Forgive the gap in my ongoing, hard-hitting investigative journalism of the mysterious and vaguely pedophilic "music" company known as Ark Music Factory. I decided to save this piece for the November issue of Exotic, since it deals with one the month’s most notorious and misunderstood holidays—Veterans Day!
I jest, surely.
I am, of course, talking about the other holiday in the winter, where our parents guilt us into spending a lot of money to visit them and sit and listen to them beg for grandchildren, asking why we aren’t exactly the same as we were as kids, while they talk about the merits of whatever cult leader—be they religious or political—has brainwashed them this month.
Christmas and Thanksgiving are sort of interchangeable at this point, when referencing painful holidays that demand familial reunion, even under uncomfortable or abusive circumstances. It seems that Thanksgiving is the one where you eat a lot more and Christmas is the one where you buy each other’s love.
But, I digress, surely.
In the spirit of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, it is important every holiday season to interrogate the true meaning of these paid days off, for those lucky enough to work in some bullshit office job (side note: good on you few restaurants and bars that are actually closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, for those who like to spend time with their families).
One could argue that Thanksgiving actually has some very questionable—even problematic—origins. Nothing makes Americans feel better about the calculated and systematic genocide of countless unique tribes of humans in the name of colonialism and manifest destiny, than pretending one fourth Thursday of November sometime in the 17th century, the "pilgrims and the injuns" put aside their differences and had a feast of sorts. This narrative (*cough* lie) is what I was told as a kid, because I’m a Millennial and in the ’90s, the Baby Boomers were really good at telling everyone that everything is okay and we’re at the end of history.
At the end of the day, it’s a goddamn harvest celebration, which is pretty universal, with seasons and agriculture dominating the majority of human civilization’s history.
But...
Perhaps, Nicole Westbrook wants to remind us of what the true-true meaning of this troublesome holiday really is, with her not-quite-hit single, "It’s Thanksgiving."
By her telling, most intensely expressed by her...rap, it seems Thanksgiving is about nothing. It is a day off on Thursday for most Americans, where synonyms for gratitude, some vaguely consistent food items and an annoying bird are fetishized.
And, what an accurate reading! Nicole Westbrook is a modern poet, because what the fuck else is this corporate-mandated, four-day holiday? They celebrate it in goddamn October in Canada.
What Nicole Westbrook also gives us, is the true meaning of the Ark Music Factory. Again, the lack of legal action taken against this company is astounding. Considering the video begins with a 12-year old sitting on the edge of a bed suggestively, while the camera leers from the doorway, as she thanks "you" for all you’ve done for her.
Nigerian Usher (a.k.a. Patrice Wilson) isn’t even trying to hide his child sex trafficking ring at this point. Where are the pitchforks?!
You probably think I’m reading to much into this "scandal," as I’ve already wasted three columns of Exotic’s precious page space on this issue. But, as long as we’re canceling celebrities left and right (and putting people up against the wall for tweets posted a decade ago), why has Patrice Wilson evaded scrutiny? I want justice, damnit! Or, at least an explanation for why this song and video exist. Besides mocking a rather outdated and ultimately pointless holiday, this song a simple re-imagining of Rebecca Black’s era-defining masterpiece, "Friday" (but, subbing Friday for Thursday). Is the phrase "we we we" something Nigerian Usher says in conversation and that’s why he insists on using it in his victims’ songs?
Also, just as Miss Black’s song recounts previous and future days in the week for no apparent reason, so too does this song—not once, but twice reminds of us the other well-known American holidays that are not Thanksgiving, basically in the same melodic sense.
I should also bring up that the Ark "trope" of Mr. Wilson showing up to a gathering for children, dressed as an animal (as seen in Alison Gold’s "Chinese Food") is repeated here. Is anyone else worried that this is the only way Nigerian Usher can get off? Do the rich Los Angeles parents trying to make their kid famous just turn a blind eye while he hosts parties with preteen girls, dressed up as a panda or a turkey? Like, after a third video where this happens, isn’t someone going to call the cops?
But, returning to the theme of Thanksgiving, which it indeed will be this month, I guess young Miss Westbrook is pleading with us to be grateful...for nothing in particular. This sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric a victim is forced to repeat by their abuser. Just as the holiday about gratitude insists we (and, I guess the indigenous peoples we slaughtered) be grateful rather than inquisitive, concerned and downright angry at the rampant injustice around the situation, a plantation owner tells their slave to be grateful for the food and housing the enslaved person receives. Mr. Wilson tells Miss Westbrook to be "grateful" for the slim chance at stardom, that he provided her with this unfortunate attempt at a music video, which cost her parents $4,000.
And, I guess that is the true meaning of Thanksgiving, folks.
