Happy Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving, I think of “Harvest of Shame,” Edward R. Murrow’s stunning CBS report from 1960 on the plight of agricultural farm workers—Black, White, and Latino workers, in particular.

It aired the day after Thanksgiving, inducing a healthy case of indigestion for Americans who learned hard lessons about where their food came from and who was responsible for getting it to them.

You can find it on YouTube for free. If you haven’t seen it already, you should.

Aired the year after the Cuban Revolution and the Kitchen Debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Krushchev, the Soviet Union seized on Harvest of Shame as an example of U.S. hypocrisy: how we talk about equality and freedom and democracy and justice, but rarely practice what we preach.

Gustavo Arellano of the LA Times wrote this piece about Harvest of Shame last year, noting how important it remains, but also critiquing its paternalism. There are, as he notes, many ways in which the film hasn’t aged well from a twenty-first century social justice perspective, even if it was revolutionary in its time.

Thirty years later, in 1990, PBS released a follow up documentary that made clear how little had changed. It was called, “New Harvest, Old Shame.”

I’d venture to guess that if an updated remake had been aired in 2020, on the sixtieth anniversary of Harvest of Shame, or the thirtieth anniversary of New Harvest, Old Shame, many of the themes would still feel familiar.

So, enjoy your meal, be thankful for your bounty, and remember where it came from.