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Bret Stephens Whitewashes Thanksgiving History in New York Times Opinion Column
Posted
November 26, 2025
Views
6,215
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746
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November 26, 2025
6,215
746
114
13.84%
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5:30Now PlayingBret Stephens Whitewashes Thanksgiving History in New York Times Opinion Column
Bret Stephens publishes another questionable New York Times opinion piece, this time calling for a "national reset" on Thanksgiving while conveniently glossing over the holiday's darker origins. The column attempts to frame Thanksgiving as a celebration of American rebirth through Abraham Lincoln's 1863 proclamation, crediting Sarah Josepha Hale for advocating the national holiday.
However, Stephens overlooks critical historical context about who was actually included in early progressive movements. Hale's achievements, while significant for white women, explicitly excluded Native American women and Black women from property rights, education access, daycare centers, and public playgrounds. The column romanticizes the first Thanksgiving between Pilgrims and Wampanoag people 404 years ago without addressing historical evidence suggesting the event may have been a massacre of Native Americans. Stephens connects Lincoln's Gettysburg Address era proclamation to themes of equality while ignoring that 1863 America was hardly equal for all people.
The piece draws parallels between Hale's advocacy for white women's rights and Susan B. Anthony's suffrage movement, which similarly fought for voting rights exclusively for white women. Thomas Edison's phonograph recording of Mary Had a Little Lamb gets mentioned as part of American innovation mythology. The opinion column concludes with lofty rhetoric about freedom and possibility that rings hollow given the selective historical narrative presented throughout, particularly regarding Ashkenazi Jews and racial dynamics in American history.
#BretStephens #SarahJosephaHale #AbrahamLincoln #Thanksgiving #NewYorkTimes #GettysburgAddress #NativeAmericans #SusanBAnthony #ThomasEdison #Wampanoag #Pilgrims #ThanksgivingHistory #AmericanHistory #WhiteSupremacy #ColonialHistory #OpinionColumn #HistoricalRevision #CivilWar #WomensRights #Suffrage #MaryHadALittleLamb #VassarCollege #1863 #Plymouth #nationalholiday
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