For those you living in the US this Thanksgiving, you maybe wondering what Thanksgiving has to do with you. Nelima, of MinneAfrica asked this question on Twitter today:
“What should Thanksgiving mean to Africans (foreigners) in the US beyond a day off work? Dunno. All I see is parties, turkey & Macy’s parade”
Which got me thinking… of all the Holidays this one is the most inclusive, most relevant to the immigrant experience. This day is about alot of things. Some of it is the Myth of America. A myth that given some of the realities for Native Americans and African Americans is a bit hard to embrace fully. However, I would like to make a case that there is more to it than just a blind acceptance of the Pilgrim Indian story.
The story of Thanksgiving is in fact an immigrant story. The pilgrims came to the New World for some of the same reasons we do today. They were looking for a new life, a chance to change their circumstances, escape persecution, and more than that, to start over. How many of us (or our parents) came here for one or all of those reasons?
When they got here, they faced a raw, foreign, unwelcoming landscape. They suffered, they died, and they also built a new life. The Native Americans they met, had no reason anticipate the change that this would bring to their culture and way of life. They shared what they could with this ragtag group. A group I am sure they doubted would survive the winter.
Immigrants to America have always faced a harsh reality once they got here. On this occasion the Pilgrims got a warmer welcome from the American population, than we offer today. How many of us came here and were lost? Not knowing how we should behave, look, talk, eat? Where to go, how to survive? How many of were given a helping hand by the communities we met when we got here? In my case it was my family, and the handful of friends I made at school. For others it is groups like Catholic Charities, or the diasporan communities they join when they arrive. In any case we are all repeating the same pattern: arriving somewhere new and learning from those that got here before us or being here and reaching out to those who are alone and lost in a new unwelcoming land.
This is what Thanksgiving is about; thanking God for those that have helped us make it through the year. Thanking those that helped us, acknowledging how valuable and important they have been to our lives. The food, the football, the shopping, its all fun. We can share that fun together, but don’t forget that at its core, just like America is about the immigrant experience… Thanksgiving, the uniquely American holiday, is all about our experience in a New World.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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