The essence of American culture will be captured in the next two days.
On Thanksgiving, Americans come together with loved ones to indulge in food – while simultaneously engaging in a form of organized forgetting about violence against the indigenous people. As we stuff ourselves with mashed potatoes, members of the Sioux Nation in North Dakota are being hit with water cannons and tear gas for protecting sacred land and their water supply from contamination by an oil pipeline.
Making matters worse is the fact that the big football game tomorrow is loaded with anti-indigenous imagery. The Washington Redskins are playing the Dallas Cowboys. The logo and team name for the Redskins is based on a racial epithet and caricature of Native Americans. Historically, the original cowboys had a hand in slaughtering the indigenous people and pushing them off settlements. Yet this violence is glorified, and the Cowboys are referred to as “America’s team”. This ties into the childhood game of ‘Cowboys and Indians’ whereby Natives were portrayed negatively as the Other who needs to be policed.
More people identify with a caricature of Native Americans in a game than actual Native Americans fighting for humanity in real life.
On Black Friday, all of this is simply glossed over and exacerbated by mindless consumerism. The goal of shoppers with their fanny-packs full of coupons is to purchase the most things at the lowest prices. People are concerned with objects, not relations. Keep in mind that this worldview is what subjected indigenous populations to genocide and conquest in the first place – and it is what requires their continued domination today.
Prompt: Chaotic
November 23, 2016 at 6:38 pm
Reblogged this on Coalition of the Brave.
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November 23, 2016 at 8:16 pm
thank you!
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November 24, 2016 at 7:30 pm
I like the way you tied all of that together. Just commented on Tareau’s blog about willful ignorance. I don’t think we’ll ever get beyond this, until we all learn to care and that requires thinking and breaking traditions.
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November 24, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Thank you!
I absolutely agree – the ignorance is so comfortable; it is even rewarded. In the age of technology where everything has to be fast and easy – I wonder to which degree thinking itself is going out of style. Thinking is hard – masses of people have outsourced that responsibility to the government and to the media. They let politicians tell them how the economy is doing, and the let the media tell them who they should hate.
We need to start caring for one another. Traditions are always seen as sacred because of their repetition, but that does not mean they are moral/ethical. Very true, we have to learn to care and we need to be brave enough to break these traditions.
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November 24, 2016 at 9:34 pm
Very good post. I agree with every word.
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November 24, 2016 at 9:40 pm
Thank you! I am glad we have a similar perspective on this 😀
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November 24, 2016 at 10:53 pm
Reblogged this on Writing Radiation and commented:
A great post. If you want to make a donation to the water protectors in North Dakota, here’s some info (borrowed, with love, from Kimchi Cuddles webcomic page on Facebook, a fantastic comic about polyamory, gender identities, & queer identities): Supply List:
http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list
Checks, cash or supplies can be sent via mail to: Sacred Stone Camp, P.O. Box 1011, Fort Yates, ND 58538, or 202 Main St., Fort Yates, ND 58538.
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November 24, 2016 at 10:57 pm
Thank you!
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November 25, 2016 at 4:58 am
A very thought provoking post. I do hope for positive change…
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November 25, 2016 at 5:03 am
Glad it sparked some thoughts! I am hoping for positive change as well.
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November 25, 2016 at 9:10 am
Yes indeed. It’s brainwashing by the masses. And what’s funny is that when you defer from this mindset, something is wrong with you. We have to think about the sociological impact that the masses has on people. Just think of an commercial Stockholm syndrome. We are conditioned and brainwashed into believing anything the majority tells us, as soon as you speak up, loyal followers will condemn you and say that you’re being irrational. I feel like this country doesn’t want to change. Change is too hard for most. Once again conditioning.
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November 25, 2016 at 1:45 pm
Spot on my brother! Stockholm Syndrome is a wonderful way to put it. I agree: this country does not want to change. We are in love with our chains. Being free requires far too much work – it requires bravery, it requires caring for others – both of these tasks require action. A lot more action than people are willing to exert.
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November 25, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Why do you think social media thrives? Americans are generally lazy. We’re financially lazy, educational lazy, emotionally lazy, leisurely lazy, sexually lazy, and physically lazy. One rule of capitalism is to CAPITALIZE. Think about this analogy:
Red box is one of the greatest inventions ever. Not only do you get to get any movie or game that you want for a $1 a day, the owners know that Americans are lazy and 85% of them know that the consumer will not return the movie/game within that time frame. Apply that kind of marketing thought process to everything. We are the only country who open complains about working a 9 to 5. We have memes, shirts, slogans etc to authenticate this laziness.
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November 25, 2016 at 3:16 pm
Lol @ sexually and leisurely lazy. Sexual laziness needs to be coined bro lol. We’re lazy with our laziness too! We don’t even get up to change the channels, we have remote controls and fancy gadgets to do everything.
You are right man. It is all about making people lazy and then marketing a solution to them which makes them even lazier.
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November 25, 2016 at 4:55 pm
Yep that’s why alot of us are blinded. Another example: I borrowed my brother’s xmen dvds 2 months ago. He has over 300 DVDs. Do you think he knows? Nope. I returned it him last week and he was shocked that he couldn’t remember letting me borrow it. If that was my petty ass, I would remember it hahahaha. But my point is, he has so much technology, he didn’t even noticed. What if I was a con artist? Look at identity theft. Yes it’s tragic but come on man, if I’m a con artist, it’s so easy to get someone’s info. Look how open everyone is when you go out. They will wear Louis Vuitton belts and have nice things but are oblivious to their surroundings.
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November 26, 2016 at 2:02 pm
True story! We have been bought off with gadgets and flashy products. These are bribes that coax us into suspending critical. Its like what Dave was saying on the podcast a while back about all of these new applications where people are just downloading left and right and not even paying attention. Everyone is oblivious to their surroundings. It amazes me how we have so much information, yet fewer and fewer people seem to have a grasp on this stuff.
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November 25, 2016 at 4:56 pm
Lmfao yes sexual laziness. In my day you had to work for pleasure. Whether it was pornography or actually dating. Now all you have to do is swipe. (Generally Speaking, Tareau ain’t neveeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr had a problem) hahahahahaha
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November 26, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Lol. The stuff you say in these comments sections .. you seriously need to turn around into separate blogs. The idea of sexual laziness is a serious gem.
But I dig you … all these online dating apps and such – I think people want the love, without the fall, though. They want to place a barrier between themselves and the other person so that they do not have to feel that rejection live and in 3D.
And it is weird that we can just go to eHarmony and type in all of our desires for a mate … hair, race, education, etc – and 2 seconds later, they find a “match” for you. It feels like ordering a pizza online through Dominos! This is what has become of love! lol
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November 25, 2016 at 2:25 pm
This was a phenomenal reminder and “check.” I haven’t been on top of current events and was unaware of the tragedy with the Sioux Nation in North Dakota. How ironic and heartbreaking.. Sometimes it amazes me how insensitive and selfish we’ve become as a people. I agree with Tareau – I don’t believe that enough of us want to change. If so, we wouldn’t so willingly accept those conditioning.
I didn’t celebrate this Thanksgiving and I finally abandoned my Black Friday traditions. For a while, I started to question if it even mattered really. But your post served as a great reassurance! Thank you 🙂
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November 25, 2016 at 3:38 pm
The ugly truth.
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November 25, 2016 at 3:45 pm
Unfortunately so!
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November 28, 2016 at 11:59 am
I do not celebrate Thanksgiving or too many of the holidays in fact (although I do like my birthday). I agree, it’s a gluttonous holiday that has utter disregard for what the whites did to the native people and how they continue to live today. It’s nuts… Most holidays are consumer atrocities today…maybe they started as something else, but have morphed into nothing more than big business.
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November 28, 2016 at 1:02 pm
That is a good way of putting it: most holidays started as one thing and have been hijacked by big business. Christmas is right around the corner, and it is no longer about the birth of Christ. For instance, I am already hearing people point out that Christmas falls on a Sunday – so they will not be attending church because they want to stay home and open gifts. Really? If there was ONE day that Christians should be in church, it is the birthday of their messiah – which falls on a Sunday. But money and gifts are obviously more important now .
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November 28, 2016 at 1:22 pm
Like I said: it’s nuts.
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