Well, first of all, Kwanzaa ain’t a holiday. By this, I mean that you don’t get days off for it, and I have no idea if the federal or state governments give any recognition. If you choose to celebrate it, you’ve got to use vacation days. Second, as for Black History Month - I honestly don’t know if there is a Latino History Month, but again, its not a holiday - it’s a proclamation of Congress. Hell, about a dozen years ago, Congress declared a week in September National Frankfurter and Kraut week (I kid you not – my friends and I found this very offensive to us German-Americans. ;)) Do you think March - Women’s History Month - is sexist?
As for the “racist” aspect - well, is Rosh Hoshana (sp?) discriminatory? I’ve never been invited to a synogauge for the High Holy Days, even when I was living with a rabbinical student.
Finally, as for the “pseudo-African claptrap” you decry - are Irish Americans being anti-American when they drink Guiness and listen to Irish folk songs on St. Patrick’s Day?
I really don’t see what your problem with Kwanzaa is. Yes, it’s a made-up holiday - so is Mother’s Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. Yes, it’s a celebration of one ethnicity/cultural group over others - so is St. Patrick’s Day, the feast of San Genero, Cinco de Mayo, and Gay Pride Day. Yes, it reaches back to invoke the memory/tradition of blacks’ distant forefather’s homelands - but hell, my Irish side of the family’s been here since 1817, and I know entirely too many Irish drinking songs.
Perhaps it depends on how you define racism. I take it to mean that someone is pre-judged (negatively) according to his/her skin color. Does that happen in Kwanzaa? Does that happen in any of the holidays mentioned here? Is celebrating one heritage necessarily the denigration of another? I’ve never looked at it that way.
It’s not like Kwanzaa is based on principles like “Black is Better” and “Down with whitey.” The principles espoused for Kwanzaa are the kind I’d be happy to have my lily-white, aryan-looking, anglo-saxon protestant son embrace. If they want to teach about it in his school, great. I suspect that in his school they’ll also talk about Ramadan and Cinqo de Mayo. Then again, Ann Arbor is liberal that way.
As someone else pointed out, it’s not as if we get days off for this holiday.
I also resent the widely-accepted view that Martin Luther King day is a day “for” black people. What the fuck? So black people are the only people that benefitted from his ideas and ideals and leadership?
What, someone on the SDMB admitting they may have been mistaken? In the pit, no less? Mark your calendars! Holy sweet jesus whipped into pate and served on a ritz! I think it might be the seventh sign of the apocolypse.
Kudos to you, goboy, most people seem very reluctant to say anything of the kind.
Of course, this means we’ll now have to run your ass off the boards.
No, but I can’t think of another first-world nation that’s as scared shitless by the thought that something could possibly be gasp socialist or social-democratic.
Hispanic Heritage Month does exist. Strangely it begins mid month. It lasts from mid-September to mid-October. (I think its the 15th of each).
There’s also the Asian Pacific-American Heritage Month. It is May.
And somebody, somewhere does celebrate American-Indian Heritage Month. From the graphic, I’d have to assume it’s in November.
Now if only I can only figure a way to take all of these days off. Hell, I’m a black man with substansial Cherokee and Creek (and possibly Shawnee, too) with an Irish surname, who finds the Asian women very attractive.
October 24, 2000 – Today, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution sponsored by Congressman Michael Capuano supporting the month of October as “Italian-American Heritage Month”.…
Just move to Australia - we celebrate anything and everything here (which is precisely why our biggest cultural celebration is the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras).
The thing I love about my country is how inclusive we are of just about everything; I’m an atheist, but my kids celebrate just about every religious festival known to mankind.
I understand that the US is slightly different and that your constitution has had unforeseen consequences. But honestly, if any country (mine included) had to declare public holidays for all possible religious or other significant days in the calender which are worthy of acknowledgement, we would all be at home far more often than we would be at work or school…
From these three of the seven tenets (bolding mine),
UJIMA (COLLECTIVE WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY) - To build and maintain our community together, and make our sisters’ and brothers’ problems and to solve them together.
UJAMAA (COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS) - To build and maintain our own shops, stores and other businesses and to profit from them together.
NIA (PURPOSE) - To make our collective vocation the building and development of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
I’d say it’s not racist, but communist!
gasp
That’s UnMerkin and must be stopped!
Unless they start giving days off for it. Then I’m all over it.
PS- I did cut and paste exactly from the link, so I don’t know why the first tenet says, “…make our sisters’ and brothers’ problems and to solve them together.”
“Jambo, jambo, means ‘hello’ in a friendly kind of African way…”
Gotta weigh in in agreement here. King was a genuine hero, one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century, a catalyst for changes that were of benefit to everyone, an inspiration to all humankind, and a martyr for justice and freedom. I can think of few people more deserving of national recognition.
I know quite a few black folk. None practice or celebrate Kwanzaa. My guess is all the fuss is caused by the media in an attempt to be politically correct. sputnick & medea made similar points.
Hey goboy. This is why you’re one of my favorite posters… In all seriousness, I frequently disagree with you, but you put forth your case convincingly, and you never say things you don’t mean. If you’re wrong you’ll admit it… And many times I see your points, and accept that you have good reasons for your views, even if I don’t agree with them… Frankly, Kwanzaa scares me far less than European History Month. A celbration of White European Culture. Which we clebrate here in CA.
Maybe Kwanzaa’s just another holiday set up by all those evil capitalists (Hallmark and the department stores) to oppress the black man into spending more money during the holidays?
Well, fuck me!! We can all proclaim holidays whenever we see damn fit…
…unless it’s politically incorrect. So it’s quite all right for minorities to celebrate their culture but if Europeans (who weren’t old enough to import or own slaves…last time I checked there aren’t any 150 year olds around) choose to do it then its racist?? Of course, there’s no double standard! (never mind the fact that black nationalism is racism or the Marxist roots of the whole damn holiday!)
Well, I suppose that means that everyone except the Irish and Germans (since Quebec is not in America, that doesn’t really count, now does it?) has no right to celebrate their history??
I suppose that means all the Scots, Welsh, English, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Swiss, Belgians, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Sweedish, Nordic, Austrians, Czechs, Slovaks, Polish, Romanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenians, Albanians, Turks, Ukranians and Russians and their descendants are shit out of luck because they’re the “evil, oppressive, white Europeans”???
Quebec is not in the U.S., but it is certainly in America.
Every one of the groups you mentioned can have whatever celebration they want. (Many of them do.) Such celebrations tend to occur where there are enough persons of ethnic descent to justify getting together to have a party. If you have not seen these celebrations, move to a more ethnically diverse and less boring part of the country.
oldscratch’s point was not that people of European descent should not be allowed to celebrate their culture, but that lumping all the Europeans together as if they have one single culture does look a bit racist since the only thing they really have in common is their skin. As noted, above, blacks do not have the opportunity to celebrate as Ibo or Yoruba or Masai or whatever because that knowledge was ripped away from them when they were dragged over here.
Well, I think the “evil, oppressive, Europeans” rap is a load of hooey. Every continent has seen atrocities and oppression; cruelty and bigotry are, unfortunately, the uglier part of human nature.
I really have no time for hyphenated Americans. I’m not a European-American, I’m not a Native American (and I qualify equally for both)–I’m an American, full stop. Yes, it’s important to know where you and your family came from, but the fact is that this is our home, this is our country. We have way too much attention paid to race in America, and I’d like to see a little more homogenization, more attention paid to the things which bind us together than to the things which divide us.
As for moving, I move based on how prosperous I can be in any given place, not because I give a fuck about diversity or boredom level, because quite frankly I DON’T…I care about prosperity and freedom.
As for appearances of racism…well, I don’t give a damn about the appearance of anything…prove to me you have real, documentable racism and I’ll believe you and fight it. As for the use of the word racist, certainly a nice, simple * ad hominem * attack pre-prepared, isn’t it?