Friday, January 02, 2009

OBSERVATION: Kwanzaa is over ... I mean OVER

As soon-to-be-President Barack Obama leads us into the recently dubbed post-racial era, I am pleased to report that it appears that one of the results of this new age of enlightenment is the slipping way of the Kwanzaa pseudo holiday.

That’s right folks. What I noticed this holiday season was something that I didn’t notice. The once ubiquitous Kwanzaa greetings and events seem to have faded from media attention – the first sign that the recently concocted holiday has lost its allure with the politically correct. We can only hope.

The President dropped any acknowledgement of the so-called holiday for the first time in recent years. I hope that Obama will follow this example, but I fear he could bring Kwanzaa back to the White House as an ethnic sop for the segregationists in the African-American community.

While I am sure that I missed a reference or two, I am not aware of any newscaster offering Kwanzaa greetings alongside the Christmas/Hanukkah tributes.

This is a good thing.

Kwanzaa was invented in the mid 1960s by black militant (and part time FBI informer) named Ron Karenga, which he Africanized and intellectualized to Dr. Maulana Karenga. He founded a group called United Slaves, which maybe the first time “slaves” were united since winning the freedom to be un-united by Abraham Lincoln.

The holiday was designed to provide the black community with a celebration to compete with Christmas, notwithstanding that most black folks are Christians.

The sole purpose of Kwanzaa was to coalesce the black community in opposition to the white community. Its unstated function was to resist assimilation. It is nothing less than a celebration of strident racism camouflaged as faux religious celebration.

This is not like the Martin Luther King holiday, which recognizes and honors the good work a person in the struggle for equality and justice. Quite the opposite. Kwanzaa is an artificial holiday that perpetuates de facto segregation.

It is particular offensive because it makes no pretense of any historic validation. It has no more relevancy to historic events or traditions than Walt Disney’s “All Dogs go to Heaven” is a theological documentary. The neo traditions, symbols, rituals, costumes and music of Kwanzaa are just random scraps of African lore stitched together in a patchwork of meaningless ritual.

I say … let’s forget Kwanzaa and save the next Afro-centric American holiday for Barack Obama’s birthday. I can see that one coming … and at least it is something we can all celebrate together.

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