The problem with connecting the Thanksgiving experience to Squanto and Plymouth Rock is that we now know that relations between the Puritans and local Indians were violent and repressive. Within a few years we would experience King Phillips War, and from there it was all downhill for First Nations (unless you consider local casinos to be some sort of payback). I increasingly have trouble connecting anything positive between Thanksgiving-as-it-really-was-and-what-it-meant with anything positive about being Jewish. The former seems to be myth papering over nasty, racist, colonialist reality. The latter is what drives me to fight racism and colonialism today. Perhaps that's the connection we should be talking about.
The problem with connecting the Thanksgiving experience to Squanto and Plymouth Rock is that we now know that relations between the Puritans and local Indians were violent and repressive. Within a few years we would experience King Phillips War, and from there it was all downhill for First Nations (unless you consider local casinos to be some sort of payback). I increasingly have trouble connecting anything positive between Thanksgiving-as-it-really-was-and-what-it-meant with anything positive about being Jewish. The former seems to be myth papering over nasty, racist, colonialist reality. The latter is what drives me to fight racism and colonialism today. Perhaps that's the connection we should be talking about.