This letter is a formal request demanding an apology from Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman for his recent remarks about Kwanzaa. Actions of a more serious nature are to follow but for now, until you return my call as your staff promises, this will be a start.

In speaking with his staff today he was said to have done “extensive” research regarding Kwanzaa’s background and its founder. His extensive research missed quite a bit of current research, critical research!! I figured as much.

When doing important research, one should include participation in said event. For the Senator any Kwanzaa holiday event in this decade or ever for that matter would have sufficed. Senator Grothman was inconclusive and lacking full knowledge of what Kwanzaa has metamorphosed into. He also has not sought counsel from anyone who has direct insight into Kwanzaa and how we use it to bring about change and celebrate our accomplishments in the Black community. For a year’s passing we fight on the battlefield to try and curb crime, battle senseless violence and many other social ills, most times by ourselves with little assistance. We celebrate triumphs of our community that go under reported in a world that thrives on seeing negative images of Black stereotypical imagery and ignorance every night. While many saw Sandy Hook memorialized, we live it daily. Guns and shootings are very much a part of our world 24/7 with no moments of silence, no presidential speeches, and little talk about gun control.

For a week, we take time off to come together in unity to share our experiences and memorialize, unify, and reorganize so we can move forward, together for another year and pick each other up to make it through to the next year. Can many other communities even fathom what it is like to live how we live with almost no support? This is a time we can stand together in unity and love, battle worn and prepare for another year of surviving as we do? This is our time to do that and so much more. We educate, we elevate, we support, we celebrate. Kwanzaa is a week’s worth of addressing many things good and bad in our community. It is a conference of sorts to help us help each other make things better. We recruit the young from the streets into “our gangs” and get them off the streets to let them know there is hope and love awaiting them.

Now last I checked that is what some outspoken white folks keep harping on that Blacks need to get it together and address “our  issues”. Look what happens when we do? We get lynched for it!!! What is it you want Senator Grothman, a better Black community addressing our problems and issues or do you want us to ignore it all and keep shooting each other up, stay barefoot and pregnant? Pick which you prefer and get back to us!

Senator Grothman there is much more to Kwanzaa than you could ever know and if you got your head out of a book or away from uninformed people and met with real Blacks of differing varieties and did some real homework, you would see and meet people who would love to educate you to why this holiday is so desperately needed for our nation, not just for Blacks, and not just Wisconsin Blacks. There is much to Kwanzaa you missed and I feel so badly for you because you missed out on some great experiences to serve what purpose with your ill-advised statement. Sometimes when you don’t know something it is best to remain silent. Yes Kwanzaa is here to stay and it grows larger each year. No it is not a “white/hard-core left winger” holiday, we own this holiday (one thing no one can take from us) and we welcome people of every shade, color and creed each year. As I look around with so many people starving for “hope and change” (pun intended!) Kwanzaa will always be a welcome holiday with all its wonderful principles. As long as men fight and resources are limited, Kwanzaa will always be needed. As long as society argues and embraces hate, Kwanzaa will always be needed. Kwanzaa is a lovefest and it is too bad you missed your opportunity to unite with others and gather to just commune as one family because it seems like you needed it too! Maybe this is what you do not like about Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is out of your control and is no longer a Black celebration but it is becoming a truly multicultural event because many people see its value in their lives as well which is why it is spreading. Especially in Wisconsin where fighting has become the norm, Kwanzaa’s values and guiding principles are a treasure for all!

Regardless of who founded Kwanzaa and what questionable circumstances surrounded the initial event, Kwanzaa like many American holidays has outgrown its past and its founder. We could say this of all American holidays that were started by racists or bigots or even presidents who owned US! We still pay tribute to  “great” presidents and leaders who were slave owners who took slaves as their mistresses and birthed bastard babies left to rot on plantations. I guess that is okay by you? I do not see you Senator spitting on their legacies or holidays. Your forked tongue is disgusting and sickening to me as a Black American, as a proud African Conservative American, as an American period. Your divisive statement, your lack of knowledge, your press release and why you chose to target Blacks especially after an election when we as Conservatives learned embarrassingly we need to build bridges with Blacks not burn them really makes me determined to get rid of mindsets like yours which cause our movement great angst! Your press release set us back about 50 years and for what reason? You needed attention? Someone Black cut you off that day? You miss Senator Lena Taylor? Well here she comes! It is people like you who we do not need in our movement and I do hope that you either learn real fast you need to apologize, and you make a big donation to the Black Conservative movement here in Milwaukee. Either way it won’t end well for you until you concede you made a very foolish mistake and you learn from it.

Example: on President’s Day will you release a similar press releases about George Washington activities and celebrations in schools and such and other presidents who defiled Black slaves? I don’t think you will so why start now against a people who have already been dealt their share of atrocities? Do you see where your slippery slope has taken you Senator Grothman? Wasn’t smart was it? Time to apologize!!

It is time for you to get a clue or get to steppin’ as we say in where I come from. And to save you the hassle, I am 100% Black African Conservative. Today you shame my people and our Conservative movement. You embarrass me.

We cannot claim a holiday as our own like our Hispanic and Asian brothers and sisters to mention a couple. If you remember those were taken from us. We have but a few things we cherish and this is one. However being the selfless people we are we share this gift with you still. And though you showed bigotry, your invitation for next year’s event to light the Kinora candle awaits you. How forgiving a people we are! This is the heart of the Black because we are compassionate and we are a loving people always. Even in the face of pure hate and evil we show God’s mercy and forgiveness.

However you do have to atone for your words and your LACK of exploring deeper than paper. You simply must. When you are ready, we will take you into our world and then it is time for you to understand the plight of the Black of 2012. Living in 1960 something is pretty useless when talking about the here and now of Kwanzaa.

Until then however this cannot be washed away or overlooked. You must not make such a careless statement and walk away. This statement was like spitting in the face of our ancestors and it cannot be taken lightly. And it is only fitting that a fellow conservative be the one to re-light the Kinora to start the atonement.

There will be no peace until there is atonement for your hate manifested into words. Sadder yet there are Blacks and Africans who share the Senator’s sentiments. There is not much I can do about them. They have that right afforded them by the First Amendment. The difference with them is that they did not use the media to make an attack against a people who did not attack them. This Senator did and now he must atone and right his tragic wrong and we shall not be moved until he does.

Trust and believe if you don’t get it together, there will be an alter call, Kwanzaa re-celebration, Black History Month, etc… and all things Black at your office and in your face real soon. Get it together Senator. You have been warned!!

Peace Family,

WW

Wonder Woman is a community activist and blogger.

She is a proud member of the JustUs League!

She has her own blog site at http://www/wonder2woman.blogspot.com

She also contributes to The Milwaukee Drum, the Black Convo Network, Insane Asylum Blog, and Black Bloggers Connect.

Contact info:

wonder2woman (Twitter)

411wonderwoman@gmail.com

Senator Grothman’s Home Page

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/grothman/Pages/default.aspx

Contact Senator Glenn Grothman

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/contact/legislatorpages.aspx?house=senate&district=20

His Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  December 28, 2012

For further information, please contact:
Glenn Grothman – (608) 266-7513 – Office
(262) 689-8421 – Cell Phone

Why Must We Still Hear About Kwanzaa?

Madison: Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa – the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?
As has been well publicized, Kwanzaa is not some African or African-American tradition. It was invented in 1966 by Ron Karenga, a 1960s radical leader and founder of something called the “US Organization”. This group, often referred to as the “United Slaves” is even more radical than the Black Panthers. The United Slaves killed two Black Panther members and Karenga himself wound up going to prison for assaulting some of his own members. Karenga was a racist and didn’t like the idea that Christ died for all of our sins, so he felt blacks should have their own holiday – hence, Kwanzaa.

Of course, almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa – just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans. Irresponsible public school districts such as Green Bay and Madison (and who knows how many others, see links below) try to tell a new generation that blacks have a separate holiday than Christians. Waring Fincke, left-wing West Bend lawyer and vice chair of the Washington County Democratic Party, encouraged people to learn more about Kwanzaa in a column in July. Fortunately, almost all black people ignore Waring Fincke and his ilk and their efforts to divide Americans.

But why do they do it? They don’t like America and seek to destroy it by pretending that its values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, don’t apply to everyone. Mainstream Americans must be more outspoken on this issue. It’s time it’s slapped down once and for all. With tens of millions of honorable black Americans in our country’s past, we should not let a violent nut like Karenga speak for them. (By the way, after getting out of prison he was hired as a professor at California State Long Beach. When are we going to stop funding left wing nuts at our public universities?) The churches ought to be particularly appalled since Karenga thought Christmas was a white religion and was trying to draw black people from it. Be on the lookout if a K-12 or college teacher tries to tell your children or grandchildren it’s a real holiday.

https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/node/8430

http://www.greenbaypressgazette/