A reflection on Beyond Complicity: Awakening Anti-Racist Intentions, a series Toward Racial Justice and Fearless Faithfulness. A called gathering took place on Nov. 18, when Mickleton Friends Meeting intentionally listened to Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, chapter 3, The Truth About the First Thanksgiving. The books author, sociologist James W. Loewen, presents examination of Eurocentric and mythologized views of American history.
From Loewen’s perspective, we examined our strong-hold on the belief that the American holiday, Thanksgiving, holds a place of welcome for all individuals and faiths, some of us able to accept that the holiday holds myths that continue to minimize Native Nations peoples. We compared various maps, exposing how “discovery” of empty lands might be shifted when simply compared to maps void of political boundaries and marked with cultural features of the peoples living in specific regions.
The self-examination of perspective called us to remain as open as possible toward being transformed as we walk out into the world as myth-busters, dis-clothed of defensive cloaks, speaking Truths. We walked away with unity that giving thanks is not bound to one day. Surrounded by light, blessings abound, and gratitude is rightly ordered, freely available to everyone, if and when one might choose to see and acknowledge.
Seekers are invited to visit Mickleton Friends; First Day (Sunday) meeting for worship begins at 10am; also open to the public, the next examination of Beyond Complicity: Awakening Anti-Racist Intentions will take place December 16, 2018, ~11:30, after rise of meeting and fellowship. We will listen to Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk, We Need to Talk About An Injustice paired with Martin Luther King, Jr’s Six Steps of Nonviolent Social Change.
