My least Favorite Holiday, Original Sin.

Thanks Giving has always been my least favorite holiday. As a Black man, I find it sad that my people who suffered( and still do), some the most brutal oppression in America- and the world -continue to celebrate this "holiday" that symbolizes the defeat of Native American civilization. 


So I was reading a NY Times review of a book entitled "Original Sins" by A.J. Langguth, which connects two of the most brutal acts of American white supremacy, the genocide of Native Americans, and the Civil war, fought because of half of America's fierce desire to protect that "peculiar institution"called American chattel slavery. The review gets into William  Faulkner's point that the past doesn't really die and is actually a continuum into the future.


This connection got me thinking about ways in which white supremacy is a stream spanning through out history into the present and future, connecting both big and small acts of white supremacy that drastically change the American and world landscape. Such is the case of Andrew Jackson, the former president. Andrew Jackson like any "American Patriot" including these today, loved the "America Way", unless America tried to empower non white people, then The America Way became, the enemy.  Andrew Jackson, was a staunch Unionist until America, in the most meager ways tried to insure, protect, and promote certain liberties of Native Americans and Blacks. 


Breaking Federal treaties between Native Americans and the U.S. Government, in the name of "state’s rights", Jackson also condoned and used violence and political force to destroy and ethnically cleanse America of Native Americans.  The infamous Indian Removal Act of 1930, went against the U.S. Supreme court, becoming a clarion call that signaled to white American that they could pick and chose what federal laws they would and would not follow. 

Ultimately, no law protecting Native Americans or Black people had to be respected by white men. This lead to the Civil War. Both of these events created catastrophic suffering and loss of life. The Indian Removal Act, resulted in the Trail of Tears, where only the Natives suffered while white America went on to prosper, momentarily. Then, because of the horrid human rights ethos of white supremacy, the aforementioned current continued forward destroying much, and transforming the rest into evil until it connected with the next horrific act. The Civil War, which like James Balwin's "fire this time" and Malcom X's "the chickens came home to roosts" almost destroyed all of America. 


I think Black America should use November 25th to memorialize The Trail of Tears and connect it with our own in continuum.