Diversity

Im African-American and every year my family celebrates Kwanzza. Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African festival primarily honoring African-American heritage. It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year, almost exclusively in the United States of America. Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and pouring of libations, and culminating in a feast and gift-giving. It was created by Ron Karenga, and first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967. Karenga calls Kwanzaa the African American branch of "first fruits" celebrations of classical African cultures.

In 1966 Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa while living in California. There, he was the leader of the black nationalist US Organization and he claims that his goal was to give African Americans an alternative holiday to Christmas. He later stated, "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." At the time he created Kwanzaa, he changed his last name from Everett to the Gikuyu "Karenga", shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing.

The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits". The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, though most African-Americans have West African ancestry.
The official stance on the spelling of the holiday is that an additional "a" was added to "Kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters. At the time there were seven children in Karenga's United Slaves Organization, each wanted to represent one of the letters in Kwanzaa Also, the name was meant to have a letter for each of what Karenga called the "Seven Principles of Blackness". Another explanation is that Karenga added the extra "a" to distinguish the Afro-American from the African. Kwanzaa is also sometimes incorrectly spelled "kwaanza".
Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the civil rights era of the 1960s, and was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with what Karenga characterized as their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study around principles that have their putative origins in what Karenga asserts are "African traditions" and "common humanist principles."
In 1967, a year after Karenga proposed this new holiday, he publicly espoused the view that "Jesus was psychotic" and that Christianity was a white religion that blacks should shun. However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so as not to alienate practicing Christians, then stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called "The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa", or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba - "The Seven Principles of Blackness"), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy" consisting of Karenga's distillation of what he deemed "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason that Karenga used to refer to his synthesized system of belief. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, which are explained by Karenga as follows:
Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
These principles correspond to Karenga's notion that "the sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black."
[edit]Popularity

In President George W. Bush's 2004 Presidential Message: Kwanzaa 2004, as in several previous messages, he said that during Kwanzaa, "millions of African Americans and people of African descent gather to celebrate their heritage and ancestry."

Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with objects of art, colorful African cloth, especially the wearing of the Uwole by women, and fresh fruits that represent African idealism. It is customary to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to give respect and gratitude to ancestors. Libations are shared, generally with a common chalice, "Kikombe cha Umoja" passed around to all celebrants.


A woman lights kinara candles on a table decorated with the symbols of Kwanzaa.
A model Kwanzaa ceremony is described as a ceremony which includes drumming and musical selections, libations, a reading of the "African Pledge" and the Principles of Blackness, reflection on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, and, finally, a feast (Karamu). The greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is "Habari Gani", Swahili words for "What's the News?"
At first, observers of Kwanzaa eschewed the mixing of the holiday or its symbols, values and practice with other holidays. They felt that doing so would violate the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination) and thus violate the integrity of the holiday, which is partially intended as a reclamation of important African values. Today, many African-American families celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas and New Year's. Frequently, both Christmas trees and kinaras, the traditional candle holder symbolic of African-American roots, share space in kwanzaa celebrating households. To them, Kwanzaa is an opportunity to incorporate elements of their particular ethnic heritage into holiday observances and celebrations of Christmas.

In 1977, in Kwanzaa: origin, concepts, practice, Karenga stated, that Kwanzaa "was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."
In 1997, Karenga changed his position, stating that while Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday, it can be celebrated by people of any race: "other people can and do celebrate it, just like other people participate in Cinco de Mayo besides Mexicans; Chinese New Year besides Chinese; Native American pow wows besides Native Americans."
Currently, according to the Official Kwanzaa Website authored by Karenga and maintained by Organization US, which Karenga chairs, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture...Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything. In fact, it offers a clear and self-conscious option, opportunity and chance to make a proactive choice, a self-affirming and positive choice as distinct from a reactive one."
Karenga's most recent interpretation emphasizes that while every people have their various holiday traditions, all people can share in the celebration of our common humanity: "Any particular message that is good for a particular people, if it is human in its content and ethical in its grounding, speaks not just to that people, it speaks to the world."

by the wy none of this is true. Instead my family eats wierd food and decorates our house with plaids and wooden horses. We have lost tradition so much like Kwanzzaa and this post,... WE MAke IT Up.

Global vision/Missions

GO...

Its a command, not a suggestion. So do it. Turn the TV off. Turn the music down. get of your couch and Go. And If HE said it. You better listen.


Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

Genocide

Genocide...


gen·o·cide [jen-uh-sahyd] Pronunciation Key
–noun
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
[Origin: 1940–45; < Gk géno(s) race + -cide]

—Related forms
gen·o·cid·al, adjective

gen·o·cide (jěn'ə-sīd') Pronunciation Key
n. The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.


[Greek genos, race; see genə- in Indo-European roots + -cide.]

gen'o·cid'al (-sīd'l) adj., gen'o·cid'al·ly adv.

genocide
1944, apparently coined by Polish-born U.S. jurist Raphael Lemkin in his work "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe" [p.19], in reference to Nazi extermination of Jews, lit. "killing a tribe," from Gk. genos "race, kind" (see genus) + -cide, from L. -cidere "kill," comb. form of caedere "to cut, kill" (see concise). The proper formation would be *genticide.


genocide

noun
systematic killing of a racial or cultural group


genocide [ˈdʒenəsaid] noun
the deliberate killing of a race of people
Arabic: إبادَه جَماعِيَّه
Chinese (Simplified): 种族灭绝，有机划的灭种和屠杀
Chinese (Traditional): 種族滅絕
Czech: genocida
Danish: folkemord
Dutch: genocide
Estonian: genotsiid
Finnish: kansanmurha
French: génocide
German: der Völkermord
Greek: γενοκτονία
Hungarian: népirtás
Icelandic: þjóðarmorð
Indonesian: pembantaian
Italian: genocidio
Japanese: 集団虐殺
Korean: (한 인종의) 몰살, 말살
Latvian: genocīds
Lithuanian: genocidas
Norwegian: folkemord
Polish: ludobójstwo
Portuguese (Brazil): genocídio
Portuguese (Portugal): genocídio
Romanian: genocid
Russian: геноцид
Slovak: genocída
Slovenian: genocid
Spanish: genocidio
Swedish: folkmord
Turkish: soykırım

genocide [(jen-uh-seyed)]

The deliberate destruction of an entire race or nation. The Holocaust conducted by the Nazis in Germany and the Rwandan genocide are examples of attempts at genocide.


[Chapter:] World Politics



Main Entry: geno·cide
Pronunciation: 'jen-&-"sId
Function: noun
: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group —compare HOMICIDE —geno·cid·al /"jen-&-'sId-&l/ adjective

I hate genocide, statistics, and political agendas

addictions/body image

you are beautiful

If your upset with the way you look. Better yourself. Eat better. Run. You'll be happy with the results. if it makes you feel better about yourself. good. I'm happy for you. if you still aren't satisfied. know. Know I'll accept you all the same. It doesn't matter to me. You are beautiful. Your spirit shows that. let your actions be your figure and your laugh your clear complexion. You are loved. if not by anyone of this world. then by one. But I'll accept you all the same. Don't cry. You are loved. You are beautiful. You are wanted. by HIM.

I'm addicted. Addicted to social interaction. I'm emotionaly unstable and on the verge of a mental breakdown. I need to feel loved. To know I'm here. To know I'm alive. I know. I know.

my own

I personally thought the alcohol/drugs/rape portion of beginnings had a purpose and I believe that purpose was served. As an imformational meeting, I think they could have done a better job. The emotional imapact of it was decent. There were topics that are important to discuss. The majority of them were discussed. Theres room for improvement but I'M glad what was done was done. That is all.



You might sleep, but you'll never dream
Onward! Progress! Or so it seems.
You might laugh, but you'll never smile.
Come on in and waste away awhile.

When dreams of rings of flowers fade and blur
Giving way to that familiar ill
come over and part your soft white curtains
Where I'm waiting for you still
If you'd unlatch the window,
If you'd let me lay there on your floor
If you'd give me another chance,
If you'd forget the pain I caused before
No use in saying how I'm sorry
So I'm trying not to speak
I'll sing in silence, lay beside you
With my face there on your cheek
My stomach swears there's comfort there
In the warmth of the blankets on your bed
My stomach's always been a liar-
I'll believe it's lies again.

"A question was posed... How do your strengths hurt or help you?
I thought this was interesting because they are called "strengths" so you would expect them to help you. But now I realize it's true, they can hurt you in some ways. For instance, my WOO is definitely good sometimes, but others, it can really be innapropriate or difficult to shut off. Like in group projects, it is hard for me not to take charge and make the rules.
With focus, it is hard for me to try to do several things at once and give my full attention."
- Christin Catherine (the cool one)

I agree with christine on this. A strength can be a weakness like sometimes I love to much and care too much and believe too much.

but really the woo thing can turn people off. Sometimes I have a problem with just doing things the simple way because of ideation.

I suppose anything in extremity is a bad thing. Like too much love and too much caring.

I love you all dearly

Goodnight.

OH AND THANKS CHRISTIN CATHERINE

hello darling...

So here is a list of my strengths in no apparent order and of course why they relate to me.

Ideation- I as some of you may know am one of those thinkin outside the box kinda folk. I just gotta do my own thing and live my own life. Sometimes that means going with the flow, sometimes its an upstream battle. You can always cruise solo, but there's nothing more beautiful than conquering the task at hand with someone else.

Woo- its funny. I guess I'm good at winning others over. The best part about it though is how good I am at turning people away. I guess thats me being honest but I probably could sel a blind man sunglasses. At least Ray Charles would of bought a pair.

Strategic- I'm really good at strategizing...(really?) I suck at chess, but I guess if I wasever plotting something mischevious, I'd have a good strategy.

Input- I have to know I'm getting something out of it. Thats probably why all this seems worthless to me. I'm sure its great for a lot of people, but I'm not sure its quite my cup of tea. I like tea.

Adaptability- I can just go with the flow. I usually wing it. Plans make me frustrated and schedule, well I'm not very good with them. I moved around a lot as a kid which probably helps me with this. If its change, count me in.

well, now you have it folk, theres nohing else to me at all. If you think theres anything else to me than you're wrong. I will only be sucessful using these strength and am probably doomed to life in a cubicle.


Yeah Right!

When life gives you lemons,... TAKE THEM YOU MANIAC, THERE FREE!!!! and really good for throwing at people.