Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 13: Jews Talk Thanksgiving Part 2
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QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
In this second Thanksgiving episode, April and Tracie dig in to the unpleasant truths behind the myths of Thanksgiving. April recounts some of the deep sadness and loss she feels around missing knowledge and culture from her Native ancestors, while Tracie reflects on the holes in her education around the oppression of Native people.
Content warning: Native American genocide and oppression, rape and sex slavery in American history
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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Click here to access the audio version and transcript on Buzzsprout.
Towards the beginning of the episode, Tracie tells us about how she is beginning to better understand Native oppression in North America and that there were many gaps in her education, especially when it came to Thanksgiving. What did you learn about the people who are indigenous to North America (or wherever you live)? If any, what Thanksgiving story did you learn in your education? And, what misinformation or gaps might there have been?
If you know April, then you know that she is someone who loves gratitude. But given the Native genocide directly linked with Thanksgiving, she believes the holiday needs to be reimagined. How do you reconcile celebration of positive values such a gratitude with mourning and recognition of pain when it comes to holidays like Thanksgiving? How do you reconcile this regarding the history of wherever you call home?
Tracie recalls the lie she learned in school about “Indians” lovingly giving to European settlers. Are there any other holidays or historical events that where the narrative you initially learned wasn’t totally accurate? How can you talk or teach about holidays or events in an open and historically accurate way?
In this episode, April opens up about the profound sense of loss she has around her Native identity and heritage. Are their parts of your story or your family’s story where you also are experiencing loss or grief? What has your mourning process looked like?
Tracie tells us about a distant Native relative of hers named Elizabeth and how the whiteness of her family tree has “absorbed her” to the point where she has become merely “a footnote.” Think about your own family tree/network. How might have racism, colonization, and/or genocide impacted your family tree/network? How might they have shaped your family tree/network’s narrative and therefore the narrative of who you are?
Tracie also admits that she hasn’t “done the same kind of learning regarding the oppression of Native Americans as [she] has done around people of African heritage in this country.” Indeed, many antiracism efforts and spaces often erase or don’t include Native Peoples. Examine your own antiracism journey. Can you relate to Tracie at all? How might you be able to better include Indigenous Peoples in your antiracism?
April reminds us that Native Americans “are still here and very much alive,” contrary to the popular belief that Natives are “no more.” How might this popular narrative contribute to the oppression and genocide of Indigenous Peoples? What can you change in your language and antiracism to affirm and value present-day Native lives?
INSIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE
“There’s just so much betrayal and anger I feel relating to the holiday, but...my basic stance is I love the idea of family time and being grateful for everything, [and] I don’t want it intricately tied with the settler/colonial narrative about a people that this...nation-state tried to entirely annihilate over hundreds of years and continually broke treaties with.”
“Part of what is so heartbreaking is that the lie of the story that goes with Thanksgiving; at the core of it is the lie that the relationship between the white European settlers and the Native people was consensual.”
“I’m inviting listeners to really hear the distress that April is feeling around this. Really sit with that and bear witness to it. Think about the stories that you were told and really scratch just a little bit and see that we weren’t told the truth.”
“I think it’s really important to contradict the notion that Native Americans are no more. Their numbers are much smaller, but Native Americans are still very much here and live in US society and are leading powerfully in all types of spaces.”
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