January 3, 2013

Wisconsin state senator Glenn Grothman caught up in a flap about Kwanzaa.

CNN's Ashleigh Banfield and Roland Martin pile on.

Here's Grothman's press release — PDF. I had to wonder why a state senator was attacking a holiday that some people like to celebrate. What business is it of his? He talks about the origins of the holiday (which I haven't independently researched) and asserts that it's not a "real holiday." But so what? It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions. He ends the press release with the statement: "Be on the lookout if  a K-12 or college teacher tries to tell your children or grandchildren it's a real holiday."

Okay, is something going on in public schools? Are they celebrating Kwanzaa? That would obviously be wrong — a violation of the Establishment Clause. But Grothman seems to be merely saying that teachers might be teaching about Kwanzaa in perhaps a social studies lesson about the various holidays that are celebrated. I suppose we should be alert to whether teachers are feeding schoolkids inaccurate lessons, but the characterization of Kwanzaa as a holiday isn't an egregiously incorrect fact.

We could go deeply into the subject of what makes a holiday a real holiday and debate about whether Kwanzaa is in or out. It depends on how you define holiday. Or we could debate about what constitutes a sound social studies lesson. We don't want kids to hear that white people celebrate Christmas and black people celebrate Kwanzaa or that Africans arriving in the New World brought a Kwanzaa tradition with them.

Grothman ought to give us the specifics about defective lessons in schools and aim the criticism right there. Don't just tell us to be on the lookout for teachers who might dare to refer to Kwanzaa as a holiday.

113 comments:

Seeing Red said...

My holidays and beliefs get attacked all the time, why shouldn't others?

Because he's a state senator?

Anonymous said...

Let's hear it for Festivus!

ricpic said...

Kwanzaa - Don't those two a's set your teeth on edge? I mean if you're not evolved like a good Althousian. - was made up out of whole cloth by a malcontent. Why even kindergarteners know that!

Anonymous said...

Festivus predates Kwanzaa!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I think we should negotiate with the blacks and maybe they'll release Kwanzaa if we give them a month with a full 31 days in it.

MadisonMan said...

Doesn't Kwanzaa haappen right aafter Christmaas? I don't see how Public Schools would be celebraating it.

Glenn Grothman is publicity whoring.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

Kwanzaa is a totally fabricated holiday, utterly full of irony. The words they use are all Swahili, from east Africa, not west, where the American slaves all came from.

Even worse, the Swahili-speaking Africans were enthusiastic slavers, force-marching millions east across the Congo. Most of them died on the way. According to the Amistad exhibit more west Africans died on the journey east across the jungle than died crossing the ocean to the Americas.

And the Kwanzaa types chose to use Swahili words nevertheless. Brilliant.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Kwanzaa was invented to nab polititians.

Anonymous said...

Kwananza doesn't happen in my inner city school. They have books on it in the library. I have a book on it in my classroom. No one ever looks at it. No celebrations for it. No questions about it. It's pretty passe with the 15 year olds. In reality it's all Christmas all the time. The Muslim kids (even burquaed) could care less. The Jewish kids have Hanukkah. All the rest have chocolate and presents and...Kawanzaa is nothing, nada, nein, nyet. One word - invisible.

edutcher said...

Kwanzaa is a sideways version of Hanukkah.

And I don't think anybody except a few race merchants even cares about it anymore.

Anonymous said...

Kwanzaa is a black separatist concept. late 60's

Anonymous said...

It's not hard to look up. Kwanzaa was invented by a vile guy who took the name, Muauana Karenga, and became a leader in the Black Power movement. He went to prison for torturing two women. According to the LA Times:

Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters.

I remember seeing Karenga on the Joe Pyne show when I was a kid. Karenga was the only person I ever saw out-talk Pyne.

Ordinarily I'd agree that it shouldn't matter where a holiday comes from, but I'd make an exception for Kwanzaa.

Thorley Winston said...

Glenn Grothman is publicity whoring.


Nailed it in one.


Anonymous said...

Of course I teach in the Deep South (culturally) and all my American students of African color are Protestants. The small minority of Haitians are Catholic (charmingly named after the Saints), the real Africans tend to be Coptic. Any numbers of Asia/Korean are Evangelical Christians. Most Muslims are European but that wave is receeding... A smattering Iranian Chaldean Christians...

Trashhauler said...

How can we justify support to a holiday that is only meant to nurture a single race. Isn't that discriminatory and racist?

You know, exclusionary and stuff?

Lauderdale Vet said...

When my son was in elementary school, they celebrated Kwanzaa, and he was even in the Kwanzaa play.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Grothman is the little pussy who was wetting his pants during the Capitol protests right? Repubs have to purge their ranks of crazy thinkers like him and Todd Akins. That said, I think Grothman was trying to say the schools are selling schoolkids the far left librul doctrines every chance they get and that must be challenged.

traditionalguy said...

Another question: Is there anything wrong with a citizen being asked for his views in a CNN inter-view and then being serially ridiculed with all of his attempts to answer the moderators challenges talked over in a filibuster stranggle hold on air time from the White Liberals who who established the fake Psyops holiday tradition?

El Camino Real said...

Glenn Grothman is publicity whoring.

True.

Kwanzaa is a Black Separatist "Holiday" meant to further Balkanize the citizens of the United States into easily manipulable grievance groups.

True as well.

El Camino Real said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

All my Latinos (Guatemalan, Colombian, Californian, Honduran, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican...)are Catholic and their Christmas celebrations turn distinctly American after just a short time in country.

Thorley Winston said...

Here's Grothman's press release — PDF. I had to wonder why a state senator was attacking a holiday that some people like to celebrate. What business is it of his? He talks about the origins of the holiday (which I haven't independently researched) and asserts that it's not a "real holiday." But so what? It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions.

I found that by actually reading the press release and following the links that were included that the answers to these questions were pretty self-evident.


Sorun said...

I wonder if whites think about Kwanzaa more often than blacks.

Trashhauler said...

How can we justify support to a holiday that is only meant to nurture a single race. Isn't that discriminatory and racist?

You know, exclusionary and stuff?

Trashhauler said...

How can we justify support to a holiday that is only meant to nurture a single race. Isn't that discriminatory and racist?

You know, exclusionary and stuff?

garage mahal said...

Glenn Grothman is publicity whoring.

Tailgunner Glenn certainly isn't shy sharing his craziness to the media. Like his "single parenthood is child abuse" bill from last year.

Grothman, has never married, has no children, and reportedly lives in his mother's basement.

SGT Ted said...

Kwanzaas problem is that its Afrocentric racist revolutionary bullshit on stilts.

X said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
test said...

But so what? It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions.

It's not a religious holiday.

It's celebration of political activist claptrap, and those against those political beliefs object to them being promoted in this manner.

SGT Ted said...

Kwanzaa is of a piece with the casual, anti-white racism of the modern "civil rights" movement.

machine said...

Xmas is a totally fabricated holiday...

Wince said...

Ann Coulter has been on the Kwanzaa beat for years.

KWANZAA: HOLIDAY BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FBI

It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga — aka Dr. Maulana Karenga — founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers. He was also a dupe of the FBI.

In what was ultimately 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 group, the better.

By that criterion, 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 (although some of their most high-profile leaders were drug dealers and murderers). 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” are currently in prison?)

It’s as if David Duke invented a holiday called “Anglika,” which he based on the philosophy of “Mein Kampf” — and clueless public school teachers began celebrating the made-up, racist holiday.

Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear.

gadfly said...

Kwanzaa, the non-religious, religious holiday, is just like DIVERSITY, the imaginary but magical effect of racial favoritism.

The terms were both made out of whole cloth ("a story invented with no basis in fact; a complete fiction") about the same time in out history.

Mitch H. said...

Kwanzaa is a religious holiday only in the Christian Identity sense of religion, in which case, you could say the same about May Day.

I wonder if whites think about Kwanzaa more often than blacks.

To be honest, I only think about it when a blogger brings up the subject. I've never met anyone, black, white, or green, who celebrated it.

test said...

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

For example, the own reference here is to blacks. So Kwanzaa supports economic separatism.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Blair said...

All holidays are technically "made up" holidays. Christmas was made up by the Roman Emperor Constantine to replace Saturnalia. That's not the problem with Kwanzaa - you can make up any damn holiday you want and celebrate it.

The real problem with Kwanzaa is that it is not an organic holiday ie. it is not actually celebrated by African Americans in any significant numbers. It is more noted by white schoolteachers than ordinary blacks. It is less a "made up" holiday than an imposed one - imposed by bureacrats and government no less. Given that Karenga was actually an FBI informant, one could even argue that it is a white man's imposition of what they think an African American holiday should be. THAT is what is so offensive about Kwanzaa.

Amartel said...

Kwanzaa sounds like made-up 60s bullshit, like Aztlan. All made-up 60s bullshit must have a "z" in it. That's the rule.

Here's another rule. Don't say things that you know will be taken out of context and criticized as "racist." Democrats say dumb and racist, sexist bullshit all the time and no one will call them on it. (See, e.g., The Biden.) Republicans question the legitimacy of a fake racist holiday and it's off to the racist. Just the way it is. I'm not saying don't say anything but if you are going to go there, bring some facts along.

the wolf said...

"I don't care what the white man say, Santa Claus was a black man."

--Freddy "Boom Boom" Washington

Shanna said...

I've never met anyone, black, white, or green, who celebrated it.

Me neither. And yet, it gets mentioned all the time during the holidays. I just was watching Cailou the other day and some little kid said they celebrated Kwanza and drew a stalk of corn.

It just feels like a made up holiday.

SteveR said...

Without knowing what specifically Grothman is objecting to, the simple explanation is some goody two shoes elementary teacher talks about Kwaanzaa in trying to be inclusive and politically correct. Of course they know nothing about it other than its an "African American" thing. Box checked

I Callahan said...

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Also known as socialism.

sparrow said...

Christmas was not manufactured. Christ was clearly born sometime - it's the when that should be celebrated that's debated.

rhhardin said...

It was a you-have-to-take-us-seriously challenge for a ridiculous tradition imposed not by the past but by MSM-appointed black leaders.

All Indian stuff is also ridiculous, and poses a similar test.

The point is to suppress ridicule as a possibility.

Anonymous said...

...or that Africans arriving in the New World brought a Kwanzaa tradition with them.

They didn't, and that's his point. You haven't bothered to read about "Kwanzaa's" origins.

I think Grothman needs to push back at all this shaming language being deployed against him.

He should stand up against all that emotive and intimidating outrage so that it backfires.

People need to learn that they can't get away with empty assertions like "What business is it of his?" or ""That press release is absolutely disgusting". People should have to give reasons for what you think. Even if you really feel those feelings.

And, of course, many of these hack writers and TV talking heads and local politicians don't actually feel the feelings they talk about. They just don't want to have to talk about the actual issue. They want to make it something that everyone feels they'd better not talk about. But that should be a loud signal: We need to talk about it!

rhhardin said...

The black candles are a nice touch.

No etymology need apply either.

Amartel said...

Freddy "Boom Boom" Washington was not wrong.

test said...

I Callahan said...
Also known as socialism.


Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

I think this tenet is more closely related to socialism. The language is not objectionable, but the context is always tied to expectation of government action, never individual.

To me the economic separatism is distinct from socialism, but more objectionable.

sparrow said...

Kwanzaa was designed for racial separatists. Can't let the unifying theme of Christmas go unanswered I suppose.

jimspice said...

By Grothman's own logic, when he discusses Christmas, he should note that it's founder ripped 42 small boys to pieces for picking on Elisha's bald head.

sparrow said...

Jim,
What are you referring to?

Nomennovum said...

Holy moly! A Michael Kingleyesque gaffe of epic proportions. I am shocked, outraged, and embarrassed for this pathetic politician. I am sad. :(

sparrow said...

Found it in Kings2. Odd passage to pick out, sounds like you have a grievance

garage mahal said...

By Grothman's own logic, when he discusses Christmas, he should note that it's founder ripped 42 small boys to pieces for picking on Elisha's bald head.

And Scott Walker is shoving a fake radical leftists holiday down black people's throats, by wishing a Happy Kwanzaa on Twitter.

Baron Zemo said...


Garage Mahal said....Grothman, has never married, has no children, and reportedly lives in his mother's basement

Holy Secret Ballot Batman....shiloh is a State Senator!

Cool!

Michael K said...

"Grothman, has never married, has no children, and reportedly lives in his mother's basement."

Maybe he's gay ?

Homophobe !!!

Michael said...

The only thing dumber than Kwanza is a politician talking or writing about it negatively. Kwanza speaks for itself very eloquently.

Shouting Thomas said...

Not directly on topic, but certainly related, Sailer's review of Django Unchained.

Sailer always notices what everybody else dutifully ignores... in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, the media doesn't object to a movie that produces a bloodbath of gun violence, if the gunman is black and the victims are white.

Ipso Fatso said...

Have a Funky Kwanzaa everybody!!!!!

Rosalyn C. said...

"Banfield pointed out that when people celebrate a holiday, they generally don’t give much thought to the person who founded it." How about if David Duke created a holiday celebrating White Unity and whiteness? Would Banfield be as accepting? Doubtful.

Instead of the Principles of Blackness substitute the Principles of Whiteness and tell me that you wouldn't be labeled as a racist:

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in God, our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Peter said...

Scientology and Kwanzaa both have that same made-up quality, yet Scientology is at least imaginative (if also exploitative), and without that Afrocentric "blacks can't be racist because [institutional blah-blah-bhal]" quality.

RonF said...

It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions.

What religion celebrates Kwanzaa? It's not a religious holiday, it's a holiday created by a black professor who wanted to create a celebration of what he personally viewed were virtues of what (again) he personally viewed as black culture. His claims that these were virtues or characteristics exemplified and openly honored in certain African societies is suspect.

It's a fair question why this celebration should be afforded special status over others in the public schools.

Sigivald said...

It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions.

What religion would Kwanzaa be?

It's not part of a religion - it was invented from whole cloth for Pan-African/Black Nationalist purposes in living memory.

I'm baffled as to why anyone accepts, let alone promotes, Kwanzaa as some sort of Festival Of African Identity; nobody in Africa thinks it's "real".

test said...

Peter said...
Scientology and Kwanzaa both have that same made-up quality


Columbus Day is a better comparison since Kwanzaa is not religious. Do people object to Columbus Day because they don't support the values it celebrates? Obviously so.

Kwanzaa is worse since you're directly celebrating the relevant values. Columbus Day is largely a celebration of a monumental discovery. The negative effects people object to are not being celebrated.

garage mahal said...

Show us on the doll where Kwanzaa touched you, Glenn.

Darrell said...

Look up the names on the snakes in the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) logo circa Patty Hearst. Yup, pre-Kwanzaa, and containing The Swahili words for these seven principles are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith).

Michael said...

GM. "Show us on the doll where Kwanzaa touched you, Glenn."

Outstanding!!!!

Darrell said...

Break the country into smaller and smaller grievance groups, rather than one large united mass, and pretty soon you might be able to control the whole thing.

Synova said...

"We don't want kids to hear that white people celebrate Christmas and black people celebrate Kwanzaa or that Africans arriving in the New World brought a Kwanzaa tradition with them."

When Jewish people ramp up Hanuka so that their children don't feel left out of Christmas... that makes sense to me.

But at what point is Christmas NOT a black holiday?

A person might be able to argue that Carribean animism (or whatever the heck it is), voodoo, and some influences on Catholicism come from traditions Africans brought to the New World with them, but not Kwanzaa. Africa itself seems to be variously Christian and Muslim.

A whole lot of paganism is "made up" as well, but it's because people are trying to recreate what used to exist. Very Northern European, but I never heard it was about being "white". I'm pretty sure that Thor would happily accept a black man.

It's *possible* to convert to Judaism, even if they don't tend to proselytize.

Scientology doesn't care what race you are.

So... what's up with Kwanzaa?

alan markus said...

@GM Grothman, has never married, has no children, and reportedly lives in his mother's basement.

Don't know who the "reportedly" source is, but this came up awhile ago on a local blog and was shown to be just liberal trash talk. The West Bend/Jackson phone book gives his home address as 151 University Drive, West Bend. The tax lookup shows that it is a condo unit, in his name.

Don't know if the link will work: Washington County Tax Lookup I put in 151 in the "House Number" box to find it.

But, I'm sure facts won't keep you from making that statement again.

tiger said...

Kwanzaa is a joke not least because it's roots are in EAST Africa, a place that rarely if ever saw any of its people taken to the Americas as slaves.

tiger said...

AJ Lynch said...
Grothman is the little pussy who was wetting his pants during the Capitol protests right? Repubs have to purge their ranks of crazy thinkers like him and Todd Akins. That said, I think Grothman was trying to say the schools are selling schoolkids the far left librul doctrines every chance they get and that must be challenged.

Yaaaaaaawwwwwn.

Are you done yet?

Rabel said...

Here's the link from Grothman's PDF which answers seveal of the questions posed.

Kwanzaa's originator was a militant black separatist who did 5 years for kidnapping and torturing two women. He is now a professor at Cal State.

Grothman was an idiot. He is now a Wisconsin state senator.

James said...

I wonder if whites think about Kwanzaa more often than blacks.

That's an interesting question. I'm black and I've never celebrated Kwanzaa. I also know literally thousands of other black people and none of them have ever told me they celebrate the holiday. The only time I ever heard it mention was when my kids were in elementary school or I got the occasional "Happy Kwanzaa" greeting from a white person.

el polacko said...

'darrell' beat me to it but let me repeat for emphasis that kwaanza comes directly from the symbionese liberation army's tenets. looks like donald "death to the facist insect that feeds on the life of the people" defreeze, aka cinque, lives on in our classrooms. ain't that special ?

AllenS said...

So, tell me, garage, does your black neighbor, or your black neighbor who lives across the street, celebrate Kwanzaa?

You do know that you've said these things, don't you?

Darrell said...

And all of the Lefties indoctrination programs--even those run by the KGB--originally came from focus groups at the Sorbonne with their programs for finally creating a socialist model that could make inroads in Latin America and Africa.

James said...

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

That's a principle of the East African brand of socialism advocated by post-independence leaders like Julius Nyrere, Jomo Kenyatta, and Kenneth Kaunda. And it literally imposes economic organization around cooperatives....similar to the health care exchanges or cooperatives advocated by Obama.

I grew up in the world's only Cooperative Republic - Guyana - at the time the President was attempting to impose socialism so I have lots of experience with those principles.

Michael said...

James read "Wild Coast" by John Gimmlett. Great writing about your home country.

garage mahal said...

You do know that you've said these things, don't you?

Yes, they are still my neighbors too. They are big Ohio State fans, but they don't celebrate Kwanzaa as far as I know.

Revenant said...

Kwanzaa is a phony holiday. Mocking it is fine.

Sure, some people celebrate it, but some people celebrate Festivus, too. Making fun of them is still fine.

James said...

Thanks Michael, I will.

Alex said...

I just saw a pic of him. He's another old fat white guy.

James said...

It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions

Ann, Kwanzaa is certainly not a religion.

Jerome said...

"It's usually just not a very good idea to make pronouncements about the truth or falsity of other people's religions."

Actually, what is not a very good idea is to privilege "religious" ideas as off-limits for discussion.

ampersand said...

On the first day of Kwanzaa Dr. Karenga gave his hos
a detergent enema thru a garden hose.

Here is the
history
of Kwanzaa (warning to delicate libs may cause brain clots)

Why this hasn't met with wide scale rioting is a mystery.
Notorious Kwanzaa cake

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Kwanzaa is about as "real" a holiday as Fetivus. I don't care if people want to celebrate those or the invention of toe jam as a holiday. Just don't force it upon the rest of us.

Gahrie said...

Kwanzaa was created with the intent of increasing racial animosity between Blacks and Whites. It is about hate not love, and has no role in American society.

kimsch said...

IIRC one of the reasons for the invention of Kwanzaa was that Black people wouldn't be Christians celebrating Christmas at all if they hadn't been made slaves of the evil white people. Then, since there was no hegemonic "African" religion - he made this up.

Michael Haz said...

We don't want kids to hear that white people celebrate Christmas and black people celebrate Kwanzaa or that Africans arriving in the New World brought a Kwanzaa tradition with them.

Or other fictions, like "the Emancipation Proclamation was written and signed by a Republican 150 years ago last week."

Oh...wait...

Nomennovum said...

So, it's settled then. Grothman is an idiot, a racist, and an attention whore.

But he was also right. Right?

Hyphenated American said...

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell

Synova said...

"Kwanzaa is about as "real" a holiday as Fetivus. I don't care if people want to celebrate those or the invention of toe jam as a holiday. Just don't force it upon the rest of us."

Festivus is sort of... I can sort of see the point of adding Festivus to the family tradition.

I'm thinking of adding "Boxing Day", but it's got to be either New Years Day (which we already missed) or the first Saturday after New Years... Boxing Day... when you "Box" the tree.

Otherwise we end up sometime in February.

Fr Martin Fox said...

This state senator probably helped the cause of Kwanzaa.

Anonymous said...

Google Translate says "airing of grievances" and "feats of strength" are Kutangaza ya malalamiko and Bao ya nguvu in Swahili. The obvious thing to try would be to slip them into the list somewhere between Kajagoogoo and Kumbaya and see if anyone catches on.

virgil xenophon said...

IIRC Karenga was teaching (or a grad student) at SIU (So. Ill Univ) in Carbondale when he invented said "holiday." Thanks a lot SIU...and I say that more than in jest. That part of the southern tip of Ill is known as "Little Egypt" (Cairo, Ill is further to the south--a misbegotten mini-Detroit whose decline preceded its better-known cousin.) and the symbol/name of the mascot of SIU is the Saluki, the Royal Dog of Egypt. Karenga could have very well been inspired by the African connection suggested by SIU and the regions cultural markers. And Memphis, Tenn, another referential Egyptian/African marker, of course was not far away. Karenga was more or less surrounded by the African geographical place-names connection..

Jane the Actuary said...

Here's what gets me (and probably others) about Kwanzaa: Christmas gets one day of news anchors having spots during the day wishing the audience "Merry Christmas." Then for eight days, we get "Happy Kwanzaa," plus features about African dancers and a lighting of the Kwanzaa candle at City Hall. It's particularly grating for those of us who would like to return to an extended "12-days-of-Christmas" sense of festivity, to have officialdom tell us, "Christmas is over. Kwanzaa time."

Well, that an the fact that these well-meaning officials don't recognize, or don't acknowledge, that Kwanzaa is by its very nature exclusionary.

jr565 said...

Here's Grothman's press release — PDF. I had to wonder why a state senator was attacking a holiday that some people like to celebrate. What business is it of his?


It has yet to be proven that there are actually people celebrating kwanza. I suppose its possible, just like Bigfoot is possible, but I have yet to see evidence of it.

Known Unknown said...

I'll gladly trade Juneteenth for Kwanzaa if you're looking for an authentic American black holiday.

Juneteenth is the real thing and should be more recognized for its significance.

Freeman Hunt said...

Kwanzaa is how white children at top tier preschools celebrate black culture.

Unknown said...

Making fun of holidays is a fine old tradition. Trying to keep people from observing holidays is a fine old tradition. This is a very fine example of a fine old tradition and as such people will respond in the fine old traditional ways. What goes around comes around. Another fine old tradition.

sonicfrog said...

garage mahal said...

Show us on the doll where Kwanzaa touched you, Glenn.


Ding Ding Ding! Thread Winner!!!!!

JohnBoy said...

After Karenga left prison, he became a perfesser and everything ala Bill Ayers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Karenga

It's really beyond parody.

kentuckyliz said...

This comment page has been delightful.

Counter with St. Stephen's Day/Boxing Day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, St. John the Evangelist's feast day, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God/Theotokos, the Circumcision of Christ, which includes a Naming emphasis, the feast of the Holy Family, and the Epiphany. Keep on partying through Candlemas.

kentuckyliz said...

I'll celebrate Kwanzaa when Karenga rises from the dead and provides universal salvation to all humanity.

kentuckyliz said...

Merry Karengamas!

Nomennovum said...

"Show us on the doll where Kwanzaa touched you, Glenn."

Ding Ding Ding! Thread Winner!!!!!


To be a thread winner, you need to be original. Garage Mahal was anything but. This meme has been done to death.

ken in tx said...

The comic strip 'Curtis', which I normally read everyday, runs a series of supposed African folk tales during Kwanzaa every year. I don't read it during that time because I think it is phony BS.

Thorley Winston said...

I recommend that Mad TV - Magic Johnson Kwanza Special for those who want to understand the true meaning of Kwanza.

Moneyrunner said...

Ann’s decision to criticize the critics of Kwanzaa is a very good example of the deference that Liberals, especially Liberal women who are also academics, give to what they perceive to be customs of minority cultures. It’s what made it easy for Polynesians to lie about their sex lives to Margaret Mead who went on to write “Coming of age in Samoa.”

Interestingly enough she recently pushed back against others for trying to shame her, yet her she is siding with those who are shaming Grothman for telling the truth about an event that only seems to be celebrated in the media and by Liberal whites who don’t know a damn thing about Black culture.

I don’t know why he’s picking this fight, but I read his press release and I see no factual errors in it. Conservatives are used to keeping their heads down, knowing that Liberals can get away with, for example, calling for the lynching of McConnell and Boehner with not a squawk from the Left and a few mentions on the Right. But left Grothman unload on a frankly racist “holiday” like Kwanzaa and he gets blasted by the MSM and by schoolmarms like Althouse. It’s call internalizing the opposition’s viewpoint, otherwise known as the Stockholm syndrome.

Kevin Scheunemann said...

Did anyone (Ann) click on Glenn's email link to Madison public schools doing their "Kwanzaa worship".

If one cares about keeping religion out of public school, this is scary, and Glenn Grothman is Right!

https://mediaprodweb.madison.k12.wi.us/node/603

Liberalism will attempt to stomp out every last mention of Christianity...why not Kwansaa?





MyAlterEgomaniac said...

This is exactly what the Pagans said when there was a push for a new holiday called "Christmas". Christmas, ha, what a farce.

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