Welcome back to This Week in Black Twitter, your weekly digest of the happenings on Black Twitter and cultural conversations on the web. Topics will span the gamut — pop culture, politics, sports, lifestyles and everything in between. This week: Users express unity with Standing Rock, and hilarity ensues with #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies and #ThanksgivingClapBack once again.
1. The current treatment of Native Americans in Standing Rock, N.D., casts a dark irony over Thanksgiving for some people.
"Water protectors" have been protesting the Dakota Access pipeline, which would run through sacred lands of the Sioux Nation. If completed, the tribe argues the pipeline would encroach on sacred and lands and could contaminate its water supply.
Earlier this week, things turned violent between protesters and police. Law enforcement officials have used water cannons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, according to The Guardian. About 160 people were injured, and one woman may lose her arm after being hit with a grenade.
Writer Tanaya Winder expressed her thoughts about Thanksgiving and the protests on NPR's "All Things Considered."
"As what's happening with Standing Rock now, it's been in the hearts and on minds of indigenous people throughout the country since the beginning when it first started. ... And I see people who are non-native, white people, in these, like, police uniforms with their, like, guns and weapons and shooting rubber bullets and shooting projectiles at people. That's the dark side. That's the opposite of what days like today are supposed to stand for," she said.
2. It's that time of year again, when #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies and #ThanksgivingClapBack grace our timelines with hilarity and maximum shade. An added bonus: Maybe all this laughter will help burn off some calories from your Thanksgiving dinner.
First of all, why is the food never ready on time?
You'll be having leftovers for days.
Or months.
I wonder whether y'all had the bravery to actually talk like this to your families.
So much for avoiding politics during Thanksgiving.