The Day After Thanksgiving
Someone reminded me that Thanksgiving is this week.
If you celebrate this holiday, I’d like to encourage you to also recognize the day after.
Black Friday, a tradition, in the style of Charles Marion Russell | Created by Jay W. Austin & DALL•E
The day after Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day.
This isn’t one of those unofficial holidays, like National Cupcake Day or Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Native American Heritage Day is official. In 2009, then-President Obama signed the Native American Heritage Day Resolution.
Less than one third of the more than 500 federally recognized tribes supported it.
You can guess why, right?
Mention the day after Thanksgiving and people think about 4 AM fist fights at Walmart.
The country has a tradition of erasing Native culture, then re-writing it into the books in a way that doesn’t suit them.
This is true too when it comes to mass incarceration.
The Native population is overrepresented in our state and federal prisons. But aside from that figure, the data about our incarcerated Native population is scarce.
One reason why the data doesn’t exist is because of the “unfortunate tendency to group Native Americans together with other ethnic and racial groups in data publications.”
You know, the reporting equivalent of making Native American Heritage Day the day after Thanksgiving.
Be conscientious. Do differently.
Aye, I’m Jay. You’re on my personal site where I post things I make about interrupting mass incarceration, protecting migration, environmental justice & sustainability, language, communications, storytelling, creativity, and tech.
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