Misplaced Pages

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African Pledge and Principles of Blackness

The article states "A Kwanzaa ceremony may include ... a reading of the African Pledge and the Principles of Blackness" No explanation is given for what the African Pledge states or what constitute the Principles of Blackness. Misplaced Pages has no page for either, and this page is the only place either of those phrases appear on Misplaced Pages. A citation link is given to an article on Epicurious, a food site, that makes no mention of these, and another citation to a book on Google books, The Nguzo Saba and the Festival of First Fruits. The Google books search says that neither the phrase "African Pledge" nor the phrase "Principles of Blackness" appear in that book. Can anyone provide an explanation with referenced citations? If this can't be done after a reasonable time, I suggest those claims be omitted from the article as unsupported. 217.155.66.190 (talk) 16:09, 1 December 2020 (UTC) Karanga was convinced that the women were trying to poison him. He and three members of his cult had tortured the women in an attempt to find some nonexistent “crystals” of poison. Karenga thought his enemies were out to get him. Heck even the scam’s creator, Maulana Karenga admitted it was a fraud. In 1978 he told the Washington Post’s Hollie West:

“I created Kwanzaa,” laughed Ron Karenga like a teenager who’s just divulged a deeply held, precious secret. “People think it’s African. But it’s not. I wanted to give black people a holiday of their own. So I came up with Kwanzaa. I said it was African because you know black people in this country wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of bloods (blacks) would be partying!” Kwanzaa ceremonies have no discernible African roots. No culture on earth celebrates a harvesting ritual in December, for instance, and the implicit pledges about human dignity don’t necessarily jibe with such still-common practices as female circumcision and polygamy. The inventors of Kwanzaa weren’t promoting a return to roots; they were shilling for Marxism. They even appropriated the term “ujima,” which Julius Nyrere cited when he uprooted tens of thousands of Tanzanians and shipped them forcibly to collective farms, where they proved more adept at cultivating misery than banishing hunger. So what is Kwanzaa? It’s the ultimate fraud. It is a holiday created by a man responsible for violently torturing two women–and it has a fascist goal of separating the races. If Black people in America would like to come up with a holiday that celebrates their valuable contribution to America I would not object. Nor would I object to a celebration of the rich Western Africa culture that many of them lost when they were dragged from their homeland to become slaves.

It is hard to understand why anybody would want to follow a violent felon, in a made-up holiday that mistakes racism and segregation-ism for spirituality, and fiction for history. And especially in the days of “me too,” I don’t understand why black women would encourage the celebration of this holiday when one considers its inventor. But then again, t then I never understood why white women continued to stand behind and promote Ted Kennedy and/or Bubba Clinton. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael51586 (talk • contribs) 13:48, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Wasn't this Fellow Karenga an Ex-Convict?

This article really seems to gloss over the facts, which are that this "holiday" was made up by an ex-convict. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.27.38 (talk) 01:24, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

It doesn't mention his shoe size, either. This article isn't about him, it's about the holiday, so how is that relevant to the holiday? However, his Misplaced Pages page mentions it. -- Count Robert of Paris (talk) 16:43, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Also, that's not true. This no-quotes holiday was invented by a future convict. But that still has nothing to do with the holiday. --jpgordon 16:02, 8 November 2021 (UTC)

The simple fact that the guy was a convicted criminal is far more relevant than his shoe size, of course. There are good people who think this "holiday" is something organic and real, but the truth is that it was just made up by a criminal and calling him an "activist" is glossing over the reality. Misplaced Pages should be honest and non-partisan in its articles if it aspires to have credibility as a source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.27.38 (talk) 00:53, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

It's that time of year again!

Semi-protected until the middle of January 2022. --jpgordon 16:40, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

And again...

Semi-protected through the end of January again. --jpgordon 15:39, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Link to disamb.

Please delete or fix the link "Pan American" which leads to a disambiguation page. I don't know what the term is referring to in the context of the article. Cerulean Depths (talk) 20:00, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Wonder what that was doing there? Gone. --jpgordon 02:12, 10 December 2022 (UTC)