This article was originally published at Truthout under the title "The Future is Indigenous: Decolonizing Thanksgiving" and is reprinted here with permission. In 2015, a video meme circulated prior to Thanksgiving, featuring YouTube personality Franchesca Ramsey humorously breaking down the actual history of the holiday. A wet blanket to her family's Thanksgiving dinner, … [Read more...]
7 Things US History Class Should Have Taught Every American About Indigenous History
The history of people indigenous to the North American continent is often glossed over in education. We are badgered with the legend of Native benevolence to the pilgrims who landed on the East Coast on Thanksgiving. If Indigenous history is covered, students are likely to hear a tragic but vague narrative of massacre, disease, and death, a narrative devoid of the specific … [Read more...]
Why White North Americans Need To Understand Ourselves as “Settlers”
If you’re white, this land was not made for you and me. Like many white North Americans, I grew up with a vague idea of where my ancestors came from. In my case, they were scattered across Western Europe, and I was fascinated by what their lives must have been like. But I had no real connection to what it means, culturally, to be Irish or Scottish or British or German or … [Read more...]
White People Interested in Dismantling White Supremacy: Who Are We Beyond Our Violence?
“One of the things that most afflicts this country is that white people don’t know who they are or where they come from.” -- James Baldwin In the fall of my senior year in high school, one of my classmates hosted a Halloween party. For some reason, I thought it would be funny to get some of my other friends to join me in dressing as Klansmen. No one balked at the idea. We … [Read more...]
To Understand Puerto Rico’s Troubles, We Must Understand Colonialism
With all that has been impacting Puerto Rico in recent years, from defaulting on debt payments to Hurricane Maria to the mass protests against our now-former governor, it makes me wonder why more people aren't talking about the state of the Island. Many simply do not know, for instance, that Puerto Rico is on the brink of bankruptcy much like Detroit, Michigan was in 2014. I … [Read more...]
Seeking Great-Aunt Sarah: Learning From the Abuse of My Disabled Ancestor
Great-aunt Sarah, age 12 [Image description: This 1921 black-and-white photograph shows the author's great-aunt Sarah as a girl of 12 standing on the grounds of a state school in Wrentham, MA. She is a white girl with shoulder-length brown hair pulled back on the top with a large bow. Her dress is white and extends below her knees, and she is wearing leather lace-up shoes. She … [Read more...]
Why Must Plus-Size Fashion Be “Flattering”?
"Flattering." One quick search through the unread promotional e-mails in my inbox found hundreds of results for this word. “The Most Flattering Swimsuit Ever,” subject lines teased in order to entice me to open them. The word "flattering" is so deeply ingrained in fashion, and particularly in plus-size fashion. But while some still see this word as a guideline, I see it more … [Read more...]
7 Ways For White-Passing Jewish Folk to Engage Anti-Racism
I have a clear memory of the time when I was a kid and my classmates defaced my desk with carved swastikas and a mocking version of my very Hebrew name. As one of very few Jewish kids in a rural town that could be brutally intolerant, this was neither the first act of anti-Semitism launched in my direction, nor the last. Yet it stands out in my memory for the historical … [Read more...]
