Debra,

I hate to say it but you do kinda sound like a TOM here. Kwanzaa is what you make of it and when our family ( and most black families) celebrate Kwanzaa it has nothing to do with going back to Africa or anything to do with the white man, it is simply a beautiful celebration of our culture, that's it!!

We have a gospel concert here in Dallas and a Kwanzaafest in the Arts Center. The last year I went to Kwanzaafest there were white kids performing dance and music onstage with black kids, there was an Indian family buying African art, and there were black children learning about the history of their culture. It was a wonderful celebration and had nothing to do with hating whites.

I really don't care what the creator of Kwanzaa wanted the holiday to initially represent b/c like any American holiday, today's black community has made it our own and they are not interested in going back to Africa. Kwanzaa is simply a day to celebrate our culture with the world and promote peace on earth, that's it... Happy Kwanzaa!!!!

How are we ever going to end racism and bigotry as long as people have the us-versus-them attitudes that exist in so many of us? Why is there a "black community" that insists on being separate from the "white" ones? Why do we segregate ourselves according to religion, race, ethnic origin, or anything that distinguishes one human being from another? The best ideals of this country (and many others) include setting aside our past differences and being part of what and where we are now.

And I thought the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays thing was complicated.

re: Bill G 12/28/07 10:24 AM

What wise words!

We all belong to the human race, so why can't that be enough?

I was raised in NJ/NY and never heard of Kwanzaa until I went away to college, so I have doubts about Jennifer's claim that most black people celebrate it.

The problem is that it is held after everbody is already "holidayed" out after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and if they moved it to August which does not have any holidays me and many more people would celebrate it!

I object to your implication that homeschooling is unreasonable. My husband and I are very liberal folks and we homeschooled.

Our two boys were kept out of a racist, Christian fundamentalist, misogynistic school system and hung out instead with peers who were from every religious stripe (literally atheists to Zen Buddhists). We are religious, but that is not why we homeschooled. We did it because public schools and their mean-spirited, cookie-cutter approach were philosophically anathema to us.

That's admirable, HoosierNan, but in most home school situations, the very opposite reasons are the motivating factor. I remember knowing a girl whose family home schooled her and a day when I found myself gaping at her because she declared authoritatively: "Our founding fathers created America to be a Christian country!" They had home schooled her so that they could spoon feed her a revisionist concept of America. I was younger then and simply dismissed her as a lost cause. Now I wish I had probed her more, you know, to find out what she had been taught about slavery, the civil rights movement, prohibition, etc. When I read Ms. Dickerson's post, the line about home schooling made me smile - it may be a stereotype that doesn't hold true for you and many others, but it was recognizable to me. So cut her some slack, please.

"The best ideals of this country (and many others) include setting aside our past differences and being part of what and where we are now".

I think what you really mean is "be a part of what and where YOU are now". Y'know..."we're all just Americans", and all that. Which means when I try to enter the front door of a restaurant, and I'm told to go 'round back to get my food, I can't complain about racial discrimination, because after all, "we're all just Americans", and there is no such thing as "black". Right?

Acanthus, when was the last time you were asked to "go 'round back to get (your) food" ... and why didn't you sue their asses into the ground, or are you using some hitherto unknown technology that allows you to post here from the 1950's?

I should have said "when and if that day returns...", and don't tell me that the return of that day is impossible. It's looking less and less impossible every...day.

Thank you for coming back and making that post sound a little more reasonable. ;-)

D.Rose, have you ever been known to annoy your neighbors by banging on a trap set?
Somewhere in the Midwest, perhaps?

Some people do support Blacks, Afro-Americans going back to Africa. Abraham Lincoln did as well. He freed the slaves so they could return to the land that they were taken away from through the efforts of the Jewish financiers. (read the nation of Islam site for more on this).

DrooliusSneezer, have you ever been known to add something other than ad hominems to a conversation? Anywhere?

Touchy, are we?

If you consider my attempt to find out if you might be the same D.Rose who was a drummer I played music with years ago to be personal attack, then it's pretty certain you aren't that guy.
He was never that thin-skinned, and he'd have been perfectly willing to admit that we DID annoy the neighbors.., plenty, and laughed about it.

Sorry to have offended your delicate sensibilities.

My apologies for misinterpretifying your meaning. My BSL (Blood-Sacrasm Level) is a little low lately, so my ability to properly detect what's going on around me (good or not-so-much good) is off-kilter. Though, I am from the Midwest. Chicago specifically, but I moved to Reno NV in '86.

*sigh*

Bah humbug. Happy New Beer. ;-)

No harm, no foul.
I suppose I might have been able to find better wording for the question in the first place.., assuming it might NOT be someone who was a rock & roll drummer in a previous life...

I thought there was a very good chance you were him, since he later started a chain of video stores called 'D. Rose Video'.

I passed through Reno last year, on my way to pick up US 50 across the desert (America's loneliest highway) which I absolutely loved.
August.
About 116 degrees.
I'd take that any day, over Chicago.

Hope that's a tasty New Beer!
I know mine is! Dos Equis Amber.
I'd send you one, but it'd be warm by the time it got there...

Kwanzaa is a very important African-American holiday that recognizes both our African and American roots. Ya'll should watch a film about Kwanzaa called "The Black Candle" which is narrated by Maya Angelou and directed by M.K. Asante ,Jr.

Hope that's a tasty New Beer!