Happy Turkey Day!!

AWESOME!!! So AWESOME!!!

Happy Holidays to you too!

You know, I ain't mad my people though for saying Happy Turkey Day! LIke you wrote, we are getting it back... Black Excellence. We are growing and learning...

It's time for the gender conflicts to end...

HAPPY TURKEY DAY, EVERYBODY!

[Please sign any Petitions to change this 'holiday' to "Native American Day" that you see online, etc.]

  I agree sista Sunnubian.  I was talking to a Native American student the other day.  Everyone was excited about the holiday and he said that it is hypocritical to celebrate a day when Native Americans were killed and land stolen from them.  He's right.  Today I don't think many people think about it cuz it's a day off.  Just like MLK day.  I stopped going to the parades cuz gangs/trouble makers would show up and start fights or make people uncomfortable.  So if you think about it  Thanksgiving has become a day when some folks get together and fight about past issues and make family members uncomfortable.   These holidays are supposed to be meaningful and significant but instead they have become nothing more than a paradox-a contradiction which is a reflection on us as a people....and as a society.  So.  Why do we celebrate?  Is it truly to honor an event or person?  Or is it just a day off?  What happened to our integrity, dignity and self-respect as human beings....and most importantly WHAT are we teaching the kids?  To be a glutton on Thanksgiving and a menace on King day?  What?   But! 

Yall, Shhhh ... Don't tell nobody... but after so many years, I finally got my husband, A BLACK INDIAN [ie. NEGRO NATIVE AMERICAN] to stop preparing a BLAM Turkey for us on Thanksgiving Day. 

Yeah, His father, a Full Blood Native American [i.e. Souix], and Mom, Black Indian [ie Blackfeet]  was just as bad. Even though my father-in-law's 'late' mother was born on a Reservation and tells us stories of her remembering the Trail of tears as a little girl, these American Indians are just as exploited and stripped of their 'common sense' as we are in certain ways. 

  You are so right Sista Chervon Dove

I mean that's one of the very reasons I watch what  I eat and crave for,  Cuz during slavery, African slaves were only given the three Ms to eat i.e. meal, molasses and meat[pork fat].  And fast forward is why African Americans have problems with diabetics, high blood pressure, hypertension etc.  And many of us KNOW this but will eat it anyway....especially during the holidays.  So we are conditioned innately to self-destruct by participating in these ingrained/ trained rituals.  It's hard especially when your real traditions have been stripped from you.  Human beings have to be able to celebrate, socialize, teach as a community-that was taken from us.  So psychologically we have to fill that "void."  It's cultural mutation of what was.  And to dismantle that takes practice.  That's why it's important to get "blackness" in your face and recreate traditions that feels good to you,  It truly is a re-creation cuz there is no way we can put back all the pieces...cuz we've been shattered and scattered across the world. 

But what we can do is look at the African images....and the culture will pour out.  Be open to do different things to bring honor.  When I use to teach, I tell the kids to use their imagination of what it felt like to be on a ship sailing away from home without language of familiarity.  So in that test of the unknown they were able to create their own narrative.  And that's what we have to do to restore our true traditions/customs as people from Africa.  Or people who hold the Amerindian bloodline from the Americas.  Rebirth is something honored in both cultures so we have the tool.  And when I say this some  blackfolks go we can't do no recreating.....blah blah blah.  But fool.  We did.  Snatched from Africa we created America.  So we can do this.  Cuz it is because of our imagination [to survive] as black folks we civilized the ancient world....folks now have in-home plumbing...electricity…...refrigeration...because of us.  Won't talk about the arts and our music.  So.   Lets not forget who we are.  I remember hearing about the colored feathers in Native American headdress-with each color meaning something significant to the feather-this should be recreated on a wider scale.  So many things we can do that before we couldn't do.  I'm rooting for those wanting to return to their authentic self  or wanting to recreate a newer version of it.  Cuz the bottom line?  It's our narrative.  But!    

Kocolicious posted:

  You are so right Sista Chervon Dove

And fast forward is why African Americans have problems with diabetics, high blood pressure, hypertension etc.  And many of us KNOW this but will eat it anyway....especially during the holidays. 

 

You are SO right Sista!

For me too, habits are hard to break. 

As you also said, "So we are conditioned innately to self-destruct by participating in these ingrained/ trained rituals."

"innately" oh yes! We have been conditioned from birth! It is a real challenge when these holidays come around to focus on the truth and not how we have been conditioned to celebrate. Gosh! 

"But what we can do is look at the African images....and the culture will pour out.  Be open to do different things to bring honor."

So true. 

"... Cuz the bottom line?  It's our narrative."

Well said.