Another Make believe holiday Kwanzaa
 

The Kwanzaa Hoax
William J. Bennetta
"Anywhere we are, Us is."
That looks like a line from an Amos 'N Andy show. One can easily imagine that it served as the motto of the Mystic Knights of the Sea, and that it was recited by such characters as The Kingfish, Andy Brown and Algonquin J. Calhoun.

In fact, however, the line that I have quoted is the motto of a real organization -- a real organization that was originally named United Slaves but now calls itself The Organization Us (or simply Us or US). It was created some 40 years ago, in Southern California, by a black racist who had begun life as Ron N. Everett but later had assumed the name Maulana Karenga.

Karenga -- known chiefly as the inventor of Kwanzaa, a fake "African" holiday that he contrived in 1966 -- has enjoyed a truly colorful career. He was a prominent black nationalist during the 1960s, when his organization was involved in various violent operations. He was sent to prison in 1971, after he and some of his pals tortured two women with a soldering iron and a vise, among other things. He emerged from prison in 1974, and a few years later -- in a maneuver that even The Kingfish might have found difficult -- he got himself installed as the chairman of the Department of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. CSULB wasn't the only American university that got the racial willies during the 1970s and set up a tin-pot black-studies department, but CSULB (as far as I know) was the only one that hired a chairman who was a violent felon.

Karenga is still working at CSULB and is still running The Organization Us, and he and Us are still promoting his proprietary holiday, Kwanzaa. Prentice Hall is promoting it too, so The American Nation displays a picture of "an American family's celebration of Kwanzaa" -- but The American Nation doesn't tell anything about Karenga, about his rules for carrying out a "celebration of Kwanzaa," or about his make-believe Africanism. Let me supply some of the information that Prentice Hall has hidden:

continues:
http://www.textbookleague.org/114kwanz.htm

You know, kind of like Jesus was born in April but centuries later the church decided to celebrate his birthday around the winter solstice to compete with pagan religions celebrating at that time of year.

Did you know that Jesus and Santa never even met??

Also, Santa's suit is only red because the Coca-Cola logo is red, and Rudolph was a Montgomery Ward ad campaign. Look it up. Good thing no one else has ever tried to make money off of holidays, right?


Yes, Kwanzaa is completely fabricated and bastardized from a bunch of different sources that have no real connection to each other. And the only way it is any different from other holiday "traditions" is it was made up relatively recently in 1966. Give it another couple hundred years, and people will be bitching about some newfangled holiday that doesn't have nearly the gravitas and importance of, say, Kwanzaa.

Aw c'mon, who told you that?

Hey, all of that has truth Clod. Was Christmas started by a convicted felon with a racist intent?

Jesus was convicted, but no racist.

Damm, you are right, and didn't he supposedly spend time in prison! Did he invent Christmas?

There's nothing wrong with Kwanzaa, dude. Holidays happen. Origins are obscurred, but Kwanzaa is meaningful to a multitude of people, maybe not you, but can't you let them practice it?

Of course there isn't, it's as American as apple pie.

So what's your point, Merc?

Kwanzaa=bad, Christmas=good?

Jesus wasn't really as white as Da Vinci portrayed him to be. Does that change your mind about Christmas? :rolleyes:

It's the freakin' holidays. Can't you just enjoy your own without trying to piss all over someone else's?

I hate Christmas.

Try drinking in excess.

Or smoking a bunch of pot. In case you're a nasty drunk.

I'll leave that stuff to others here.

This may be a case of good from bad. The information you gave, Merc, is new to me, and interesting. But I don't think the origins negate the effect of the holiday itself, for those who choose to celebrate it.

All holidays are made up, anyway--some were just made up longer ago. I certainly don't begrudge black or African-American people creating new traditions, after so many of theirs were ripped away and suppressed.

I agree, Cloud. I knew it was a for profit scheme started by a con man, but as it grows he'll be squeezed out by good old capitalism.
Even if he continues to make a living from the rights he can enforce, so what?
If it makes people happy to dance, play on.