History and etymology In 1966 Ron Karenga (who at the time still went by his given name Ronald Everett) created Kwanzaa while living in California[2]. There, he was the leader of the black nationalist United Slaves Organization (also known as the "US Organization" in order to differentiate between "US" and "THEM"), and claims that his goal was to give African Americans an alternative holiday to Christmas. He later stated, "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." [3] Ron Karenga, founder of KwanzaaThe image above is proposed for deletion. See images and media for deletion to help reach a consensus on what to do. Ron Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa The image above is proposed for deletion. See images and media for deletion to help reach a consensus on what to do. At the time he created Kwanzaa, Karenga dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili "Karenga" (which means "master teacher"), shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits". The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, though most African-Americans have West African ancestry. The official stance on the spelling of the holiday is that an additional "a" was added to "Kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters. At the time there were seven children in Karenga's United Slaves Organization, each wanted to represent one of the letters in Kwanzaa[4] Also, the name was meant to have a letter for each of what Karenga called the "Seven Principles of Blackness". Another explanation is that Karenga added the extra "a" to distinguish the Afro-American from the African. Kwanzaa is also sometimes incorrectly spelled "kwaanza". Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the civil rights era of the 1960s, and was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with what Karenga characterized as their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study around principles that have their putative origins in what Karenga asserts are "African traditions" and "common humanist principles." In 1967, a year after Karenga proposed this new holiday, he publicly espoused the view that "Jesus was psychotic" and that Christianity was a white religion that blacks should shun.[5] However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so as not to alienate practicing Christians, then stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday." [6] 1997 Kwanzaa stamp 1997 Kwanzaa stamp Nine years after Kwanzaa was invented, Dr. Karenga further moderated his views and became a Marxist. Also in 1967, the first Kwanzaa stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service on October 22 [7] at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, California. In 2004 a second Kwanzaa stamp, created by artist Daniel Minter was issued which has seven figures in colorful robes symbolizing the seven principles. [8] Then of course, there's this...... Criticism There has been criticism of Kwanzaa's authenticity and relevance, and of the motivations of its founder, Karenga. Kwanzaa has been criticized because it is not a traditional holiday of African people, and because of its recent provenance, having been invented in 1966. The origins of Kwanzaa, however, are not secret, and are openly acknowledged by those promoting the holiday.[19] It was never advanced as an indigenous, African celebration. Other criticisms center on Karenga's criminal record, including having been convicted and jailed on charges of felonious assault and false imprisonment for the torture of two women. The women were themselves African-American, which some critics, among them Les Kinsolving, feel detract from Karenga’s claim that he created Kwanzaa to celebrate and strengthen the unity of black people.[20][21] In 1999, syndicated columnist (and later White House Press Secretary) Tony Snow wrote that "There is no part of Kwanzaa that is not fraudulent."[22] and other conservative writers have remarked on the Marxist leanings of Karenga and some of the seven principles of Kwanzaa, questioning whether Kwanzaa should be taught in American schools.[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa
Other criticisms center on Karenga's criminal record, including having been convicted and jailed on charges of felonious assault and false imprisonment for the torture of two [African-American] women. _____ I think i'll stick with Festivus.
Here's a take: KWANZAA: HOLIDAY FROM THE FBI December 27, 2006 (NOTE: This is an updated version of a column by Ann Coulter that first ran six years ago in December.) President Bush's Kwanzaa message this year skipped the patently absurd claim of years past that: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." Instead, he simply said: "I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa." More African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI pawn, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI. In what was probably a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police. Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?) Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear. Curiously, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the forces out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department" and so on. Karenga should know about FBI infiltration. (He further noted that the evidence against O.J. "was not strong enough to prohibit or eliminate unreasonable doubt" — an interesting standard of proof.) In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents." Now we know that the FBI fueled the bloody rivalry between the Panthers and United Slaves. In one barbarous outburst, Karenga's United Slaves shot to death Black Panthers Al "Bunchy" Carter and Deputy Minister John Huggins on the UCLA campus. Karenga himself served time, a useful stepping-stone for his current position as a black studies professor at California State University at Long Beach. Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life — economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch. When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites. While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" — which one assumes would exclude the forced abortions, imprisonment for homosexuals and forced labor — Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding." There's an inclusive philosophy for you. (Sing to "Jingle Bells") Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell Whitey has to pay; Burning, shooting, oh what fun On this made-up holiday! Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-c*m-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani — the same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa. With his Kwanzaa greetings, President Bush is saluting the intellectual sibling of the Symbionese Liberation Army, killer of housewives and police. He is saluting the founder of United Slaves, who were such lunatics that they shot Panthers for not being sufficiently insane — all with the FBI as their covert ally. It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," and the president of the United States issued a presidential proclamation honoring the synthetic holiday. People might well take notice if that happened. Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves — the violence, the Marxism, the insanity. Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, is that they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa. Now the "holiday" concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation and public schools across the nation. The only principle Kwanzaa promotes is liberals' unbounded capacity to respect any faith but Christianity. A movement that started approximately 2,000 years before Kwanzaa leaps well beyond collectivism and litter removal to proclaim that we are all equal before God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). It was practitioners of that faith who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements. But that's all been washed down the memory hole, along with the true origins of Kwanzaa. COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER http://www.AnnCoulter.com
Is there a problem with the facts as cited? They seem to line up with other facts indicated here? I wasn't aware of the restriction on only using sources that you approve...
"More African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks." Yes, that reads to be completely factual.
Michael: You know what Stanley? Come Kwanzaa time, I have got you covered, baby. Stanley: I don't celebrate Kwanzaa. Michael: Really? You should, it's fun.
Here's the problem. "...invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge..." I stopped reading after that ...and I didn't even realize it was Ann Coulter initially. Is being a 'stooge' a factual statement? Everything else is garbage thereafter. Credibility = zero
I thought this part of the Wikipedia article was hilarious: As for Kwanzaa I have no problem with it. Sure it was made up in the 1960' by a black nationalist but Christmas was Christians co-opting Saturnalia along with pagan symbols like the tree, yule log and even Santa Clause is a composite of the Christian St. Nicholas with pagan figures.
Who said that every word was a fact? KC knocked its credibility which ususally goes to the facts. Have they been found wanting in the article cited?
You are saying this as if we should be judging this Coulter article on it's own merits ...as if Coulter has never said anything contraversial in the past. Even if you judge this article on its own merits, she still calls the founder a "stooge." So even on its own merits, we have to assume she isn't attempting to be unbiased. Credibility = zero
Ooooh, controversy! What's wrong with judging something on it's own merits? I hear that Charles Manson loves cherry pie; do you? There's a bunch of us that do. What if the facts have contributed to her bias?
