Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Fired!

Cultural diversity is not at all uncommon in today's workplace. In fact, it's not atypical to have co-workers of various races or sexual orientation as part of your team or department.

One would think that this is a progressive trend. However, there are instances where steps forward can lead to issues that somehow make you feel like you are moving backwards.

Such is the case with this article.

Daphne Jones, of St. Louis, was employed by Healthcare Strategic Initiatives (HSI) until she was fired for wearing an offensive button that read "I love being black". The button was a gift from her mother that she has had since her childhood. At the time of the incident Ms. Jones was wearing multiple buttons on a her clothing to commemorate the Martin Luther King Holiday. Ms. Jones was then informed by HSI Human Resources that someone had complained about her button, saying that it was offensive. The Human Resources Manager, who was also a man of color, told Ms. Jones that the button could be likened to her wearing a button with a Swastica and that she should cease wearing it. He agreed that it was offensive.

The chain of events that followed that initial confrontation is what played into the company terminating her employment, but from my untrained eyes she has been treated unjustly. Aside from that, I can not believe they would compare her button as equal to one bearing a Swastica. I'm actually quite appaled that they would even attempt to make a connection like that.

Below, you will find a link with the full story. Please feel free to comment on the matter upon completion.

The St. Louis American: Black, Proud and Fired

Ask The Rich House

Dear Rich House Reader

I am a 38-year-old divorcee who, after three months of being in a relationship, believed that my partner and I were near marriage. I told him that I was infected with HPV (genital warts), but only after we had become sexually involved. I had never had any signs or symptoms and was told by my doctor that it could not be contracted orally. Still, he believes that he could be infected or may become infected if he remains with me. We have not been intimate since. In retrospect, I believe I should have told him. Can we get past this?

What advice do you have OR what would you do in their shoes?

Friday Funny

I wonder where this guy would be today in comparison to other comedians. He was at the top of the game when he made his debut. He may be gone, but his jokes will live on forever. Give it up for the man who brought us, Bay Bay's Kids. Mr. Robin Harris.

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Chase You Till You Die

Man, where do I start? Hmmm. Shoot, I better just let y'all read this one for yourself.

San Francisco arrests 8 for 1971 police killing linked to Black Panthers

Eight men were arrested Tuesday in the 1971 killing of a police officer that authorities say was part of a black power group's five-year effort to attack and kill law enforcement officers in San Francisco and New York.

Police said seven of the eight are believed to be former members of the Black Liberation Army, an offshoot of the Black Panther Party.

The Aug. 29, 1971, shooting death of Sgt. John V. Young, 51, at a San Francisco police station was one in a series of attacks by BLA members on law enforcement officials on both coasts, police said.

The attacks, carried out between 1968 and 1973, also included the bombing of a police funeral in San Francisco and the slayings of two New York City police officers, as well as three armed bank robberies, police said.

The investigation of the killing spree was reopened in 1999 after "advances in forensic science led to the discovery of new evidence in one of the unsolved cases," according to a news release from the San Francisco Police Department.

Police declined to elaborate on the evidence. "It could be fibers. It could be DNA. It could be other biological evidence," said Morris Tabak, the department's deputy chief of investigations.

Authorities said charges of murder and conspiracy were filed against Ray Michael Boudreaux, 64, of Altadena; Richard Brown, 65, of San Francisco; Herman Bell, 59, and Anthony Bottom, 55, both currently incarcerated in New York state; Henry Watson Jones, 71, of Altadena; Francisco Torres, 58, of New York City; and Harold Taylor, 58, of Panama City, Fla.

San Francisco attorney Stuart Hanlon, who represents Bell, called Tuesday's arrests a "prosecution based on vengeance and hate from the '60s."

"There's a law enforcement attitude that they hate these people, the Panthers," Hanlon said. "Now they're going after old men."

Richard O'Neal, 57, of San Francisco, was also arrested on conspiracy charges. He is not believed to have been a member of the Black Liberation Army.

A ninth suspect, Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, 62, was still being sought on murder and conspiracy charges, police said. Police say he could be in France, Belize or Tanzania.

The slain officer was killed when two men raided a neighborhood police station, firing a shotgun through a hole in a bulletproof window. A civilian clerk was wounded.

Three men, including Taylor, were charged in the attack in early 1975. However, those charges were dismissed by a San Francisco judge because of an earlier ruling that evidence was obtained by torture after the suspects were arrested in New Orleans.

Bell and Bottom are each serving life sentences for the killings of two New York police officers.

Another suspect in Young's murder, John Bowman of Oklahoma, died in December, according to his lawyer, Ann Moorman of Ukiah.

Let's see, two men commit a crime. Let's go arrest eight. Hmm, that must be that new math.

USA Today: Reprint of Story

History in the making

Sorry for the delay, Blogger had issues last night

If you aren't a sports fan you have yet to learn that not one,

Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears

but two

Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts

African American NFL head coaches are on their way to the Superbowl.

The game should be quite a treat. You can't go wrong with whomever you pull for. They both are great coaches and both deserve the spotlight. Goodluck Lovie and Tony.

Ask the Rich House

New territory for you all to cover.

I had a six-month interracial relationship that ended on very hostile terms. At the time of the breakup, he directed very derogatory words to me (including racial slurs). Several months went by before we even spoke to each other. As of late, we have maintained a somewhat civil and platonic friendship, but he wants what we once had. I tell him that I can never get past that and forgive him for all the bad things that he said to me and about me. He thinks that I should let bygones be bygones and move forward. Should I forgive and forget and try to start an intimate relationship with him again? Please help me with this dilemma.

Nevada

What advice do you have OR what would you do in their shoes?

Standard comments are also welcome.

Friday Mixed Drink

I decided to give you a little singing and comedy. This guy is everywhere now. You all know him. He's a talented singer, comedian and actor. Give it up for Eric Marlon Bishop better known as Jamie Foxx.

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Is this love that I'm feeling

Being in love can be one of the most invigorating feelings that you can experience, but what happens to that love over time? It seems that people are falling out of love, falling into anothers arms, or just plain old falling apart from all the work that's required to sustain the relationship. You see it all the time, the couple you think of as the match made in heaven is somehow headed for Splitsville. It's an unfortunate turn of events but for some reason it's just not working out between them. So how do you make sure this doesn't happen to your relationship?

I'm not sure I have the answer, but I do have some questions you may want to ponder. Some can help you avoid a bad situation or they may explain why you have one. Either way, here are some questions that deserve to be answered.

1) Have we discussed having children. If so, who is expected to be the primary care giver?

2) Do we know each other's finacial background: spending habits, financial obligations, future financial goals?

3) What feeling are there surrounding domestic responsibilities? Are you a neat freak and your mate a slob? Who will be responsible for what chores?

4) Have you fully disclosed your health histories, will your past come back to haunt you when you decide to have children? Do you have any physical and/or mental impairments?

5) How much affection do you like to give/recieve?

6) Can the both of you discuss sexual needs, preferences and fears?

7) Will there be a television, computer, work, music, etc. in the bedroom?

8) Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints or do we just tolerate the one another?

9) Are we in agreement regarding our need for spirituality? Do we have similar spiritual beliefs? What are our views on exposing our children to religious/moral teaching?

10) Do we like and respect each other’s friends?

11) Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?

12) What does my family do that annoys you?

13) Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?

14) If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?

15) Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?

As you can see, all of these are pertinent questions and deserve to be brought to the table before you make a decision that will change your life as you know it. For some reason, love and relationships have been heavy on my mind. I guess it's because, in the last year I have watched relationships fall under trying times and some have deteriorated due to varying issues. However, I think many of the problems could have been avoided had the parties taken the time to ask the tough questions and held their ground when those answers were not to their liking.

Live Like a King

I have mixed feelings about the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It's not that I don't respect what he lived for or his contribution to society, because I do. I guess what I'm really feeling are misgivings about the way mainstream America parades Dr. King to us. Some might say I'm tripping, and that I should be thankful that we at least have his birthday to celebrate. However, I can't help but ask why he is the only African American leader, past or present that gets any props in America. It's like they use him to appease us. Even during Black History Month, he is a central figure. Could it be that his non-violent approach is the real message that they want us to get? I mean, it always comes up.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dr. King, he was one of the first notable black men that I learned about as a youth that made me feel proud to be black. However, if I'm to continue celebrating his life it will be for a different reason. Not his non-violent stance but his fearlessness in the face of hatred. I also love the fact that he believed in something to the point that he was willing to die for it. That's the Dr. King I want to honor and that's the Dr. King that I feel is worth remembering.

Ask the Rich House

Dear Rich House Reader,

I need to know what I should do about my sex life. I have been married for four years now and my husband and I don't have a great sex life. He wants to have sex a lot, but I don't. I don't feel romantically attracted to my husband. We have sex every now and again, but not as often as we should. We have no children, so that is not the problem. I guess if he were more romantic that would help, but he's not. What should I do? Help!

Seeking Romance in St. Louis

What advice do you have OR what would you do in their shoes?

Standard comments are also welcome.

Friday Funny: Rasheed

It's getting hard to find some clean viewable comedy, but this dude is mad funny. Other than some misplaced profanity, you should really get some laughs off.

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

So much for get-rich-quick

Some time ago, I posted regarding a writer's contest. Well, I have an update:

The Sobol Award, a controversial new literary contest that offered agentless writers a $100,000 first prize and a contract with Simon & Schuster for the top three winners, has been canceled.

Officials acknowledged that the prize's entry fee and other contractual requirements had deterred would-be participants.

"No further manuscript submissions will be accepted," award organizers announced Monday on the Sobol Web site (http://www.sobolaward.com). "All writers who have submitted manuscripts will receive a full refund of their entry fee ($85) and our copies of the manuscripts will be destroyed and deleted from our system."

First announced last September, the Sobol prize was immediately attacked by agents, bloggers and other critics for the entry fee and for requiring that Sobol officials serve as the winners' literary representative. Industry policy prohibits agents from charging money to read manuscripts.

Interest never took off despite the presence of such industry veterans as Brigitte Weeks, a former editor of The Washington Post Book World who was Sobol's editorial director, and best-selling novelist Alice Hoffman, who was to have served as a judge.

"Maybe the message is that unpublished writers have been exploited in so many different ways that it's difficult to launch an effort, regardless of whether it's in good faith or not," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, which represents thousands of published writers. "Charging people is fundamentally suspect and it's hard to overcome that."

Submissions remained low even after Sobol organizers announced last month that Simon & Schuster would publish the top three contestants and that the original contest deadline of Dec. 31, 2006, had been pushed back to March 31.

"It's unfortunate. We were looking forward to working on the project," said Marcia Burch, vice president of publicity for Touchstone/Fireside, a division Simon & Schuster that would have released the winning books. She added that the decision to cancel was made entirely by Sobol officials.

The award was created by Sobol Literary Enterprises, a for-profit venture started by technology entrepreneur Gur Shomron, as a means "to discover talented, unknown fiction writers and help them get the recognition they deserve."

Weeks told The Associated Press on Monday that only about 1,000 manuscripts were received, far below the 50,000 that prize organizers were prepared to accept and well below the minimum of 2,000 that Simon & Schuster had required to ensure its participation.

"I think the criticism was probably quite damaging," she acknowledged. "We should have responded more quickly, but startups don't always do the right thing."

Shomron told the AP that he had invested more than $1 million in the prize and that a full-time staff of four would be laid off.

"I'm losing a lot of money," he said. "But what I'm really sorry about is all the writers who were participating and wanted to be successful."

Hopefully, you weren't counting on this to launch your writing career.

Previous Post: One Heck of a Contest

First Class

It looks like another of our greats is being featured on a US Postal Stamp. Let's support her memory and go out and purchase a book or two.

Born in Newport News, Va., in 1917, Ella Jane Fitzgerald moved with her mother to Yonkers, N.Y., as a youngster and began to sing and dance from an early age. She began winning talent competitions in the early 1930s and was hired to sing with Chick Webb's band.

She later became famous as a scat singer, vocalizing nonsense syllables, and performed with most of the great musicians of the time. She recorded the song books of such composers as Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Johnny Mercer.

Over the years, Fitzgerald won 13
Grammy Awards and many other honors, including the National Medal of Arts, presented to her in 1987 by President Reagan.

Here she is in 1974 showing you how it's done as she covers "Good Morning Heartache".

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Hump Day Comedy

Nothing new going on in the world worth talking about so I figured we'd laugh our way through hump day.

Show some love for Marina Franklin

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Hump Day Comedy #2

This guy is pretty funny and he has a pretty good comedic voice.

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Less is more

Most people, including myself, are always on a quest for more. More money, more house, more out of our careers, more out of our relationships, just plain old more. Well, recently I had a lesson (actually a refresher course) in the theory of less being more.

As it happens, I've been driving the same pickup for a number of years now and basically swore to drive it till the wheels fell off. I've maintained that position, because I haven't had a car payment in three years for either of the vehicles we drive, and I was in no rush to take on a car note since my desire was to pay cash for my next vehicle. Anyway, I parked my truck last Tuesday because of a problem that presented itself while I was driving home (the brake line started leaking). Anyway, I decided not to repair the truck because there are other things that need to be addressed with the vehicle as well. In the meantime, I have been sharing a vehicle with my wife which is where the lesson comes in.

Sharing a vehicle has forced us to spend more time together, because she has been dropping me off and picking me up from work and will continue to do so until I decide to buy another vehicle. This has had an impact on our relationship. A good one! We've been hanging out every evening just enjoying each other's company as we take our time to get back home to the kids (our teenager is the built in babysitter).

In addition to spending time with my wife, I now get to interact with all my kids in the morning, where I normally would be up and out before they awake. I've been able to help my wife get her day started by helping get the kids off to school and then help her cleanup from the early morning rush.

Basically the loss of a vehicle, which by most standards is seen as less when you are used to having two cars has turned out to actually be a blessing. It's been such a positive experience that I've been reminded that less sometimes means more.

When we encounter situations that cause us to view our lives as having less of the things we want, sometimes it could very well be a blessing. We just need to take the time to see the situation through another set of eyes and realize that this could be a case of less being more.

Ask the Rich House

I figured I'd really mix it up a bit and through a few different things your way this year.

Dear Rich House Reader,

I recently found out that my husband was cheating on me. We've been married for four years and have a son. I love my husband dearly and would do anything for him. I'm faithful, trustworthy and honest. But now, I'm at a crossroads after learning that another man is interested in me. He's an older married man and I've been leaning on his shoulders throughout this event. And I must say I'm interested, but I'm very confused. What should I do?

What advice do you have OR what would you do in their shoes?

Standard comments are also welcome.

Could it be, it's your own fault?

I ran across this and thought it was pretty interesting. Could this be why you are unlucky in love?

How Women Pick Mates vs. Flings

Science might be able to explain women's fascination with Brad Pitt's chiseled jaw and George Clooney's smoldering eyes.

Women seem to judge potential mates by how masculine their features are, new research shows. Men with square jaws and well-defined brow ridges are seen as good short-term partners, while those with more feminine traits such as a rounder face and fuller lips are perceived as better long-term mates.

In the study, 854 male and female subjects viewed a series of male head shots that had been digitally altered to exaggerate or minimize masculine traits. The participants then answered questions about how they expected the men in the photos to behave.

Overwhelmingly, participants said those with more masculine features were likely to be risky and competitive and also more apt to fight, challenge bosses, cheat on spouses and put less effort into parenting. Those with more feminine faces were seen as good parents and husbands, hard workers and emotionally supportive mates [compare examples].

Despite all the negative attributes, when asked who they would choose for a short-term relationship, women still selected the more masculine looking men. Brad and George then would be picks for a brief romance, if not the long haul.

Makes sense

The study, detailed in the December issue of the journal Personal Relationships, reached conclusions similar to research published earlier last year in Britain .

The new study's author, Daniel Kruger at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, said that from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense women would view more masculine-looking men as potential flings and less masculine-looking ones as long-term partners.

The key, he said, is testosterone, the hormone responsible for development of masculine facial features and other secondary sexual characteristics.

Testosterone is necessary for development, but can also have detrimental health effects. It has been shown, for example, to interfere with the body's immune response, so men who are able to maintain high levels of the hormone are typically strong and healthy—traits women would want to pass on to their progeny.

Increased testosterone has also been linked to male cheating and violence in relationships, so while these men might produce high quality offspring, they don't always make great parents or faithful mates, Kruger says.

The study suggests women could be equipped to use seemingly superficial characteristics "as a cue to pick up on trends in these behavioral strategies," Kruger said.

Get a clue

There are plenty of these signals in the animal world. Male peacocks' huge, outrageous tails can make foraging for food and evading predators difficult, but the plumage, which many researchers say indicates male fitness, is so effective at luring females that the trait has been preserved in the population, Kruger points out.

While the findings are compelling, the scientific community has typically greeted the field of physiognomy, which links facial characteristics to certain behavioral traits, with skepticism.

Kruger argues, however, that the research is a valuable tool for understanding mating strategies. And, of course, for explaining how Pitt and Clooney managed to snag People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" title two times each—it might have to do with their genes, but could also have something to do with ours.

A little wild, but not idle

I like movies, probably more than most people. I mean, with the exception of music, I prefer to watch a movie if the tv comes on, otherwise it can usually just stay off, except for the occasional sporting event. So, being that I like movies so much, I had to check out Idlewild featuring Outkast and I really enjoyed it.

While watching it I had to ask myself "Is it me or are most movie-goers just simple?" I couldn't understand why this film didn't do better at the box office. I mean the only thing that seemed a little off was that some of the music seemed out of place for the time setting, but it was still entertaining. Besides, I thought it was a great first film for the duo (yeah, they've done stuff separately, but this was different.) So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you like Outkast, check out Idlewild. It's available at your neighborhood video rental store. (Some scenes are not suitable for children).

[click "play" (the arrow button) to watch]

Try it, you might like it.

Last year was quite an interesting year for me. Not in terms of achievement, but as far as reflection and taking an honest look at myself. During the better part of last year, I realized I was unhappy about a lot of things in my life. Tired of aspects of relationships with those that I have allowed in my inner circle, tired of accepting a career that I didn't really care for just to make ends meet, tired of church and the politics in it, tired of putting up with less than I deserve. So, I decided well before the New Year to do something about it. I mean what is this life if we can't enjoy it? I'm tired of compromising because that's what everyone says you have to do to get along. I don't plan on being selfish, but it's just time out for accepting shit and calling it soup. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm on a quest to be free. Free to be me, without compromise. The first step in that was to stop blaming others for where I was or wasn't. It's no one's fault but your own if you aren't where you want to be. That's clear! If you think someone else is still to blame, then you are just too lazy to try harder, or you've bought into someone else's bullshit, which still makes it your fault. Choice is something we all have. You may not like them, but you still have them. So, do yourself a favor, take a good look in the mirror and figure out what you need to do to free yourself. You'll feel a lot better when you do.

Finally, an idea that makes sense.

Back in 2001 while enduring a layoff and transition into self employment, I had the privilege, if you want to call it that, to serve as a substitute teacher in the public school arena. Although, I love kids a great deal, that was one of the worst professional experiences that I have had to endure. I experienced the worst of those times with the kids of middle school age. It is because of that experience that this next article caught my eye, and as someone who has had limited experience in the field of education, I would have to say that this sounds like a step in the right direction.


SHUT DOWN THE MIDDLE SCHOOLS

By Maggie Gallagher

New York City has a great new idea: Shut down the middle schools.

According to the New York Post, almost 50 of the city's 220 middle schools have closed in the last two years, part of a plan to move back toward the old K-8 grammar school model. New York City is joining Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, among other urban school districts.

Why did this take the "experts" so long? Many parents can tell you: If an otherwise decent school district has a problem school, it's going to be the junior high. And even high-functioning middle schools can be a problem for the students in them.

After a miserable two years in junior high school, for example, my niece entered high school in Oregon this fall. We all breathed a sigh of relief. A straight-A student, she was never in any academic trouble, but the social horrors of junior high school for this graceful, outgoing teen left us all stressed on her behalf. The level of peer-generated torture suddenly dropped considerably.

Apparently we are not the only ones. The most striking research result of our middle-school mania is that American early adolescents are unusually miserable, according to international survey data.

"Folks have been aware, in achievement terms, that what happens in the middle grades is disappointing," Douglas J. MacIver, a principal research scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Center for the Social Organization of Schools, told Education Week. "But I don't think they realized how stressed middle-school students are."

An influential 2004 Rand Corp. study looked at international data comparing American students to their peers in 11 other developed nations. American students rank near the bottom on measures of emotional health, including whether students feel their school is a pleasant place, and whether they find classmates to be kind and helpful. On that last question, only Czech students reported less kindliness from their peers. Only students in Latvia, Israel and Lithuania reported feeling left out, lonely, helpless or bullied more often than American students did.

This June, Pittsburgh closed seven middle schools and doubled the number of K-8 elementary schools. One advantage of the K-8 model is that it tends to spread the potentially problematic middle-graders around. "It's like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' when they hit sixth grade," Assistant Principal Gina Robinson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Brent Johnson, a former principal in Pittsburgh, credits his school's performance (one of those rated highly in the Rand Corp. study) to the fact that he has between 100 and 500 fewer middle-graders to deal with than the average middle school. About half his sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders have been in the school since kindergarten, making relationships with teachers, administrators, and their "buy-in" to the school culture more likely. The K-8 model tends to keep parents more attached and involved, too, another plus for the model, according to the Rand Corp. study.

Plus, when kids stay in grade school, they tend to stay "younger, longer," reports a Long Beach, Calif., principal, and that's been my experience, too. I didn't pick a Catholic grade school for my younger son because of the K-8 structure that most Catholic schools retain, but I immediately noticed the benefits. Same kids, same principal, same parents for eight years -- it does build community. And maybe it's a "kibbutz effect," but kids who have been in class together since kindergarten seem less eager to launch into the distracting peer torture of premature dating games.

"It turns out the onset of puberty is really a bad reason to try to move kids to another structure and to another school altogether," the Rand report's primary author, Jaana Juvonen, told Education Week.

Another bad idea from ed school hits the dust.

What's the real deal??

I found this interesting article on Kwaanza. As I began to read it, I felt like I was somehow sleep walking and that this was all a joke, not because I follow the holiday, but because I couldn't think for the life of me why this story is of any relevance today. There is a message in here somewhere, I just don't know if I should be reading between the lines or not. Maybe you can figure it out.

President Bush's Kwanzaa message this year skipped the patently absurd claim of years past that: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." Instead, he simply said: "I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa."

More African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks.

It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI pawn, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI.

In what was probably a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police.

Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?)

Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear. Curiously, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the forces out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department" and so on. Karenga should know about FBI infiltration. (He further noted that the evidence against O.J. "was not strong enough to prohibit or eliminate unreasonable doubt" -- an interesting standard of proof.)

In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents."

Now we know that the FBI fueled the bloody rivalry between the Panthers and United Slaves. In one barbarous outburst, Karenga's United Slaves shot to death Black Panthers Al "Bunchy" Carter and Deputy Minister John Huggins on the UCLA campus. Karenga himself served time, a useful stepping-stone for his current position as a black studies professor at California State University at Long Beach.

Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch.

When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites. While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- which one assumes would exclude the forced abortions, imprisonment for homosexuals and forced labor -- Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding." There's an inclusive philosophy for you.

(Sing to "Jingle Bells")

Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell

Whitey has to pay;

Burning, shooting, oh what fun

On this made-up holiday!

Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani -- the same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.

With his Kwanzaa greetings, President Bush is saluting the intellectual sibling of the Symbionese Liberation Army, killer of housewives and police. He is saluting the founder of United Slaves, who were such lunatics that they shot Panthers for not being sufficiently insane -- all with the FBI as their covert ally.

It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," and the president of the United States issued a presidential proclamation honoring the synthetic holiday. People might well take notice if that happened.

Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves -- the violence, the Marxism, the insanity. Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, is that they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.

Now the "holiday" concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation and public schools across the nation. The only principle Kwanzaa promotes is liberals' unbounded capacity to respect any faith but Christianity.

A movement that started approximately 2,000 years before Kwanzaa leaps well beyond collectivism and litter removal to proclaim that we are all equal before God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). It was practitioners of that faith who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements. But that's all been washed down the memory hole, along with the true origins of Kwanzaa.