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Who Actually Celebrates Kwanzaa? (Reader poll result suggests the holiday may be past its prime)
The Root ^ | 12/30/2011 | By: Joshua R. Weaver

Posted on 12/30/2011 3:33:58 PM PST by SeekAndFind

A lone Christmas tree on a makeshift pedestal stands prominently in the center of Howard University's main quadrangle, which is uncharacteristically empty during the first week of December. Students rush by to make it to their exams on time, with the tree serving as a reminder of the holiday traditions that await them after their last final. But for one Howard student, this evergreen emblem doesn't represent the true essence of the holiday spirit.

"My mother, she was very hard on trying to make us celebrate Kwanzaa. She felt that it was more important than Christmas," Howard student Jasper Henderson told The Root. "Kwanzaa has more definition of life -- Christmas is just presents."

Not everyone feels the same as Henderson and his mom. According to an unscientific poll of 472 of The Root's readers, only 35 percent of respondents currently observe Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday based on seven principles that is celebrated over the last week of the year. Half of all respondents have participated in such celebrations at least once in their lives.

Kwanzaa, a holiday created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, black nationalist and current chair of Africana studies at California State University, Long Beach, seems to resonate most with the baby boomer generation and may be past its prime.

In fact, almost half -- 41 percent -- of all respondents born between 1946 and 1964 celebrate Kwanzaa, while those born in or before 1945 and in or after 1982 are least likely to celebrate the holiday. What's more, those born before 1945 are least likely to know someone who celebrates Kwanzaa, while those between the ages of 46 and 64 are most likely to know someone who celebrates the holiday.

(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: kwanzaa
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1 posted on 12/30/2011 3:34:04 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

only elementary public school teachers.


2 posted on 12/30/2011 3:39:48 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB (Congress: Looting the future to bribe the present.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Kwanzaa, a holiday created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, black nationalist and current chair of Africana studies at California State University, Long Beach

That's odd.

The article fails to mention that Karenga served time in prison for brutally torturing women.

Hmmm...

3 posted on 12/30/2011 3:40:45 PM PST by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Kwanzaa has more definition of life -- Christmas is just presents."

I am at a loss for words.

4 posted on 12/30/2011 3:43:43 PM PST by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: SeekAndFind

The inlaws of Akeem Joffer whose queen happens to be their daughter kiss up to Zamunda customs. They are believed to celebrate Kwanzaa and decorate for it at McDowell’s hamburger restaurants across the country.


5 posted on 12/30/2011 3:44:47 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 ..... Crucifixion is coming)
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To: SeekAndFind

I have never met, nor known of anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa.


6 posted on 12/30/2011 3:47:32 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: Pollster1

That line jumped out at me, too. If Christmas was never about anything but presents for this guy, then he needs more “life defining” than some phony festival invented in the 1960s.


7 posted on 12/30/2011 3:49:15 PM PST by DemforBush (A Repo man is *always* intense!)
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To: SeekAndFind

8 posted on 12/30/2011 3:51:14 PM PST by Baynative (The penalty for not participating in politics is you will be governed by your inferiors.)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

And, apparently, the President...he issued holiday greetings to that effect.


9 posted on 12/30/2011 3:55:26 PM PST by LiteKeeper ("Who is John Galt?")
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To: Pollster1

It’s the saddest part of this article. May Mrs. H and her son learn the true meaning of Christmas ASAP.


10 posted on 12/30/2011 3:56:19 PM PST by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

Only “white” elementary school teachers.


11 posted on 12/30/2011 4:05:38 PM PST by SkyDancer ("If You Want To Learn To Love Better, You Should Start With A Friend Who You Hate")
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To: SeekAndFind

Ronald McKinley Everett AKA

Maulana Karenga

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

Conviction for assault

In 1971, Karenga “was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment”.[11] One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman claimed to have been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga’s former wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that he sat on the other woman’s stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.

A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:

“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.”

Karenga explained his actions by saying that one of the women he had tortured had attempted to assassinate him, but he had no evidence.[11][12][13] He was imprisoned at the California Men’s Colony, where he studied and wrote on feminism, Pan-Africanism and other subjects. The Us organization fell into disarray during his absence and was disbanded in 1974. After he petitioned several black state officials to support his parole on fair sentencing grounds, it was granted in 1975.


12 posted on 12/30/2011 4:08:36 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Santorum..., are you giving it some thought? I knew you would.)
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To: SeekAndFind
only 35 percent of respondents currently observe Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday

I wouldn't say that. I've seen scores of Kwanzaa celebrating shoppers at malls across the nation, especially when the Michael Jordan shoes came out...........

13 posted on 12/30/2011 4:13:24 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (Santa missed my house again....or maybe he's stuck in the chimney. I'll go look.......)
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To: SeekAndFind
Who Actually Celebrates Kwanzaa?

Hate-whitey racists.

14 posted on 12/30/2011 4:22:32 PM PST by Old Sarge (RIP FReeper Skyraider (1930-2011) - You Are Missed)
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To: Old Sarge

Who Actually Celebrates Kwanzaa?

Hate-whitey racists.
________________________________
Exactly!


15 posted on 12/30/2011 4:24:32 PM PST by sanjuanbob (Festina Lente)
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To: Hot Tabasco

That’s the Day of Airjordan, a little known ritual in Kwanzaa.


16 posted on 12/30/2011 4:27:11 PM PST by bigdirty
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To: SeekAndFind

I just ran out of Qwanza wrapping paper this year ... it is always a hoot to get the Thank you letters after Christmas

TT


17 posted on 12/30/2011 4:27:47 PM PST by TexasTransplant (Radical islam is real islam. Moderate islam is the trojan horse.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Check out this brief news clip on the recent Kwanzaa parade in LA. My guess is that the only people who showed up to see the parade had family members participating. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/12/26/kwanzaa-parade-preps-underway-on-crenshaw-boulevard
18 posted on 12/30/2011 4:32:52 PM PST by Nevadan
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To: Inyo-Mono

re: “I have never met, nor known of anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa.”

During all my years of teaching, I’ve only had two students ask me about why I never mention Kwanzaa - both were white kids. I just pretended I didn’t hear them and went on with the lesson and they forgot about it.

I think it is dying a natural death of irrelvancy. I have always had several black kids in my classes over the years and I’ve never heard them mention Kwanzaa or celebrating it themselves - ever.

I did have one fellow faculty member ask me what kinds of things I did to teach my students about Kwanzaa. I told her I didn’t do anything about it. I said my reasons have to do with its “founder”. Of course she didn’t know what I was talking about, so I asked her if I could give her a file about Kwanzaa. I told her that if after reading it and researching it that she still wanted me to do something on Kwanzaa to talk to me about it and I would discuss it with her.

She read the file and never talked with me about it again.


19 posted on 12/30/2011 4:35:47 PM PST by Nevadan
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To: Nevadan

Great video. Four spectators, a dog, and a guy waiting for a bus.

Where were all the Qwanzoo floats?


20 posted on 12/30/2011 4:41:45 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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