As I was preparing the vegetables for Site Suzy’s corn bread dressing, I was wondering to myself why US minorities celebrate these white holidays. I was wondering if Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving & when they sit around (if) the table are they thankful that they ancestors helped save the “pilgrims” or do they have some type of angry pow wow wishing that they offed those bitches??? I wondered if the Natives knew that the white man would eventually kill millions with disease, rape their women, cheat them out of land & eventually force them onto reservations that have some of the worst living conditions (not all). Well maybe a few Native Americans are just cool with it because they got the casino game outside of Las Vegas on lock down??????
I know niggas celebrate because we are just brain washed & we loves us some chitlins (not me), greens, a good cheap ham (I prefer honey baked) sweet potato pie & banana pudding (Suit Suzy makes the best!).
We’re not Americans, we’re Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock–that rock landed on us…” Malcolm X
I was thinking so deep about how exclusive Thanksgiving is and I cut my damn finger while chopping celery. My militancy just got my holiday hating ass cut up & wearing a Dora the Explorer band-aid.
Anyway on a somewhat related note, I will never forget the Thanksgiving day of 1992 when my mom was in her bedroom eating a plate full of chitlins & she winded up dropping the remote control to her tv in the sopping wet bowl of pig ass tract. The remote never worked again & she was made as hell because the tv was brand new. To this day we still laugh about it.
Tamra / November 23, 2007
I’m pretty much with you on the Thanksgiving thing myself, but I came across this a few months back. I thought it was pretty darned interesting. http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2007/03/cherokee_expel_black_cherokee.html
If the link gets cut off, just google “cherokee expel,” and it should bring up the same thing and plenty of similar articles.
Sigh!
Just ship me off to another planet…
Tamra / November 23, 2007
I just realized that muslimaholics has a good piece about this on her blog (I hadn’t clicked on the link until just a minute ago). Check out the link in her “conundrum” post.
muslimahlocs / November 24, 2007
bygbaby:
your post uses more of the langauge that i would have used in another lifetime but i think that we are on the same page with this one. i too am not optimistic about “our” ability to disentagle ourselves form this madness, if not physically, then at least psychologically. if we started doing that type of thinking we would actually have to…um, think.
dora is probably of native american descent anyway. for some reason she reminds me of an old d-knowledge poem about a jeep cherokee.
and pardon me for sending a comment to tamra on your blog but…
tamra:
i think there may be more than a few “muslimaholics” (lol). they are the ones that find my blog w/ google searches like “hot hijabis” and “muslimahs with boyfriends”.
Renea / November 24, 2007
Our family always specified that we were thankful for 1)each other and 2) the day off. Even in school, the whole patriotic thread was downplayed. But then again I grew up in a predominantly black city that was founded by native-americans, sold to the french, taken by the spanish and invaded by americans. Patriotism was always very complicated there.
But, eww chitlins, I think they are foulest thing ever. Again though, living in New Orleans, I have seen some other ‘foods’ that were just as suspect passed around on a platter. We didn’t always have a traditional meal either. Gumbo is the main attraction of any holiday dinner in my family. Thankfully (!) the ancestors got some okra across the passage.
Bygbaby / November 24, 2007
Tamra, Thx for putting me up on Muslimahlocs!!!
Muslimahlocs – I can get really foul, I try not to but… I think our desire to be part of the mainstream is just so hard coded, we collectively may never wake up from the Matrix be that good or bad.
Renea – I had a conversation yesterday with my children’s 1st grade teacher about dressing. She is from souther La & her husband is from northern La & she is used to rice based dressing & her husband prefers cornbread based dressing & she also brought up gumbo as a main staple. I think it is funny how we have regional favorites & how they migrated north & elsewhere as we moved from the dirty south.
So what else was on your table?
My family loves okra & my mom always puts it in her greens (when she does &I don’t eat them).
Anyway, I remember when I was in grade school & we had to do all that pilgrim shit & used to have fun with it. Only if we were taught the real story.
Bygbaby
Tamra / November 24, 2007
Oooo, ooooo, (said like an excited 2nd grader trying to raise her hand and get the teacher’s attention…)–I did Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce via Marcus Samuelsson (born Ethiopian, raised Swedish), along with a recipe in his new book called “Spicy Okra,” that had okra (um, well duh), tomatoes, red onions, peanuts, and a couple other things–I forget at the moment.
Now that you mention it Renea, I think one year I did do an awesome gumbo that had people offering to kiss my feet and clean up my kitchen afterwards. [My first experience with gumbo was kinda funny tho, because my great-uncle who used to live in New Orleans served crab-in-shell with the claws still on in his. As kids, we’d never experienced that before, so can you imagine the reaction?]
Yeah, bb, I totally remember all the cheesy pilgrim stuff and all the turkey art we made at school… ick.
Oh, and I must publicly apologize to muslimahlocs because I called her “muslimaholics.” hehe. I can’t believe I did that… It’s funny because my eyes still want to read the latter. I hope she’ll forgive me. 😉
Bygbaby / November 25, 2007
Tamra – That spicy okra dish sounds like an African dish that my cousin just had last week that she loved. If okra did not make me cringe, I would try it.
Bygbaby
Tamra / November 25, 2007
My husband hates okra with a passion (because of the sliminess), but said he’d be willing to try it. He actually thought it was pretty good–I think the crunchiness of the peanuts balances out the softness of the okra–and, it’s not too soft in this dish anyway. If you want to try the recipe, let me know and I’ll send it to you. I swear, it is really good…
You haven’t had fried okra?! That stuff is addictive when it’s seasoned right! We don’t do a whole lot of frying, but when we do, okra must be one of the things that gets fried. Again–a treat every once in a blue moon…
Bygbaby / November 26, 2007
Suite Suzy would never eat it. she has a hate hate relationship with okra.
I have had fried okra but is has been years & it was from Churches (don’t laugh).
Bygbaby
Shai / November 26, 2007
I am not into holidays like I used to be. My daughter trips on me not cooking and just chilling on Thanxtaking Day. I am more an introvert. Her dad’s family is big and they do activities together. My fam rarely does anything with each other. So as an only child of a mostly introverted family, I don’t see the fascination with get togethers.
Bygbaby / November 27, 2007
Shai – My kids are luck because they have Suite Suzy & she is all into the holidays etc. Most time I sit back & watch her get stressed out. To me if you get stressed out doing it then it needs to be dropped but my boo loves them damn kids lol….
“Thanxtaking Day” Word up!!!
Bygbaby
Ro~ / November 28, 2007
“Pig Ass Tract”?!?!?!? That is the very reason I don’t eat them thangs. I don’t know why people seem to think if you clean ’em “real good” that they are ok then. The cleanest of chitterlings smell like stale…!!!
Bygbaby / November 28, 2007
Damn “Pig Ass Tract” does make it sound real nasty LOL!!!
Bygbaby