Tag Archives: Kwanzaa

And No One Gives a Damn About Glenn Grothman

Grothman wearing his tribal chieftan hat.

Grothman wearing his tribal chieftan hat.

Demonstrating once again the awesome level of stupid that seems a prerequisite for serving in any state legislature across the country, Wisconsin State Senator (R, West Bend), as according to a report in Huffington Post, has now made his thoughts known on Kwanzaa.

Somehow Grothman doesn’t get the irony of a patently racist white guy railing at ‘white’ lefties for apparently paying too much attention to holidays invented by African-American folks for African-America folks.  We can understand how that might get under the skin of someone like Grothman who actually lives in the invented binary world of ‘white’ and ‘black’ invented in fact, by the kind of racism people like Grothman like to say doesn’t exist.   We can understand that it probably rocks his world a little bit when his so called “white” brethren go all out and support some non-‘white’ sanctioned and approved holidays.  Sort of like running to close too the horizon; there’s a real fear that possibly you just might fall off the edge.

But really, first off anyone who knows anything about Kwanzaa, or knows how to use a computer (or has a six year grandchild who might teach them) and the Great Google Machine can learn in about three seconds what Kwanzaa represents, who started it and who celebrates it.

Secondly, if Grothman had any clue of American history he’d know that his ancestors (we’ll say his since he likes to use “white” as his identifier which lumps him in the group of the slaver) profited from, supported and used slavery and the associated social construct of racism for his and his ancestor’s own social advancement.  So, considering such we can understand how people like Grothman might get a little prickly when they see the people they’re used to walking all over and feeling on top of go and have the temerity to assert themselves as a people and assert that they have a right to their own customs and traditions, even going so far as to make new ones to match their own unique struggles and history in this country (that Grothman again wishes to not remember).

We can see how people like Grothman also might have a hard time understanding that their opinion of what people do with, about, on, or around Kwanzaa is really none of his damn business.  Contrary to what a lot of “white” guys like him think, the people who celebrate Kwanzaa didn’t ask his permission to celebrate it, don’t need his permission nor will they most likely ever care to have it.

Likewise, many of us left-wingers of European, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, American Indian or (name another ethnicity — see how complicated thinking gets?) origin don’t really feel that Grothman has any business lumping us all in his group of “white” folks.  Since many of us on the left feel its time to recognize all traditions and allow those whose traditions were stolen so many centuries ago, to have them back or make new ones, we’re fine with Kwanzaa or whatever else African-American folks want to celebrate; we want to celebrate with them and support them, not criticize, belittle or dismiss like Grothman, because really unlike Grothman and his ilk, we realize we have no right to do so and thus we’d prefer to keep our mouths shut, which is something Grothman might do well to practice as his first step to recovery from ignorance.

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