Politically Incorrect Kwanzaa

You don’t like the current slate of holidays that we celebrate here in America? Then why not create one of your own? That's exactly what Ronald Everett did back in 1966. He named it "Kwanzaa."

Since then, many people have embraced this new holiday. Check out almost any appointment calendar and you'll find it duly noted on Dec. 26 that "Kwanzaa begins." Stroll through your local card and party store and you'll find Kwanzaa items.

You can even look it up in the World Book Encyclopedia, where you'll find a nifty little article that says Kwanzaa was created by "a black cultural leader." And those who celebrate it will often tell you that it's not just for African Americans.

They're not telling you the whole story; in fact, it's doubtful that they even know the origins of Kwanzaa. Few people do, because the voluminous amount of ink expended on Ronald McKinley Everett most often refers to him as Dr. Maulana Karenga and rarely examines his past.

A visit to the "Official Kwanzaa website" will provide you with the following biography of the founder of the Kwanzaa holiday.

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is also chair of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Karenga holds two Ph.D.'s; his first in political science with focus on the theory and practice of nationalism (United States International University) and his second in social ethics with a focus on the classical African ethics of ancient Egypt (University of Southern California). He also holds an honorary doctorate of philosophy from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa. Moreover, he is the director of the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies, Los Angeles, and national chairman of The Organization Us, a cultural and social change organization, so named to stress the communitarian focus of the organization. Dr. Karenga has had a profound and far-reaching effect on Black intellectual and political culture. Through his organization Us and his philosophy, Kawaida, he has played a vanguard role in shaping the Black Arts Movement, Black Studies, the Black Power Movement, Black Student Union Movement, Afrocentri­city, rites of passage programs, the study of ancient Egyptian culture as an essential part of Black Studies, the independent Black school movement, African life-cycle ceremonies, the Simba Wachanga youth movement, and Black theological and ethical discourse. Dr. Karenga is also widely known as the creator of Kwanzaa, an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated throughout the world African community on every continent in the world. He is the author of the authoritative book on the subject: Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and lectures regularly and extensively on the vision and values of Kwanzaa, especially the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles), in various national and international venues.

Now, here is a portion of Dr. Karenga's past that you won't be hearing about in the mainstream media.

Forget the notion that Kwanzaa is a holiday for all people. Dr. Karenga states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement in the 1960's as part of a "re-Africanization" process – "a going back to black."

Dr. Karenga, still just "Ron Everett" at the time, was heavily involved in the black power movement. He started an organization called US. The letters have nothing to do with "United States" but mean simply "US" (blacks), as opposed to "THEM" (whites).

He dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili one, which means "master teacher," shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. US members, similarly attired, often clashed with other black militant groups such as the Black Panthers. The fighting was about which group would control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA.

There were incidents involving beatings and shootings, including one in 1969 in which two US members shot and killed two Black Panthers. Dr. Karenga had other run-ins with the law, including charges that he abused women.

In 1971 (5 years after the creation of Kwanzaa) Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing over a two day period two women from the US organization, Deborah Jones and Gail Davis. 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 Ms. Davis's mouth and placed against Ms. Davis's face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said."

Karenga was released from prison after serving about four years, in which time he adopted new views on the relevance of Marxism and reorganized his group US.

Dr. Karenga says that it was he and not the women who was actually the victim; he was quoted in the News: "All the negative charges are in fact disinformation and frame-ups by the FBI and local and national police."

The good Dr. Karenga knows a lot about being a victim, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the "forces" out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included: "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department.

One thing that's interesting to note about the inventor of Kwanzaa: Practically all of his crimes were committed against black people. And yet, today, he is simply known as an academic who created a holiday for cultural unity.

The militant past of the creator of Kwanzaa is now ignored in favor of the so-called seven principles of Nguza Saba – Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani.

Coincidentally, these seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani – the same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.

Perhaps William Ayers can invent a similar "faux-holiday" ("The Weather Underground Festival?") for radical marxist white people.

[Note: Special thanks to Brian Sharkey for sending me down this particular road.]