FYI: The TRUTH about Kwanzaa
 

Jewish World Review Dec. 31, 1999/22 Teves, 5760
Tony Snow


The TRUTH about Kwanzaa

http://www.jewishworldreview.com --

BLACKS IN AMERICA have suffered an endless series of insults and degradations, the latest of which goes by the name of Kwanzaa.

Ron Karenga (aka Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga) invented the seven-day feast (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) in 1966, branding it a black alternative to Christmas. The idea was to celebrate the end of what he considered the Christmas-season exploitation of African Americans.

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."

Karenga postulated seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith, each of which gets its day during Kwanzaa week. He and his votaries also crafted a flag of black nationalism and a pledge: "We pledge allegiance to the red, black, and green, our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain; one nation of black people, with one G-d of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom, and black self-determination."

Now, the point: There is no part of Kwanzaa that is not fraudulent. Begin with the name. The celebration comes from the Swahili term "matunda yakwanza," or "first fruit," and the festival's trappings have Swahili names -- such as "ujima" for "collective work and responsibility" or "muhindi," which are ears of corn celebrants set aside for each child in a family.

Unfortunately, Swahili has little relevance for American blacks. Most slaves were ripped from the shores of West Africa. Swahili is an East African tongue.

To put that in perspective, the cultural gap between Senegal and Kenya is as dramatic as the chasm that separates, say, London and Tehran. Imagine singing "G-d Save the Queen" in Farsi, and you grasp the enormity of the gaffe.

Worse, Kwanzaa ceremonies have no discernible African roots. No culture on earth celebrates a harvesting ritual in December, for instance, and the implicit pledges about human dignity don't necessarily jibe with such still-common practices as female circumcision and polygamy. The inventors of Kwanzaa weren't promoting a return to roots; they were shilling for Marxism. They even appropriated the term "ujima," which Julius Nyrere cited when he uprooted tens of thousands of Tanzanians and shipped them forcibly to collective farms, where they proved more adept at cultivating misery than banishing hunger.

Even the rituals using corn don't fit. Corn isn't indigenous to Africa. Mexican Indians developed it, and the crop was carried worldwide by white colonialists.

The fact is, there is no Ur-African culture. The continent remains stubbornly tribal. Hutus and Tutsis still slaughter one another for sport.

Go to Kenya, where I taught briefly as a young man, and you'll see endless hostility between Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya and Masai. Even South African politics these days have more to do with tribal animosities than ideological differences.

Moreover, chaos too often prevails over order. Warlords hold sway in Somalia, Eritrea, Liberia and Zaire. Genocidal maniacs have wiped out millions in Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia. The once-shining hopes for Kenya have vanished.

Detroit native Keith Richburg writes in his extraordinary book, "Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa," that "this strange place defies even the staunchest of optimists; it drains you of hope ..."

Richburg, who served for three years as the African bureau chief for The Washington Post, offers a challenge for the likes of Karenga: "Talk to me about Africa and my black roots and my kinship with my African brothers and I'll throw it back in your face, and then I'll rub your nose in the images of rotting flesh."

His book concludes: "I have been here, and I have seen -- and frankly, I want no part of it. .... By an accident of birth, I am a black man born in America, and everything I am today -- my culture and my attitudes, my sensibilities, loves and desires -- derives from that one simple and irrefutable fact."

Nobody ever ennobled a people with a lie or restored stolen dignity through fraud. Kwanzaa is the ultimate chump holiday -- Jim Crow with a false and festive wardrobe. It praises practices -- "cooperative economics, and collective work and responsibility" -- that have succeeded nowhere on earth and would mire American blacks in endless backwardness.

Our treatment of Kwanzaa provides a revealing sign of how far we have yet to travel on the road to reconciliation. The white establishment has thrown in with it, not just to cash in on the business, but to patronize black activists and shut them up.

This year, President Clinton signed his fourth Kwanzaa proclamation. He crooned: "The symbols and ceremony of Kwanzaa, evoking the rich history and heritage of African Americans, remind us that our nation draws much of its strength from our diversity."

But our strength, as Richburg points out, comes from real principles: tolerance, brotherhood, hard work, personal responsibility, equality before the law. If Americans really cared about racial healing, they would focus on those ideas -- and not on a made-up rite that mistakes segregationism for spirituality and fiction for history.


Tony Snow Archives

©1999, Creators Syndicate

Tony, on his radio show today, told listeners to spread this srticle in any way possible.

Hoosier you've revealed yourself to be the racist tool that I always suspected...

Nicely done... using Tony Snow from our friends FOXNews seems to be okay - just too bad the asshole is also a contributer on Stormfront.org and it's supported site: Martinlutherking.org

Glad to see he hooked another with this jackass article :rolleyes:

Rob hon, he did this long ago...

I don't really understand. Why would you use culture from one part of the continent when most present day blacks in the US are decended from another part?

If you're not celebrating the holiday then why are you concerned? The point of posting this article was? :rolleyes:

I was just going to say "dude, where have you been the past couple years?"

Why does the area where people are from matter so much? I don't think that anyone has done a family history on every single Black person to find out where their ancestors were from, so making a claim that Black Americans have no ties to East Africa is misleading.

hoosier, you have confirmed my belief that despite the best efforts of so many people, there are people like you who perpetuate hatred and racism.

Because it might not really be YOUR heritage. In any case, if you really want to celebrate African culture, then the holiday should not only be Swahili based, but also include other languages. It's like celebrating Asian culture, but only using terms derived from Mandarin.

The challenge for most Black Americans is that we really don't know WHERE we come from because of the history of slavery, so most Blacks connect to anything remotely African. I don't know Karenga or his goals in creating Kwanzza, but the need for connection is great in all cultures. Some time ago there was a thread on GC call "what are you" or something like that, asking people to tell they cultural/racial makeup. Most of the African Americans on this site stayed out, becuase we could not say things like "My grandparents came over from Ireland or England or even Kenya or Senegal" Saying "All I know is that my great grandmother was a slave on the Strickland plantation in GA" does not have the same impact. So, you can call Kwanzza flawed because it is not tied specifically to a culture that most AA can identify with, or you can recognize the need for connection.

Ditto. I'm confused.:confused:

Why do you even care? Do YOU celebrate it?

If not then :confused: :rolleyes:

Re: FYI: The TRUTH about Kwanzaa
 

Even if you agree with this reallly outrageous statement -- who cares?

The date of Christ's birth is unknown -- but someone decided to celebrate it on December 25th.

The day coming up this weekend is one of at least three "New Years" I can think of with hardly any thought at all.

Easter is a day, celebrated on a different date every year, that huge numbers of people around the world might call a chump holiday because they don't believe in Jesus.

Simply because I, having been raised in a Christian home, celebrate those days, doesn't mean that everything is exactly correct from a historical perspective. I can't trace my family tree to anywhere close to Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Does that mean I'm stupid for celebrating Christmas, Easter and this particular New Year which is built around Christ's birth?

So, why shouldn't those who so choose celebrate Kwanzaa? To not choose to celebrate a holiday does not necessarily make one a racist (I don't like to bandy that word around lightly which is often done) -- to belittle ones who do celebrate whatever heritage they choose, may be racist, though.

Generally, I believe that the tenants upon which this country were founded should clash harshly with the article quoted above because one of those tenants is freedom to believe in and celebrate all different and diverse (only slightly redundant, I think) cultures and beliefs. It is a direct attack. Why write it and why quote it?

Is Kwanzaa somehow threatening? Not to most of us.

I understand this, and please forgive my ignorance, but it is my understanding that this is not a holiday/celebration that is practiced in Africa.

I do not want to come across as offensive, but wouldn't it make more sense for African Americans who wanted to feel connected to an African culture to celebrate an already exisiting holiday?

edited for spelling

I'm not Irish but if I wanted to celebrate St. Stephen's Day would that be a problem?

I'm not understanding why what someone else celebrates is a big deal. Who am I (or ANYONE else) to tell someone what and how to celebrate?

Question though, what holiday would you propose? Do you see how that could again lead to "why do you celebrate this holiday and not that holiday"?

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

:)

Wow! Thanks for the attitude. I really appreciate it.

THANK GOD you're here to give me shit! I don't know what I would do without you.

I wasn't telling anyone what holiday to celebrate. I was merely trying to understand.

But thanks for correcting me.

Too Funny. :)

But you deserve to be given SHIT for this comment.


then u say this..


RIIIIGHT. You're welcome.

ShortFuse,

Will you be my friend? ;)


I wuv you!

M

Tip-toes and damn close are not racist. Synchronized swimming and chess tip-toe and come close to real sports, but real sports they are not.

I'm just saying that if you dislike someone, dislike him for the right reasons or "Racism" will have lost all its seriousness.

-Rudey

Did I actually tell anyone what specific holiday to celebrate. No, I don't think so.

But thanks!

Your post came off that way.

I'm everybody's friend.

you don't have to.

I won't get into WHY the poster don't like each other.

Alot of people use racism in the wrong way. Especially the "reverse-racism" folks but that's another arguement.

But to BASH a holiday that CLEARLY has some importance to African-Americans (the ones who celebrate it are in the majority) comes off as a bigoted posting. and the article got the shredding it deserves.