Over the last week or so, like every year, I've encountered well meaning folks who expressed "Happy Thanksgiving" to me. As has been my custom for the last almost 40 years, I kindly smile and respond with "I don't celebrate the holiday, but you and your family be safe!" Most of the time, people react to my response with confused looks. I know people lack information, but since this is an information based society, I've never understood why people are so comfortable knowing so little. This year I'm even more befuddled by it. Here you have thousands of Indigenous people who have been waging a principled and sacred struggle against big businesses effort to implement an illegal and immoral oil pipeline. This fight isn't just a fight for the Native folks in that area. These oil companies would risk poisoning all water supplies if doing so supported their profit and loss statements. So, this struggle of water protection is a struggle for all people. Yet, the state, which as always is the enforcement arm for the multi-national corporations, is sending out its shock troop police to engage in shear acts of terrorism against the peaceful water protectors in North Dakota, U.S. This struggle has been going on for several months now and international attention is now focused upon it. People all over the world saw how police responded to peaceful protest by shooting dangerous water cannons that ripped people's limbs off. We have seen these gestapo police come at peaceful people with tactical firearms and other lethal and supposedly non-lethal weapons. Everyone, everywhere is seeing all of this. And now, this week, we are faced tomorrow with the annual farce known as Thanksgiving. This is the day, like all corrupt imperialist holidays, where they want to convince you that we should be thankful. Just to be clear, what they are really doing is strongly suggesting that you should be thankful for the comfort and leisure you have access to, or least potential access to, in this society. They do this because they know that once they convince you to do this, you are going to be morally obligated to them and their values and institutions. And once you are that, you will not see them for the vicious pirates that they are. You will not agree that they need to be overthrown and you will do nothing to support efforts to organize against them. You may support some elements of resistance, but you will never be willing to go all the way and you will never support anyone who is willing to go all the way. That is the actual role of Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and all imperialist holidays, to claim your loyalty to the empire.
So, if you are wishing someone Thanksgiving wishes. If you are planning any type of Thanksgiving dinner, whether you mean to or not. Whether you are a willing participant or not, you are perpetuating white supremacy by enforcing its institutions. And, by doing so, there is really no actual way you can really support the people fighting at Standing Rock. The fight in North Dakota is a fight for water and you cannot separate the water from the land, so really, its a fight for land. I was moved by the video of the buffalo appearing at Standing Rock. A young Indigenous warrior was being interviewed and the European reporter asked him what the land means to him. He replied "the land means everything!" As a displaced African, kidnapped away from my mother, who has spent my entire adult life fighting for mother Africa, I instinctively identified with what the Indigenous comrade was saying. Reclaiming our land is power. So, if you really support the people at Standing Rock you cannot dishonestly attempt to cast that entire struggle under the climate change umbrella. Certainly it is a climate change issue and there is no question that climate change, or global warming, is a critical issue, but Standing Rock is about Indigenous self determination and that means reclaiming the land. So, you cannot be for Indigenous self determination unless you concede that this land belongs to them. So, there is no way you can celebrate Thanksgiving, in any way, because it is a holiday that celebrates the theft of land from the Native peoples, the very thing they are fighting against at Standing Rock. Its really not that difficult. The Americas belong to the Indigenous People's of the Western Hemisphere. They have demonstrated themselves to the a people of respect and integrity so if you stand for justice, I'm sure they welcome you here if that is your concern. Its not mine. I'm fighting for Africa's liberation and once we achieve that, which we will, this issue of Africans here wanting to be connected to America will resolve itself overnight. We get it. People want to be connected to who and what they perceive as the winner. We want to be connected to justice because we understand that if we connect with and fight for justice, we will ultimately see victory.
There are things you can do to avoid the Thanksgiving trap. First, if you are getting together with people on Thursday, don't just let it dissolve into a pig fest of food and football. Have structured discussion about the injustices perpetuated against the Indigenous people, even if you just do it in a prayer before eating. Try to create space for people to reflect upon that. in places where there are un Thanksgiving ceremonies, participate. Take your children. My daughter was raised participating every year in the annual American Indian Movement's un Thanksgiving at Alcatraz in San Francisco. She never celebrated Thanksgiving or any imperialist holidays and today she is much healthier mentally because of it. We need to duplicate this approach with everyone. Second, don't shop anywhere on Friday. This capitalist system is all about exploiting the masses of humanity and it would be great if you could demonstrate your solidarity with all oppressed peoples by refusing to participate in the annual violence and dehumanization known as "Black Friday." Since we are revolutionaries, excuse us if we refrain from telling Africans to "buy Black." Since we are anti-capitalist, we will instead say buy with people you know invest in our people through deed, not just word. And finally, please use this time to join an organization and join and work seriously with that organization. You cannot understand Physics just by thinking you understand Physics. You can only understand it by struggling to grasp the concepts and principles that drive physics. By the same token, you cannot understand the struggle for justice just because you see what's on the news and you read a few things. You can only understand it by participating in it. The forces that oppress us don't just read a few things and watch television. They actively organize against us so you better believe we won't beat them just by engaging in intellectual masturbation exercises. We have to work with each other and build capacity to fight back and win. Doing these things are the best way to have real and concrete solidarity with the Indigenous people who are bravely waging struggle at Standing Rock. There is much to be learned from them. There are reasons why their action has gone on for months and is still picking up steam while many of the urban anti-Trump protests have struggled to be consistent after only two weeks. No criticism. All protest is good. Keep it up, but get some organization and analysis behind it. Get some perspective behind it. And stop manipulating the struggle in ways that line up with your liberal values. Justice is justice, not what makes you comfortable. Use Thursday to start a new path. And stop wishing people happy imperialist holidays.
So, if you are wishing someone Thanksgiving wishes. If you are planning any type of Thanksgiving dinner, whether you mean to or not. Whether you are a willing participant or not, you are perpetuating white supremacy by enforcing its institutions. And, by doing so, there is really no actual way you can really support the people fighting at Standing Rock. The fight in North Dakota is a fight for water and you cannot separate the water from the land, so really, its a fight for land. I was moved by the video of the buffalo appearing at Standing Rock. A young Indigenous warrior was being interviewed and the European reporter asked him what the land means to him. He replied "the land means everything!" As a displaced African, kidnapped away from my mother, who has spent my entire adult life fighting for mother Africa, I instinctively identified with what the Indigenous comrade was saying. Reclaiming our land is power. So, if you really support the people at Standing Rock you cannot dishonestly attempt to cast that entire struggle under the climate change umbrella. Certainly it is a climate change issue and there is no question that climate change, or global warming, is a critical issue, but Standing Rock is about Indigenous self determination and that means reclaiming the land. So, you cannot be for Indigenous self determination unless you concede that this land belongs to them. So, there is no way you can celebrate Thanksgiving, in any way, because it is a holiday that celebrates the theft of land from the Native peoples, the very thing they are fighting against at Standing Rock. Its really not that difficult. The Americas belong to the Indigenous People's of the Western Hemisphere. They have demonstrated themselves to the a people of respect and integrity so if you stand for justice, I'm sure they welcome you here if that is your concern. Its not mine. I'm fighting for Africa's liberation and once we achieve that, which we will, this issue of Africans here wanting to be connected to America will resolve itself overnight. We get it. People want to be connected to who and what they perceive as the winner. We want to be connected to justice because we understand that if we connect with and fight for justice, we will ultimately see victory.
There are things you can do to avoid the Thanksgiving trap. First, if you are getting together with people on Thursday, don't just let it dissolve into a pig fest of food and football. Have structured discussion about the injustices perpetuated against the Indigenous people, even if you just do it in a prayer before eating. Try to create space for people to reflect upon that. in places where there are un Thanksgiving ceremonies, participate. Take your children. My daughter was raised participating every year in the annual American Indian Movement's un Thanksgiving at Alcatraz in San Francisco. She never celebrated Thanksgiving or any imperialist holidays and today she is much healthier mentally because of it. We need to duplicate this approach with everyone. Second, don't shop anywhere on Friday. This capitalist system is all about exploiting the masses of humanity and it would be great if you could demonstrate your solidarity with all oppressed peoples by refusing to participate in the annual violence and dehumanization known as "Black Friday." Since we are revolutionaries, excuse us if we refrain from telling Africans to "buy Black." Since we are anti-capitalist, we will instead say buy with people you know invest in our people through deed, not just word. And finally, please use this time to join an organization and join and work seriously with that organization. You cannot understand Physics just by thinking you understand Physics. You can only understand it by struggling to grasp the concepts and principles that drive physics. By the same token, you cannot understand the struggle for justice just because you see what's on the news and you read a few things. You can only understand it by participating in it. The forces that oppress us don't just read a few things and watch television. They actively organize against us so you better believe we won't beat them just by engaging in intellectual masturbation exercises. We have to work with each other and build capacity to fight back and win. Doing these things are the best way to have real and concrete solidarity with the Indigenous people who are bravely waging struggle at Standing Rock. There is much to be learned from them. There are reasons why their action has gone on for months and is still picking up steam while many of the urban anti-Trump protests have struggled to be consistent after only two weeks. No criticism. All protest is good. Keep it up, but get some organization and analysis behind it. Get some perspective behind it. And stop manipulating the struggle in ways that line up with your liberal values. Justice is justice, not what makes you comfortable. Use Thursday to start a new path. And stop wishing people happy imperialist holidays.
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