Writer Gyasi Ross suggested in a Thanksgiving-theme monologue on MSNBC Saturday that white people never brought anything of value to America — only ongoing violence and theft.
THE QUOTE
“Cross Connection” host Tiffany Cross said in introducing Ross, a Native American author and activist, that he would share “the real story of Thanksgiving and some history you probably never read in your schoolbooks.”
In a more than 2-minute monologue, Ross said white Americans like to believe the first Thanksgiving feast was an “equal exchange” between the early English settlers and Native Americans, and “that closely mimics the mythology of white America.”
- “But I’m still trying to figure out what Indigenous people received of value. Instead of bringing stuffing and biscuits, those settlers brought genocide and violence,” said Ross.
- “That genocide and violence is still on the menu as state-sponsored violence against Native and black Americans is commonplace. And violent private white supremacy is celebrated and subsidized,” he continued, listing the names of nonwhite people killed in police shootings.
- “Many of us are still waiting for white Americans to bring some value — still waiting for white Americans to match the mythology of Thanksgiving: freedom, justice, equality, reparations for 2.5 billion acres of stolen Native land, reparations for 246 years of stolen labor, reparations for stealing Native children. Stop the killing – it’s still happening. Stop the theft — it’s still happening. Return the land – match the mythology. Then, and only then, we can all be equally thankful.”
SAME ENERGY
Last month, on Columbus Day, woke Twitter users — from the White House and Congress to Hollywood and Silicon Valley — instead observed Indigenous People’s Day.
