How is this racist?

And in every post to Hoosier you say he just revealed that he is racist. If you say he is racist, how is he just revealing it each time?

Unless you actually can show he is racist, you are purely making light of that word and all that it entails.

Here is a thread from Alpha Kappa Alpha. Many of the posts in there are against Kwanzaa. Let me guess, these black women are racist as well?

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...hlight=kwanzaa

"Kwanzaa is a made up holiday"
" Kwanzaa was about stoppin' Black folks from celebrating Christmas back in the day"

This article was also posted on the founder of Kwanzaa:

A Less Than Complimentary View of

Dr. Maulana Karenga


10 March 1999

It seems the founder of Kwanzaa wasn’t any more ethical than those who sung its praises. In fact, at the same time Al Sharpton was glorifying the new holiday, its creator was sitting in a California prison for torturing two black women who were members of the United Slaves, a black nationalist cult he had founded.


Pictured Above: Ron Everett also known as Kerenga. He is the creator of Kwanzaa and is an ex-cult leader.
The cult leader Ron N. Everett went by the name Karenga and in the 60’s took upon himself the title "maulana," which means "master teacher" in Swahili. He was born on a poultry farm in Maryland, the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in the late 50’s to attend LA Community College. He later moved to UCLA, where he got a Master’s degree in political science and African Studies and by the mid 1960’s, he had established himself as a leader of the black movement- a self described "cultural nationalist". He had purposely used the term "nationalist" to distinguish his group from the Black Panthers who were Marxists. He wanted a separate black state while the Marxists worked for integration.




The friction between his group and the Panthers mirrored the centuries of tribal warring in Africa. Both groups were heavily recruiting at UCLA in the 60’s and vying for control of the newly developed African Studies Department. Karenga and his group backed one candidate for dept. head and the Panthers another. Both began carrying guns on campus and on Jan. 17. 1969, about 150 students gathered at the lunchroom to discuss the problem. Two Panther members had been admitted to the college as part of a federal program that helped black high-school dropouts enter the university. The meeting turned violent and ended with two of Karenga’s group, George P. Stiner and Larry Joseph Stiner killing two. The Stiner brothers shot two Panthers John Huggins, 23 and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, 26 – dead.

UCLA chancellor Charles E. Young, scared that the violence would hurt admissions said "The students here have handled themselves in an absolutely impeccable manner. They have been concerned. They haven’t argued who the director should be; they have been saying what kind of person he should be." The remarks were made after the shooting and the university went ahead with its Afro-American Studies Program. Meanwhile, Karenga’s group grew and performed assaults and robberies always following the law laid down in The Quotable Karenga, a book that laid out the "True Path of Blackness." "The sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black,"

On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture session that led to his imprisonment. The torture session was described in the L.A. Times on May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at Karenga’s home when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing crystals in his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot soldering iron was put in Miss Davis’ mouth and against her face. Police were told that one of Miss Jones’ toes was placed in a small vise, which then was tightened by the men and one woman. The following day Karenga told the women that ‘Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know." Miss Tamao put detergent in their mouths; Smith turned a water hose full force on their faces, and Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims Deborah Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."

Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971 to serve one to ten years in prison. After being released from prison in 1975, he remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga, went into academics, and by 1979 was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach and converted to Marxism. Kwanzaa's seven principles include "collective work" and "cooperative economics." He is still there and everyone has almost forgotten the cruel and vicious attacks committed on his fellow blacks. Kwanzaa has been successfully marketed and is now heralded as a great African tradition.

The silver lining is that rather than "de-whitinizing" Christmas as Al Sharpton purported – it has polarized the holiday season -Hanukkah for Jews, Kwanzaa for Blacks, and Christmas for whites.

-Rudey

No it won't, but that's not the same thing as celebrating a group of cultures, but only using language from one culture that is from said group.

******SIGH*********

That's not what I am saying. It doesn't make a difference which holiday people choose to celebrate.

I guess I'm working from the assumption that this was created to celebrate cultural roots or to help African Americans feel connected to a certain culture.

I didn't say you said that but I'm saying that's where it could lead. If I were to pick a holiday from one West African country someone could ask why I didn't go with a different country. That's what I was getting at.

If those who celebrate know the history but feel that celebrating makes THEM feel a connection why does it matter?

Is there a holiday that is celebrated in several west African countries? Many east Asian countries celebrate the lunar New Year at the same time as they are heavily influenced by China.

Right.

Re: FYI: The TRUTH about Kwanzaa
 

You don't have to assume anything when the article states:


According to the official Kwanzaa Web site -- as opposed, say, to the Hallmark Cards Kwanzaa site -- the celebration was designed to foster "conditions that would enhance the revolutionary social change for the masses of Black Americans" and provide a "reassessment, reclaiming, recommitment, remembrance, retrieval, resumption, resurrection and rejuvenation of those principles (Way of Life) utilized by Black Americans' ancestors ."

So while Swahili was the lucky language chosen, it doesn't negate understanding the meaning of the words/phrases and applying them to your life if you celebrate this Holiday.

I haven't been researching it so I wouldn't know. I don't celebrate Kwanzaa but I have nothing against those who do. Their choice, not mine.

Just for the heck of it...another view of another holiday...

"The History of Christmas

The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals(parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians.

Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god - Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days."

http://www.holidays.net/christmas/story.htm

:rolleyes:

THANK GOD, you're here to tell African Americans what would make better sense to celebrate.

Racist is too strong of a word. But the article is DAMN near close to it.

But I'm awfully suspicious of ANYTHING a person connect to FOXNews has to say. Calling it a CHUMP holiday tip toes the bigot line if you ask me.

Personally, I don't celebrate Kwanzaa because

1. Ron Karenga was an informant against the Black Panthers so his creation of a Unifying Holiday seems pretty contradictory.

2. The principles should be practiced and taught throughout the year. Not just in a week after Christmas so we can get a stamp.


However, that is just my opinion. There are Festivals that celebrate the Harvest in most countries in Africa and it is my belief that the Kwanzaa Celebration was a culmination of all of these celebrations, not just the celebration of 1 country. If people want to celebrate the Principles, isn't that better than what could be going on?

Thanks,

M

:)