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   From: email@BelowThe.Text   
      
   So this is Kwanzaa   
   By Lynn Woolley   
   December 12, 2001   
      
   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   
   December 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.   
      
   However, the story of Ron Everett, a.k.a. Dr. Karenga, has been told   
   -- notably in a Dallas Morning News article from December 26, 1996 and   
   in David Horowitz's late publication Heterodoxy, in the December, 1999   
   issue. The story behind the holiday and the man who created it is most   
   interesting.   
      
   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 as part of a "re-Africanization" process -- "a   
   going back to black."  Dr. Karenga, still just "Ron Everett" at the   
   time, was heavily into the black power movement.  He started an   
   organization called US.  The letters have nothing to do with "United   
   States," but just means "US" as opposed to "THEM."   
      
   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, he was convicted of assaulting female members   
   of US, and he served time in prison.  An LA Times snippet describes   
   the torture of the women as involving a hot soldering iron placed in   
   the mouth of one, while the other's toe was mashed in a vise.   
      
   Dr. Karenga says that he is 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."   
      
   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.  Nine years after Kwanzaa was invented, he   
   decided to moderate his views and became a Marxist.  In 1979, he was   
   hired to run the Black Studies Department at Cal State - Long Beach,   
   in all likelihood, the first ex-con to do so.   
      
   And so this is Kwanzaa -- the militant past of the creator now ignored   
   in favor of the so-called seven principles of Nguza Saba -- stuff like   
   unity, family and self-determination that could have come from Bill   
   Bennett's "Book of Virtues."  The word "Kwanzaa" is Swahili, meaning   
   something like "fresh fruits of harvest."   
      
   No one remembers the part about "re-Africanization," or the sevenfold   
   path of blackness that Dr. Karenga once espoused.   Hardly anyone   
   remembers the shootings, the beatings the tortures and the prison   
   terms that were once the center of his life.  It's just not PC to   
   bring that sort of stuff up now that Kwanzaa is commercialized and   
   making big bucks.   
      
   Dr. Karenga does his part to promote the holiday and forget the past.   
   In December, he goes on his annual "Kwanzaa circuit" of speeches and   
   appearances.  And he writes.  Remember that little article in the   
   World Book Encyclopedia that legitimized Dr. Karenga as a "black   
   cultural leader?"  You guessed it -- he wrote the article himself.   
      
   Happy Kwanzaa.   
      
   Lynn Woolley's e-mail address is lynn@belogical.com   
      
      
      
   Cordially,   
   Ken (NY)   
      
   "What we know about Osama bin Laden is this:-  he's worth $300 million, he   
   has five wives and 26 kids ... and he hates Americans for their 'excessive'   
   lifestyle."   
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