You may have seen
this announcement and ignored it. I usually would, given that I'm not American and don't celebrate it.
It's innocuous for the most part, until the very last paragraph. Which I just find to be in incredibly poor taste given the protests all over America - and in other countries - following the grand jury's decision to not indict Darren Wilson in the killing of Mike Brown. Persecution of indigenous populations is a huge problem in many countries - my own, Australia, America and Canada, to list a few white-run countries - and you're being pretty shitty about equating turkeys to the struggle of slavery and oppression.
Quote:
SQUUACK. What'd it say? Are they having a feast? I hope it's vegan! Never forget that every Thanksgiving is built on the backs of a thousand turkeys' squashed dreams!
Seriously, who decided that was an okay thing to say? It's so very easy to sub in 'built on the backs of a thousand slaves' or something. In fact, when you say 'built on the backs' you are referring to the people who literally put in the physical work, which in so many cases - definitely in America's - is slavery of indigenous and other people of colour. African Americans were actually brought to America in the first place to be slaves.
Seriously, that was a really shitty joke and I hope whoever wrote it feels ashamed, especially given the current events in America. The suffering of people of colour is not a ******** joke.
TL;DR for those who have decided I'm 'pulling the race card': even as a joke, it's racist and seriously offensive at worst, and insensitive at best. Gaia staff should definitely think about what they say instead of blithely saying s**t like that.