Originally Posted by
Dark Soul
Since this anti-Christmas bullshit holiday will be upon us again soon I'd like to remind the libs here exactly why it is bullshit.
Lynn Woolley
NewsMax.com
Monday, Dec. 17, 2001
You don't like the current slate of holidays that we celebrate here in
America? Then why not create one of your own? That's exactly what Ronald
Everett did back in 1966. He named it "Kwanzaa."
Since then, many people have embraced this new holiday. Check out almost any
appointment calendar and you'll find it duly noted on Dec. 26 that "Kwanzaa
begins." Stroll through your local card and party store and you'll find
Kwanzaa items.
You can even look it up in the World Book Encyclopedia, where you'll find a
nifty little article that says Kwanzaa was created by "a black cultural
leader." And those who celebrate it will often tell you that it's not just
for African Americans.
They're not telling you the whole story; in fact, it's doubtful that they
even know the origins of Kwanzaa. Few people do, because the voluminous
amount of ink expended on Ronald McKinley Everett most often refers to him
as Dr. Maulana Karenga and rarely examines his past.
However, the story of Ron Everett, aka Dr. Karenga, has been told - notably
in a Dallas Morning News article from Dec. 26, 1996, and in David Horowitz's
late publication, Heterodoxy, in the December 1999 issue.
The story behind the holiday and the man who created it is most interesting.
Forget the notion that Kwanzaa is a holiday for all people. Dr. Karenga
states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement as
part of a "re-Africanization" process - "a going back to black."
Dr. Karenga, still just "Ron Everett" at the time, was heavily involved in
the black power movement. He started an organization called US. The letters
have nothing to do with "United States" but mean simply "US," as opposed to
"THEM."
He dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili one, which means "master
teacher," shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing.
US members, similarly attired, often clashed with other black militant
groups such as the Black Panthers. The fighting was about which group would
control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA.
There were incidents involving beatings and shootings, including one in 1969
in which two US members shot and killed two Black Panthers. Dr. Karenga had
other run-ins with the law, including charges that he abused women.
In 1971, he was convicted of assaulting female members of US, and he served
time in prison. An LA Times snippet describes the torture of the women as
involving a hot soldering iron placed in the mouth of one, while the other's
toe was mashed in a vice.
Dr. Karenga says that he is the victim; he was quoted in the News: "All the
negative charges are in fact disinformation and frame-ups by the FBI and
local and national police."
One thing that's interesting to note about the inventor of Kwanzaa:
Practically all of his crimes were committed against black people. And yet,
today, he is simply known as an academic who created a holiday for cultural
unity.
Nine years after Kwanzaa was invented, Dr. Karenga decided to moderate his
views and became a Marxist. In 1979, he was hired to run the Black Studies
Department at Cal State Long Beach, in all likelihood, the first ex-con to
do so.
And so this is Kwanzaa. The militant past of the creator is now ignored in
favor of the so-called seven principles of Nguza Saba - principles such as
unity, family and self-determination that could have come from Bill
Bennett's "Book of Virtues." The word "Kwanzaa" is Swahili, meaning
something like "fresh fruits of harvest."
No one remembers the part about "re-Africanization" or the sevenfold path of
blackness that Dr. Karenga once espoused. Hardly anyone remembers the
shootings, the beatings,the tortures and the prison terms that were once the
center of his life. It's just not PC to bring that sort of stuff up now that
Kwanzaa is commercialized and making big bucks.
Dr. Karenga does his part to promote the holiday and forget the past. In
December, he goes on his annual "Kwanzaa circuit" of speeches and
appearances. And he writes.
Remember that little article in the World Book Encyclopedia that legitimized
Dr. Karenga as a "black cultural leader"? You guessed it - he wrote the
article himself.
Happy Kwanzaa.
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