[ProtectOurFreedom]

This was discussed in a FReep thread four years ago (here), but it's worth dusting it off again in light of today's discussion about the Egg Harbor, NJ school board allowing Silent Night to be sung -- as long as "Kwanzaa's Here" is also sung!

[cvq3842]

Thanks for posting. I will bookmark to read later.

[Darnright]

>it would have been much more convenient for European traders to sail south to West Africa for slaves rather than halfway around the lands inhabited by Swahili speakers who, in fact, were the chief slave traders of East Africa. Apparently, they do not cover the whole story of slavery in Dr. Karenga’s Black Studies Department.<

Don't you just love the irony?

[Rummyfan]

It's up to blacks themselves to consign this 'holiday' to the trash can. But, then again, if a mjaority of blacks are not incensed that Clinton is called the 'first black president' and that they are continually patronized by the Democratic Party, I don't think there is much chance of that happening.

[BroncosFan]

Heck of a read. :)

[JOAT]

Thanks for reposting. Good exposure of the Kwanzaa fraud. The only thing the author omitted was Karenga's woman-torturing past.

[Verginius Rufus]

The idea is that Kwanzaa is supposed to mean "first fruits." There were pagan religions that had festivals celebrating the first fruits, but they were tied to the harvest. Is there any commonly-eaten food plant that produces its harvest in late December? Perhaps there are some places in the tropics where it is always hot and some fruit might be ripe in late December, but for most agriculturalists it's a weird time to pick.

On antebellum plantations in the Old South, slaves often were given the days between Christmas and New Year's off (apart from a few necessary tasks like milking the cows). I don't think they want to make a connection between that tradition and Kwanzaa.

The pagan Romans celebrated the birthday of the sun on December 25, which was then the date of the winter solstice (when the sun was about to start moving northward in the sky). The early Christians did not know the actual date of Jesus' birth so they picked December 25 to put a Christian meaning on the day of the pagan feast.

[Eastbound]

It just grows and grows. Reminiscent of how 'slam got up and running.

[Killing Time]

I'm not the biggest Anne Coulter fan but she did make me laugh when she wrote "is it me or is Kwanza way over-commercialised these days?".

[2banana]

I don't know anyone black or white that celebrates Kwanzaa
- it is entirely pushed on us by the media...

[Serb5150]

Great read.