The. response to the claim “Black Lives Matter” that “all lives matter,” may be a sign that the speakers are unaware of the climate of injustice in which we live. The claim highlights the fact that the climate of injustice caused by American colonialists and settlers has never been repaired. Now that Thanksgiving is over, maybe we should take a look at the idea of “thanks-taking.”
Thanks for taking the land? Thanks for taking slave labor? Thanks for taking the forests?
Thanks for taking the gold and silver? Thanks for taking the fossil-fuels? Thanks for taking
the resources of others? Thanks for all we have taken?
Sounds strange until we remember that capitalism is about taking—taking and making and selling. American Prosperity relies on the taking from labor and land, and the people and the earth that has been taken does not matter.
This year has been phenomenal In waking us from our sleeping in a climate of injustice. We can be thankful for that. Will we stay awake, or snooze through the Biden administration as though we did not have to change the climate of injustice to a climate of justice?