State Senator Grothman said Kwanzza is an effort to Divide America

By: Tomica Kipp

Wisconsin State Senator Glen Grothman recently slammed Kwanzaa in a press release, saying that it was “an effort to divide America.”

In his press release titled, ‘Why Must We Still Hear About Kwanzaa.’ Grothman wrote, “ 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 try to tell a new generation that blacks have a separate holiday than Christians.”

Kwanzaa is not a national or religious holiday. Kwanzaa was created in the 1966 by Professor Maulana Karenga and is celebrated by some African Americans. Karenga created Kwanzaa to give African Americans an alternative to the existing holidays and an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history.

On 12/13/2012 Professor Karenga wrote, “it [Kwanzaa] is a time of appreciative remembrance of our ancestors, great and ordinary, of the model of human excellence, achievement and possibility they offer, and of the enduring legacy of the good they left in the world.”

“It is too, a time of sustained reflection on the moral and expansive meaning of being African in the world, especially on how we understand and live our lives and engage the critical issues confronting our community, our society and our world,” Karenga wrote.

It is unclear the reason(s) behind State Senator Grothman press release; nevertheless it seems like a plea for attention.