Kwanzaa

I am not one of those Black folks who see conspiracies, the Illuminati, and the Black crusaders underneath every rock, but your friend may be on to something. Kwanzaa is the brain-child of a "Black revolutionary", Maulana Karenga, who, in fact, was/is an undercover FBI agent. I question not only the motivation behind, but also the true origins of the "holiday". I would never celebrate Kwanzaa, nor do I know anyone who does. It's pretty much relegated to Black semi- intellectuals and used as another excuse by Black churches to hold week-long services.

Your black friend sounds stupid because African-American "Christian heritage" was forced upon them by slaveowners and missionaries and isn't really "a tradition" in the sense that it hasn't been around that long, relatively speaking.

r1 It wasn't his brainchild, he is just the one who took credit for it:

Kwanzaa, like black America, was birthed in struggle and chaos, then bathed in blood. It was born in the freedom movement, against the backdrop of the Watts rebellion, the rise of the Black Panther Party, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the assassination of Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz).

Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of Africana studies at California State University, is often credited as the sole creator of Kwanzaa, while the collective efforts of the Us Organization—a black liberation group founded in 1966 by Karenga and Malcolm X’s cousin Hakim Abdullah Jamal—are minimized to prop up Karenga as a revolutionary messiah of Pan-African culture.

Jamal ultimately ended his association with Karenga as a result of clashes over ideological and organizational differences, but Kwanzaa continued to grow in popularity despite a war, fueled by COINTELPRO, between Us and the Southern California chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Even without FBI interference, there was an intracommunity battle for the allegiance of young black radicals intensifying between Us and the BPP. It was the machinations of the FBI, though, that ultimately drove Us members to murder Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, leader of the BPP’s Southern California chapter, and his comrade John Huggins on Jan. 17, 1969, on UCLA’s campus.

The Root? Really? A white-owed site entirely staffed by junior college rejects? I will reiterate that Kwanzaa is solely observed by pseudo-intellectuals. I've read all the books--Revolutionary Suicide, To Die For the People, Soledad Brother, A Taste of Power--not one mention of Kwanzaa emerging as some celebration representing the Black power movement. That gibberish you posted, R2, like everything on The Root is baloney. Ask Elaine Brown this very day if she blames COINTELPRO for the rift between the Panthers and those turncoats of US, an FBI front organization.

pseudo-intellectuals such as yourself, r3?

Kalamatootah!

"His other complaint is that it's a fake holiday"

Yeah, well, it's as authentic and steeped in tradition as a bunch of college Wiccans draping themselves in leaves and bedsheets and holding solstice "rituals".

But any excuse for a party!

r6 sexist! Lesbians need their own spaces!

Thank you, YMF, for letting us know he is your Black Friend *from college* so we can rest assured he is the Right Kind of Black and that you're not one of those residents of Manhattan who actually socializes with black people such that you might become friends with one. Also, thanks for updating us on the Facebook postings of that guy you went to school with and haven't seen in ten years.

R8: The Lord bless and keep you, and let no evil befall you as you continue your good works on this thread.

Looking forward to making that Kwanzaa Kake, baby!

R2 Are you black?

It's a post Christmas week long holiday some POC enjoy. Why would anyone have a problem with it? It's not forced on anyone else. If someone doesn't wish to celebrate it they don't have to.

But YourMillennialFriend's black friend, r12!@@

Kwanzaa is a crock of shit. Much like the Nation of Islam.

"I have a Black friend from school who is very anti-Kwanzaa..."