Leading up to Thanksgiving, multiple universities across the country condemned the annual tradition for its “colonial” roots, urging that the holiday be viewed through a DEI lens.
A report by Fox News detailed several instances, including actions by the University of California, Davis, which works with the California History Social Science Project, described as “Resources & professional learning for K-12 history-social science.” The group hosted a Zoom event called “Decolonizing Thanksgiving in the Classroom.”
“We will discuss reframing classroom practices and rituals about Thanksgiving,” read the event description. “Centering perspectives from Turtle Island (a name for North America used by some indigenous people) will help us decolonize Thanksgiving and spark new conversations about how to authentically make meaning of this holiday with our students.”
Washington University in St. Louis earlier this month released a press release promoting an event that “highlights and honors the way different cultures recognize and understand Thanksgiving, both as part of their history and as a tradition brought into the present day.”
Similarly, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology invited students to the “4th annual Thanksgiving Myth-busting.” The event is intended to explore the narratives that justify “land grabs via colonialism.”
The University of Massachusetts referred to Thanksgiving as a “day of mourning” in an announcement on its DEIA website.
“The National Day of Mourning is an annual demonstration, held on the fourth Thursday in November, that aims to educate the public about Native Americans in the United States, notably the Wampanoag and other tribes of the Eastern United States; dispel myths surrounding the Thanksgiving story in the United States; and raise awareness toward historical and ongoing struggles facing Native American tribes,” the announcement read.
