As part of our ongoing series about America, The (un)Australian takes a firsthand look at American culture and politics to help Australians understand their obese older brother. We fight their wars and host their satellite tracking stations, but how much do we really know about our American BFFs? In this entry we ask Americans what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The first thing you notice on an American Thanksgiving is community. Specifically, an entire community trying to cram itself into a department store all at the same time. I’m at Walmart, the sacred site of worship that most modern Americans make pilgrimage to on Thanksgiving.

The first Thanksgiving occurred in 1621 where 50 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans feasted for three days. Early Americans were known to give thanks for good harvest, God’s blessings, and their capacity to slaughter Native Americans.

Today’s Thanksgiving bares little resemblance to the Thanksgiving of 1621. For starters, there were no chain department stores and in 1621, Alice Walton would have barely been a toddler.

But the tradition of “giving thanks” still lives on and so I asked a number of Americans what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving.

With his stores playing such a central role, it seemed logical to first pose this question to Doug McMillon, President & CEO of Walmart.

“I’m thankful for diminishing workers’ rights,” McMillon tells me. “Walmart has always been open on Thanksgiving so people could purchase food and supplies if needed, but as people continue to care less about low-income workers, we’ve been able to push the start of Black Friday to 6pm on Thanksgiving.”

McMillon is even more hopeful about the future: “With America’s growing inequality, anti-worker sentiment, and preoccupation with issues like immigration and abortion instead of things that actually affect them, within 10 years we may be able to push the start of Black Friday all the way back to Labor Day.”

When I first meet Suzy Hawkes, she’s giving another shopper a concussion so she can obtain the last X-Box One on the shelf. The speed at which she can smash a handbag into another human’s face is mesmerising. I ask her if she’s thankful for being blessed with a forearm like Hercules,

“If I really take stock of my life in the past year,” Hawkes says, “what I’m really thankful for is these low, low prices on high-end consumer electronics which I can now get 6 hours earlier thanks to Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving.

“If this was like earlier Thanksgivings, then I wouldn’t be able to start playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare until Friday morning. Now I can be completely disappointed before Thursday is even over!”

Finally I managed to talk to Kelly Rawson, a Walmart employee of 16 years, who is working during the Thanksgiving sales shift. Most Australians would think that someone being forced to work on a holiday would be angry at their employee, but not Kelly, who is thankful for all the support Walmart has given her.

“Walmart was kind enough to give me employment when there were no other jobs in retail because Walmart killed them all. And when I couldn’t afford food this Thanksgiving because I wasn’t earning very much money, the management at Walmart actually managed to organise some containers so my fellow co-workers could donate food to me.”

But what Rawson is most thankful for sums up the true spirit of thanksgiving and why this time of year is so special for most Americans.

“What I’m most thankful for is my friends and family,” she says. “It’s their love that fills me with strength and makes me feel God’s true blessing.

“Maybe I’ll get the time to actually see them. Hopefully sometime in the new year.”

Matthew Farthing

https://twitter.com/MattJFarthing

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Categories: World

Tags: America, Matthew Farthing, Native Americans, Thanksgiving, Walmart