered in Ferguson by the white police establishment, I wrote an article connecting racist police genocide of Black America to the proliferation of ISIS abroad. I concluded that both developments were a necessary feature of the same nightmare Malcolm X spoke about decades ago. The millions upon millions who have been displaced, impoverished, and forced into an early death by US neo-colonial military intervention and war by proxy face the same enemy as the internal colonies of the United States. This could not be clearer for Black America at this juncture in history.

“The colonizer lives on through the rule of US imperialism.”

The non-indictment of Darren Wilson sparked large demonstrations across the US. Black Americans across the nation have been inspired to fight back against the almost daily murder of Black people by police. And just as indigenous peoples were murdered maimed in the name of white "progress" and "civilization," so to is the non-indictment of Darren Wilson being framed in Thanksgiving-like white supremacist terms. Both the Obama Administration and the corporate media have divided Black American resistance between "civilized" peaceful protesters and "savage" looters. Furthermore, the rule of white "law and order" has been evoked constantly to exonerate the police and dehumanize the resistance of the occupied.

The conditions in Ferguson, Libya, and wherever US imperialism wreaks havoc teach the real lesson of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not only about the existence of the racist mythology that continues to mislead the people. It also represents the reality that the colonizer lives on through the rule of US imperialism. The need for a revolutionary internationalist movement in the US has never been stronger. As the resistance axis of the global South and neo-colonial world fight for survival and self-determination, Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and undocumented peoples live under occupation in the United States.

The imperialist overlords that create these conditions for their own profit and geopolitical power are the same, whether we are talking about Libya, Palestine, Ukraine, or Ferguson. Self-determination is becoming impossible to stop as the people fight back and Wall Street loses control of its inevitable cycles of crisis. Now is the time to fight back to win. So join, or start, an organization dedicated to overthrowing the system that created Thanksgiving. This will bring us closer to the day when we can all give thanks to peace, justice, reparations, and socialism.

Danny Haiphong is an organizer, writer, and case manager in the Greater Boston area. You can contact Danny at: wakeupriseup1990@gmail.com.

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