Tonight is the 1st night of a Kansas City tradition that's much more lively and fun than most of the holiday season sentimentality.
Drums, dancing and some pretty great performances mark this cultural tradition that actually has more significance than most of the totally made up rituals surrounding Christmas. More importantly, it's a pretty fun time.
Yeah, we know there will probably be more than a few haters on this post showing their ignorance BUT it's worth reminding folks that every night this week will feature a holiday celebration that's worth checking out in order to celebrate our diverse Kansas City communities.
You decide . . .
Just saw this on FB:
ReplyDeleteI like kwanza because it makes racist white people man.
Fair enough.
Did you know that Jesus was really born on the 3rd night of Kwanzaa?
ReplyDeletewill the mayor attend? Has he ever attended?
ReplyDeleteWHAT'S WRONG WITH KWANZAA???
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with it per se, but it's important to understand where it came from.
Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966, as the first specifically African-American holiday. According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits of the harvest." Keep in mind that Swahili is an East African language, and most of the Atlantic slave trade that brought African people to America originated in West Africa.
Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s. For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also underscored an essential premise that "you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution." During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said that it was meant to be an "oppositional alternative" to Christmas.
Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (birth name Ronald McKinley Everett) was born July 14, 1941 in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the fourteenth child in the family. His father was a tenant farmer and Baptist minister. Everett moved to Los Angeles in 1959, joining his older brother who was a teacher there, and attended Los Angeles City College (LACC). He became active with civil rights organizations Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He earned a BA and MA from UCLA. When the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles and racial disturbances spread across the country, Karenga and many of the groups he affiliated with urged the establishment of a separate political structure for African-Americans.
Karenga and the Circle of Seven established a ultra-radical, paramilitary, black nationalist cult organization in the aftermath called US (meaning "Us black people or United Slave"). US engaged in violent competition with the Black Panther Party in their claim to be a revolutionary vanguard. This heightened level of conflict eventually led to a shoot-out at UCLA in 1969 in which two Panthers were killed. Following the UCLA shootout, Panthers and US members carried out a series of retaliatory shootings that resulted in at least two more deaths among the Panthers. In 1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment. One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman described having been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord.
So, while we encourage all people to take pride in their heritage and honor their rich ethnic history, if you consider yourself an American, please think twice before you follow the principles laid out by a man named Ronald Everett who was born in Maryland, advocated for violence against other black groups and the United States government, and is a convicted felon.
UNITED WE STAND STRONG AS AMERICANS
Blacks like kwanzaa because it means seven nights of looting
ReplyDeleteThe Media loves "Kwanza" just like they love a good Race Hoax. They are both phony as shit and everyone knows it, but who cares?
ReplyDeleteI wonder how my family is doing this Christmas. This is the first Christmas since I was killed here in KC in a black on white Hate Crime.
Those sensitive microphones that are mounted on high poles that pick up the locations of gunfire & then immediately report the location to the law......
ReplyDeleteThey have those down there YET? And why not?
What better place than the Jazz shit hole to spend the $$$ for that?
Would that be a better investment than more troublesome streetcar tracks?
With no consequences in KC for shooters (as a rule), gunfire will become even more common in 2017, and you'll need that technology and those microphones in KC a helluva lot more than you'll need a broken down trolley to the Plaza or the Northland.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2016-12-21.html#read_more
No Tony, ignorance is celebrating a faux holiday for 7 days in a neighborhood that is a black hole (pardon the pun) for taxpayer dollars.
ReplyDelete^^^ Good point. I also liked post #7:45 for bringing some real knowledge.
ReplyDeleteLet people celebrate their traditions without hate.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAmerican blacks like Kwanzaa 'cause Charlie Parker invented it at 18th and Vine. It's in the Quran just before the section on how to french kiss your camel.
Thank you 7:45! I knew that it was founded in 1966 LA to give blacks a holiday of their own, even going so far as to use a Swahili word for the title. I didn't know all that background on its founder, and his intent. I don't think the Eastern vs. Western Africa origin of Swahili was even a player; I remember back that far, and just tracing it back to Swahili was enough, at that time, to show ownership by blacks. Thank you for the background!
ReplyDeleteWhy I can not take black history seriously.............
ReplyDelete839 he is a felon because he threw his pregnant girlfriend down a flight of stairs, which makes the dislike even easier.
ReplyDelete