Kwanzaa stamps an expression of hate?

by philg

I went to the Post Office today to get some stamps for our New Year’s cards. It’s Florida so naturally the guy working the counter wasn’t wearing a mask and didn’t ask any customers to wear one either. A handful of stamp designs were available, one of which features a personal favorite holiday:

(A 2018 design, so apparently not a big seller. The office also had the 2020 Kwanzaa stamp.)

Is this image of an apparently mixed-gender-ID nuclear family acceptable in our 2SLGBTQQIA+ world? Or can it be considered cisgender-normative and heteronormative hate?

The image can’t be excused on the ground that what is shown is the typical Black American family structure. Wikipedia:

About 67 percent of black children are born into a single parent household.

There is no corresponding 1950s-style nuclear white family image on any modern USPS stamp that I could find, so the anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ message seems to be specifically associated with Kwanzaa.

Current Hanukkah stamps show a family of just two people, one taller than the other, i.e., potentially a single-parent family (or maybe the depicted individuals are two kids and the same-gender parents are off camera?).

What about Christmas stamps? Believe it or not, not only has the USPS removed the Christ from Christmas, the agency has removed Christmas from Christmas. There are stamps featuring snow and one depicting Santa flying, but I couldn’t find any that actually showed a religious ritual, as with the Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stamps. The Diwali stamp has a ritual lamp. The Eid stamp has an inscription in Arabic that I can’t read, but USPS says it means “May your Eid be bountiful (or blessed)”.

Note: Of course I bought one Kwanzaa stamp for every card addressed to a friend back in Maskachusetts with a BLM sign on his/her/zir/their lawn!

13 thoughts on “Kwanzaa stamps an expression of hate?”

    • That’s the series I wrote about in the original post. It shows Santa flying. I’m not sure that it shows anything that could qualify as a “religious ritual” that is part of Christmas, unless you count Santa’s own peregrinations as a Christian religious ritual.

  2. The US Postal Service apparently has not yet reached Google’s level of sophistication in which they celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with Doodles portraying genderless, sexless ducklike creatures. Sometimes one ducklike creature is bigger than the other.

    Give them time, the USPS is a big organization that changes very slowly. As one of our former Presidents (Barack Obama) once said (I’m paraphrasing): “It’s like turning an ocean liner, not a speedboat.”

    • > What about Christmas stamps?

      I guess the US Postal Service has decided that US Christians should have been philatelists and/or stamp collectors, ’cause they ain’t getting no more Christmas stamps. Are there any stamps at all that even say: “Merry Christmas” any longer?

      https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv

      They have “Day of the Dead” stamps and “Mystery Message” stamps, and at least TWO Kwanzaa stamps. There is a single current stamp ($0.58 first class) that has the word “Christmas” printed on it:

      “Our Lady of Guápulo is a local variant of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain. The image venerated as Our Lady of Guápulo originated as a sculpture, commissioned in Quito, Ecuador, in 1584 and transferred to a chapel in the nearby village of Guápulo in 1587.”

      https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/our-lady-of-gupulo-stamps-S_682904

      So that’s it, Christian Yankees! No more Christmas stamps for you! Day of the Dead!

  3. “About 67 percent of black children are born into a single parent household.”

    This scene could be a single parent household. Maybe they get together to celebrate Kwanzaa but don’t live together.

  4. The post office like the bank nowadays seems something only frequented by the poor and uneducated. So in the bank you will typically see someone with wads of cash trying to accomplish something or other presumably because he is uncomfortable with using an ATM machine. And in the post office you typically see someone trying to mail a package and involved in some complex negotiation with the postal clerk – rather than just using FedEx. So it could be that the choice of stamps is what the customers want. I realize that supposing that the post office is responsive to consumer preferences is a bit of a stretch but wouldn’t that be the best explanation?

  5. The cutting edge art is Socialist Realism in software projects:

    https://www.torproject.org/

    If one compares that level of sophistication with the redneck stamp, it is fair to say that the stamp is a hate-stamp, even if it is from 2018.

    • That’s not socialist realism. Regardless of what you think of socialism,Socialist realism actually requires talent unlike the drek that artist “produced”

  6. Data point 1) I go into my local Airsoft shop to recharge my Sodastream — proudly made by Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria — only to find — ugatz! No CO2 for you mon frere, apparently hospitals have first call on bottled gases, followed by the restaurant trade, with us lowly civilians, paintball players, etc. at the bottom of the heap. Come back Friday! We may get lucky. My guy further tells me his suppliers have put him on notice, if you didn’t get your Xmas order in by T’day — fuggedaboudit. I bust on him with that old Monty Python routine. He gets the joke….sorta.

    “Do you have any CHEESE in this CHEESE SHOP?”

    Data point 2) After a summer of living with a demolished driveway, I finally line up an asphalt guy who knows a guy who will do the stamped concrete thing the way I want it. Who, in turn, knows a guy who will help with the rest of the demolition — 2 more bobtails of broken paving. So I write him a $2500 check to get things started…I get a call the next day. His bank won’t clear the check for 9 days. NINE DAYS! What country are we in? My bank, on the other hand, has debited my account that afternoon. Float much? So fine, he needs cash pronto, he’s got materials to buy, subs to pay, I drop whatever and head to the bank.

    “How would you like it?”
    “Uh, hundreds would be fine,” thinking, Is there any other reasonable denomination to carry any amount over, say, a grand? No hundreds.
    You kiddin me? The machine spits 50’s, and runs out, and then a gusher of 20’s. I walk away with a wad in my chest pocket like a drug dealer. Sheesh. Fortunately my guy who knows a guy is an old hand at counting cash and unfazed.

    Thinking ahead to payoff day when all my concrete is laid and stamped, I figure I’m gonna need cash. So being the clever devil I am, I am going to OUTSMART THE BANK! I am going to call ahead. Actually, I am going to VISIT. We are going eye-to-eye, mano a mano…uh, womano, and I AM GOING TO GET MY BENJAMINS!

    It’ll take a week. (What — do you print them up yourselves?) Okay, fine. The call comes a few days later, my cash is in. I’ll be by in a coupla days. I show up at the teller’s window, fingers curling in anticipation of fondling a short stack of crisp benjys. The machine spits 100’s, then balks, starts spewing 20’s. I’ve drained the bank. The teller bands the 100’s into a 2 grand bundle, and stacks 500 in 20’s, which she presents like a sushi chef with some ‘specially fine sashimi. I eye the pile, give her my Labrador’s What-you-don’t-wanna-play-fetch? look and pronounce Whazzis?

    She smiles wanly, “2 thousand in hundreds and 500 in twenties”. Yeah, I can see that. “It’s the end of the month.” It’s the 3rd of December.
    They do not wish me a wonderful day.

    So I see in the paper some guy held up a downtown branch of my bank, and he got away with hundreds. Sheesh. How does HE rate and not ME! a paying customer for years?!

    Whatta country. Willie Sutton is spinning in his grave.

    • That’s good. Very funny. I’m glad our host and his blog is here for us to vent our frustrations referencing old Monty Python skits!

      Today I went to a branch of my local bank and attempted to *deposit* some cash, about $1000 in mixed 100s, 50s and 20s. I filled out the deposit slip correctly, pulled into the drive-up lane, placed the money + slip and my ID into the tray, and thought: “This should be quick.”

      It took almost 15 minutes! I watched through the window as it transpired. First the new guy (only guy working in the bank, young, maybe 30) took the money and walked back to his workstation, where he started clicking buttons and looking at the screen. Long delays followed with more clicking and more typing. Another associate was called for assistance. The two of them combined their wits for another few minutes of looking and clicking. Finally the Branch Manager (whom I recognize) was called over and she clicked them through the process of making a cash deposit. The young guy counted the money at least four times, and I think he got it wrong the first three. It was a really simple count: the 100’s and 50’s combined to $650 and the 20s combined to $280. So that’s (650+300)-20 = $930. I did it right the first time and I’m not used to counting that much cash.

      Anyway, after almost 15 minutes, the guy returns to the window, gives me back my ID and receipt and says: “Sorry for the delay, we had a computer glitch. Have a great New Years!” Uh huh.

      Then, as I’m trying to exit the drive-up window, a car passes me moving rather quickly on my right. A woman comes BURSTING out the back door of the bank and flags the driver down, who slams on the brakes like he hit the arresting hook on an aircraft carrier. They proceed to have another five or six minute frantic conversation, blocking my path while two other cars have now pulled up behind me and are waiting impatiently.

      Finally she gestures for the Carrier Lander to drive back around to the entrance and the obstruction is cleared.

      Must have been a bad day! This is usually a pretty good bank, service-wise. You do start to get that “third world country” feeling, though.

      Wait until I tell you the story about the truck rental place that doesn’t rent trucks!

      “Do you have any CHEESE in this CHEESE SHOP?”

  7. My first thought was that if they only add two candles to that Kwanzaa stamp it could also serve as a Hannukah stamp!

Comments are closed.