I was going to post this under the Thanksgiving Open Thread. But I think this topic deserves its own space. My question: is the Thanksgiving Holiday racist?

Oftentimes (as recently exemplified in the Community Values advertising brochure) Thanksgiving is viewed as a celebration of the cooperation between early European immigrants (the pilgrims) and the First Peoples. Nations were already present and well-established on this continent, when conquerors from Europe arrived some 500+ years ago, and settlers subsequently began to arrive afterward.

I have a hard time disassociating the myth of cooperation from the brutal conquest of this continent. It has been the "Manifest Destiny" whereby Europeans have driven Native groups and people out of traditional territories, spreading death, disease, killing, and war across the land.

Is it disingenuous to celebrate the notion of cooperation, when the larger truth is of killing, murder and horribly violent conquest?

I am particularly interested in hearing the perspective of members of groups that have been traditionally (and/or still are) oppressed. How do you relate? How do you feel about Thanksgiving in regard to the conquest of the land and Native peoples? What's your story?