Happy Kwanzaa

Happy Kwanzaa to everyone.

The holiday reminds us just how far we have to go in our quest for social justice. Shutterfly, for example, shows only one or two people with light skin as sample images for their Kwanzaa cards. The implication is that, for example, nobody who identifies as Asian celebrates this most important of world holidays:

Here’s a worksheet that a second grader was recently sentenced to fill out:

Note the Freudian slip at the bottom: “White any customs from that country that you know about.” The second-grader did not learn about which region of Africa enjoys a harvest season starting the day after Christmas. Nor, sadly, did the second grade class learn about the colorful biography of Kwanzaa’s inventor:

In 1971, [Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett)] was sentenced to one to 10 years in prison on counts of felony assault and false imprisonment. One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman described having been stripped naked and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga’s estranged wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that she sat on the other woman’s stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.

From the LA Times:

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 Miss Davis’ mouth and placed against Miss Davis’ face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of [US Organization], also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters.

Related:

• Maulana Karenga’s home page at Cal State Long Beach, where he is the Department Chair of Africana Studies.