The Truth Minista Paul Scott joined us to discuss his recent article, “I Saw Black Leaders Kissin’ Santa Claus.” We talked about the little known influence held over civil rights leaders by philanthropists and corporate elites that in one instance discouraged a Black popular boycott of Christmas.

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  1. I appreciate this interview. It has always been interesting to note how Black initiatives have always been so easily filtered into non-impacting actions. I hope that we can one day go back to boycotting things. Boycotting Christmas seems like such a big step though because we are almost coerced by the culture and children to buying these expensive and useless trinkets (typically electronic in nature). Plus, we do not have any sort of network necessary to do such a thing (please don’t mention facebook). But probably a better suggestion than boycotting is simply to create our on infrastructure. We shouldn’t be patronizing these institutions in the first place.

  2. There are SO Many valid reasons for Black folks [& others] to avoid the hype RE XMas [& Thanks-taking {no-thanks cause we’re taking it}, 4th of July {‘What do I have to do w the 4th of July’- Fredrick Douglas}, New Year’s, Easter, Hell-O-Weird / Halloween, etc…]

    First an obviously mythological guy w ‘flying’ rein-deer [Santa Claus], who has been hyped to kids as a Wall St marketing campaign ploy RE XMas, has surpassed the figure [‘Jesus’] whose birth the 25th of Dec is allegedly supposed to be commemorating. The fact is XMas sales account for as much as half of merchant yearly revenues, & marketing to kids via Santa-Claus is a big part of that [Note: smart shoppers wait till after XMas & even New Yr’s to catch after XMas sales where they slash prices in half].

    Then there’s the fact that the historical Yeshua [aka ‘Jesus’] was almost certainly NOT even born on Dec 25th- In-fact no-one knows for sure precisely on what date, or even in what yr, Yeshua the Nazorean was actually born. And there’s no-where in the Bible that stipulates that his [nor any-one else’s] birth-day was/is to be celebrated.

    1. PLUS: XMas [& also New Yr’s, Easter, & obviously HELL-O-Weird / Halloween] is/are so riddle w Euro-Pagan [now Euro-Christian] customs & rituals, that IMO all Afro-Centered &/or Truth-Centered persons should avoid embracing it/them.

      1. There is no such thing as ‘euro-pagan custons & rituals’ in terms of religious traditions. As John Henrik Clarke and others have pointed out, it was Africa who created the concept of god. All of these religious days have at its roots an African origin.

        Christmas: the celebration of the Winter Solstice, or the time when the ‘Light of the World,’ aka Jesus, aka Heru, aka Ra, aka KRST (as some Kemetic folks have taken up calling the day Krest-mas), aka the Sun die and rise from the dead miraculously.

        Easter: of course, the celebration of Spring, life, fecundity of the earth. In Egypt, it corresponded to the rising of the Nile and also for Isis’ and Nephthys’ search for Osiris’ body parts that was cut up by Set (ie, the easter egg hunt).

        Halloween: is probably the most important and misunderstood holiday in this Europeanized culture. Halloween is simply the day for the celebration and honoring of ancestral spirits. African cultures typically do not need a day to give libations, food, drinks, and sweets to their dead family, but Europeans have always been afraid of ghosts for some reason. The children are meant to play the role of dead people and spirits and when you give them sweets, the spirit associated with the child is supposed to be satisfied. If not, the spirit, and possibly the child, will f*ck you up (trick or treat).

        New Years is an arbitrary day created by the Catholic Church for reasons I am not sure of at the moment and don’t want to look up. Most cultures celebrate the New Years during Spring, nearer or on Easter, including European cultures which is why when the church changed the year up, April 1st turned into April Fools Day because most Europeans considered April to be the beginning of the New Year.

        Hope that helps.

        Peace

        1. I appreciate your lesson in Egyptology customs- BUT the fact remains during XMas most of our people will be teaching their kids about a fat white mythological [= non-existent] guy called ‘Santa Claus’, who’s even surpassed the a-historical white Jesus figure as the central figure of XMas- all for Corp PROFIT$$$. Thus they won’t be celebrating the historical Afro-Hebraic / Afro-Asiatic Yeshua, nor the traditional Afro-Egyptian Heru for that matter.
          Also Africa is essentially split in half by the equator. Near the equator [IE: Africa’s tropical regions], there is NO winter solstice to speak of, because unlike in northern Europe & N.America, the day-light hrs in Africa’s tropical region do NOT dramatically shorten nor do night-time hrs substantially lengthen, during the months Dec & Jan- which is one reason why it rarely snows in Africa [except in Africa’s Hi mountains of-course].

          The name Easter is derived from the Canaanite goddess of lust, fertility & war & was a model for the pagan Greco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite / Venus. That’s where the idea of mythological Easter egg laying bunny rabbits came from [eggs & rabbits were pagan symbols of fertility- & mistletoe sap was {is} used by Euro-Pagans as an aphrodisiac]. But I do agree w you that the month of March – April actually marks the true New Year’s season.

          Halloween [Hell-O-Weird] is so WACKED- as generally practiced in the US & EU, w so-many folks taking license to practice all manner of ‘Skull-Duggery & Trickery [often minus any treats], IMO our people should just shun it.

          1. I agree with your sentiments over the modern way these days are presented (though I would have to go with Christmas as being the most deceitful and full of skull-duggery… its something about capitalism mixed with a seasonal faux goodwill with a dash of religious imperialism that always makes me nauseous throughout this time of year). I just try to find the African origins of everything as I am convinced that there is no phenomenon without some kind of anchor in the motherland.

            But I am definitely all for shunning these days if the alternative is telling my godchild that some magical fat-ass white man magically made the electronic tablet that I paid for appear under a tree. I’m going to start shunning right now, in fact.

            Peace

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