GRUNHERZ:
That's a great story; it really warms my heart to read it. It is quite remarkable to me that, given your relatively short stay in this country, you have embraced the American culture and heritage that so many whose families have been here for genrerations are working so hard to destroy. It is also telling that you understand so naturally what proponents of "multiculturalism" pretend not to: That nothwithstanding its benign name, "multiculturalism" is not merely about celebrating the culture of one's ancestors (that was happening, and rightfully so, for generations before anyone coined the term). Indeed, that is only part of the story, albeit the part that proponents of multiculturalism point to in its defense. If "multiculturalism" were no more than that, I doubt any would find it objectionable. What multiculturalism is really about, however, is using people's "native" cultures as tools to undermine, weaken, and ultimately replace our common American heritage.
In response to something MT mentioned earlier (and at the risk of completely running away with this thread), I believe that the reason that those opposed to "multiculturalism" criticize things like "Kwanzaa," as opposed to, say, the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade, is because, unlike the latter, the former seeks to instill principles of separation and divisiveness, to replace our common American culture with another (in the case of Kwanzaa, a universal "African" culture). For example, consider the following from a description of Kwanzaa:
We are Africans.
Recognizing yourself as an African is recognizing your status as a world citizen. When you recognize yourself as an African you realize that you sprang from the loins of the people who were the first to grow food, build houses, perform mathematical equations, perform feats of engineering, speak an intelligible language, and communicate using written symbols.
When you recognize yourself as an African you recognize that your are the Image of the man or woman God created whom God said was "good": The man or woman with thick lips, wide nostrils, coarse hair, and dark, brown skin. This Is African. This is the original man. To be African is to be beautiful.
And the "official poem of Kwanzaa":
For so long I've been searching
for too long I've been searching
Never was taught much about the
Homeland
The Information I received was
always secondhand and
My soul has been yearning
while my memory has been
learning
How to deal with the vulture
that's been robbing me of
my culture
In my heart there's a song
since KWANZAA came along
KWANZAA. a seven day
cultural celebration
that unites African-American
brothers and sisters
In this once strange and foreign nation
Didn't come to America by way
of Ellis Island
We arrived in slave ships that
Took us from our African Homeland
The vultures went through great
pains to separate us from the
knowledge of our historical roots
and treated us like a pair of old
worn boots
KWANZAA, African-American brothers
and sisters uniting to hold on,
to the culture I've been searching
for for so long ... for too long.
(quotations from
http://www.ritesofpassage.org/kwanza-b.htm)
I've been to the St. Patty's Day Parade in Chicago. There was a lot of green beer and more than a few bad renditions of "Danny Boy," but I didn't see or hear anything akin to that.
Although Kwanzaa's message, like most that are perversely seductive, contains elements of truth, it is ultimately unbalanced and destructive. For instance, nowhere does it convey the evils of Black America's "African" heritage (i.e., centuries of slave ownership, slave trade, and tribal warfare, etc.). Nor does it extoll or even recognize the obvious, highly material aspects of our American heritage and culture, such as the tremendous price this country paid (in blood, both Black and White) to eradicate slavery or the fact that the average Black American lives almost immeasurably better than his counterpart in Africa.
- JNOV
