“The Fresh Prince” was from his rap days, “DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince”. Remember “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson?”
And do NOT knock Queen Latifah. This white girl thinks she rocks.
Dude, it was the late 60s/early 70s. You had to be there.
(thinking) No, you’re better off not being there because you couldn’t laugh out loud about that shit 'cuz some Panther wannabe would ice you.
(thinking more) Okay, not ice you, but you’d get a two-hour harangue about cultural sensitivity and it would harsh your buzz. And the buzz was all you’d get out of the party 'cuz no African princess, real or recently crowned, was likely to be interested in YOUR (okay, MY) sorry, white ass.
Also, Kings of Leon? Queens of the Stone Age?
You can follow the links and Google it, but it’s a direct quote from a cite from a heavily disputed page on wiki, thus if the quote was bogus, it’d be gone by now. Read teh wiki discussion pages.
I know no-one that “partakes” of Kwanzaa.
Nothing to add, except that my wife was an editor on this book, which continues to sell: http://www.amazon.com/Imanis-Gift-Kwanzaa-Multicultural-Celebrations/dp/0671798413/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230663909&sr=1-1
All I know is, I saw one reference this season to Kwanzaa, and about thirty to Festivus.
Shouldn’t Kwanzaa-bot be distributing the traditional Kwanzaa gift? That’ll help move things along.
I know it’s a direct quote from the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry, on the other hand, is directly quoting that “christocentric.com” site that I linked to. That site doesn’t show any more of the quote, nor the context. That site also has a VERY obvious agenda. Again, it’s not that I don’t believe that that was their stance 30 years ago, I just want some decent evidence that that was the case. I linked to their current stance, and it definitely doesn’t back up that cite. Keep in mind, that quote came from a site that also has gems such as:
So I’d just like a little stronger evidence before I go Kwanzaa bashing.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
I was going to say, Futurama is the only reference to this “Kwanzaa” thing I’ve ever heard of.
People at least accept Festivus as a joke (because it’s pretty funny, IMHO)- If anyone is trying to get it made an actual holiday, it’s in the same spirit as “Talk Like A Pirate Day” (to which I reply: Where’s “Dress Like A Ninja Day”?) 
For the people who rarely hear about Kwanzaa: What type of circles do you normally associate with? I mean, I teach at an almost all black population school, with almost all black staff and I hear about Kwanzaa all the time. As I stated above, I even attended a Kwanzaa celebration this year as well as last year, heck, I was even invited to go up and dance on stage during the festivities. In fact, I can honestly say that I have heard more about Kwanzaa this year than Hannukah. In fact, I’ve been to more Kwanzaa celebrations in my life than Hannukah. I don’t know many Jewish people and perhaps that is why. I think it’s more about the circles you frequent, than whether a holiday is “dying out.”
I live in Australia, and more specifically in Queensland, which is not exactly the most cosmopolitan state in the Commonwealth ;). I don’t know anyone who celebrates Hanukkah, either, FWIW.
I asked a Muslim friend what he was doing for Christmas. “Enjoying the holidays, same as you!” was his reply.
To be fair, I’m sure there are a number of Australian celebrations unfamiliar to North Americans, like Chizz-Wuzzer Week and Koala-ala-day
I grew up with lots of black friends, still have a few (even there aren’t any black people in Arizona) and I swear I thought Kwanzaa was a brief media hype in the early '90s that turned into a joke that lasted waaaay too long. I had no idea it was ever really alive to be dead.
I get what you’re saying, but i’m not sure the contradiction you are asserting is a necessary one.
As long as a communitarian organization or institution or tradition involves free choice on the part of the participants, with no coercion, it poses no threat or contradiction to libertarian principles. Libertarianism is not inherently opposed to cooperation, association, or even socialism; it just asks that the relationships between people be rooted in freedom and voluntarism.
ETA: If anything, i’m surprised that a libertarian has such contempt for a voluntarist celebration that really has little or no impact on anyone not directly involved. There is, i guess, stuff about Kwanzaa that people might legitimately find strange or amusing or pointless or culturally regressive, but it really doesn’t do anyone any harm, as far as i can tell.
Well that falls into the OMG category. I had no idea. If this guy is Santa Claus I’d hate to be on his naughty list.
I don’t know how popular Kwanzaa is in my area but every year PBS shows a video describing it during the Christmas holiday.
Well, as has been pointed out many times and in many ways, not all holidays are “made up.” If we’ve been having a holiday around the winter solstice for untold millenia, I don’t think you can really Christmas as we know it was just invented one day.
But some holidays are in fact just invented one day. Mother’s Day is an example. But unlike Kwanzaa, Mother’s Day has grown and become generally accepted as a holiday. And this, to a large extent, supports your first point. Mother’s Day fulfills a need, whether it’s a need for mothers to be honored, or a need for FTD to sell more flowers.
You say the celebration was at a community center. Are these other Kwanzaa parties happening in public places or in people’s private homes? Could there be reasons that these institutions are holding these celebrations other than that people really care about Kwanzaa?
As EpiGirl said, “From what I have observed, few black people celebrate the holiday outside of a school or sometimes church setting, if at all.” I agree with this. I see evidence that people are still publically paying lip service to Kwanzaa, but I don’t see any that it has become genuinely meaningful to people.
Sorry, but I have worked for large corporations (not Hallmark, but I have a cousin who did) and I cannot believe they invented that in one day. Sure, there was the brainstorming session it came out of, but then there needed to be a committee to look into it, and then another to implement it, and before you know it, five years have passed by.
Somehow i doubt that Green Bean really meant that Mother’s Day went from idea to cultural institution in 24 hours.
Hallmark did not invent Mother’s Day at all. The holiday celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the U.S. was begun by Anna Jarvis in 1907 who campaigned for national recognition, which it got in 1914. She later became quite embittered about its commercialization.