Happy New Year from SBPDL

Happy New Year to one and all! We've taken a break from posting for a few days to reflect on the 2009 year and prepare for a new decade and 2010 - the year of SBPDL.

New posts coming tomorrow (we have to finish the 12 Days of SBPDL Christmas). Again, Happy New Year to one and all.

We hope all readers had an excellent celebration and are prepared to sit down and be enthralled in early 2010 with more fascinating looks at Stuff Black People Don't Like.

You can reach us at stuffblackpeople@gmail.com.

Happy New Year!

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The Tenth Day of Christmas at SBPDL - Kwanzaa

The 26th of December has a special place in the hearts and minds of disingenuous white liberals everywhere: it is the start of a week-long celebration of innate Blackness and the glory of Black people, Kwanaa!:

Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African heritage and culture, marked by participants lighting a kinara (candle holder).^[1] It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year, primarily in the United States.

Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and libations, and culminating in a feast and gift giving. It was created by Ron Karenga and was first celebrated from December 26, 1966 to January 1, 1967.

Kwanzaa... the event that Black people eagerly await for year-round, where disingenuous white liberals heap praise and joy upon them for the creativity in concocting such an ethnocentric holiday, devoid of white peoples help. Much like when a crusading white pedagogue teaches a Black person the quadratic equation, white people garner a deep sense of pride when Black people celebrate Kwanzaa - all by themselves!

Take this fantastic write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle, a city that has more than 800,000 people and a whopping 6 percent of them are Black, yet the white liberals who populate that metropolis treat the Black people there like Kindergartners who just learned the alphabet.

Here is the official webpge of Kwanaa, and a message from the founder of this monumental festival of Blackness, the incomparable Dr. Maulana Karenga:

As an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community, Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense. Given the profound significance Kwanzaa has for African Americans and indeed, the world African community, it is imperative that an authoritative source and site be made available to give an accurate and expansive account of its origins, concepts, values, symbols and practice.

Moreover, given the continued rapid growth of Kwanzaa and the parallel expanded discussion of it and related issues, an authoritative source which aids in both framing and informing the discussion is likewise of the greatest importance. Therefore, the central interest of this website is to provide information which reveals and reaffirms the integrity, beauty and expansive meaning of the holiday and thus aids in our approaching it with the depth of thought, dignity, and sense of specialness it deserves.

The holiday, then will of necessity, be engaged as an ancient and living cultural tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in community and culture, the well-being of family and community, the integrity of the environment and our kinship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people's culture.

Kwanzaa celebrates the Seven Principles of Blackness, and these include:

• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

These are admirable principles and worthy of adulation from all people. Black people should feel pride in these ideals and strive to maintain them. However, a cursory glance at this website would show you that these seven principles of Kwanzaa are forgotten throughout most of the year.

However, an interesting historian - one Ann Coulter - has found some unappealing truths about Kwanzaa that paint a darker picture than the already Black hue of Kwanzaa would care for, as the holiday is nothing but a sham:

President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa."

I believe 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 stooge, 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 ultimately 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...

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...

Now the "holiday" concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation and public schools across the nation. Bush called Kwanzaa a holiday that promotes "unity" and "faith." Faith in what? Liberals' unbounded capacity to respect any faith but Christianity?

The conservative vixen wrote another column on Kwanzaa here.

The Washington Post saw fit to publish one Michael Eric Dyson, an individual we have yet to chronicle here at SBPDL - but will soon - as he exalted the virtues of Kwanzaa and how it relates to one Mein Obama, Barack Obama:

The political climate affects black rituals too. A lot has been made of the number of posts that black life confronts: post-soul, post-black, post-racial, and post-civil rights. In this era of black posts, pillars fall, whether civil rights leaders whose approach is viewed as passé, or as rituals of black cohesion are viewed by many blacks as quaint and largely irrelevant. A lot of that talk picked up pace with the election of Barack Obama as president, a monumental event that eclipsed black fears in some quarters (racism could no longer keep black folk from the big prizes of American life), exacerbated them in others (because of his success the bulk of blacks who continue to struggle might be forgotten). What's a people - and how is "people" exactly defined in such conditions - to do?

But the holiday's most faithful practitioners proclaim its original intent: bridging black folk across the chasms of land, language, water and religion as they forge solidarity in resisting obstacles and embracing opportunities to their common destiny. As the devotees of Kwanzaa understand, those aspirations have never been of much interest to the mainstream during any period of the nation's history. And the increased fortunes of black folk cause many of them to focus their energy and attention elsewhere. But for its true believers, Kwanzaa is as relevant and necessary now as it's ever been.

Consequently, Kwanzaa is treated - by many Black people - as an absolute joke, unless you are an disingenuous white liberal or an adherent of a religious movement that makes the Hale-Bopp Heaven's Gate cult look sane in comparison.

Black people love a good party - especially a block party - and a week-long celebration in their own honor should be grounds for Bacchanalian revelry. However Kwanzaa isn't celebrated by a majority of Black people:

"The holiday was a way for African Americans to honor their culture, but it was also part of the black power movement of the era. The big boom in Kwanzaa came during its first two decades, according to Keith Mayes, author of "Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition."

But he said participation has leveled off. Based on his research, he estimates a half-million to 2 million people in the U.S. celebrate Kwanzaa, out of about 40 million Americans identified by the U.S. Census as black, including those who are multiracial.

Although Kwanzaa started here, it has become a Pan-African holiday. The African American Cultural Center places the number of those who observe Kwanzaa worldwide at 30 million, but even that is a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of people of African descent all over the world."

Some might even argue the kinara is going dim on the glory that was Kwanzaa, and once its magnificent light dims the magic of the holiday will be lost forever.

Let's be honest. Black people already a holiday that unites them forever, for it is the date that officially but to rest Pre-Obama America: January 20, 2008.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Kwanzaa, for this pathetic attempt at showing disingenuous white liberals the creative mind of Black people was really a blatant job at coloring outside the lines.

Black people find this celebration disconcerting and feckless, for if they wanted anything to do with Africa in 2009, then they would gladly return to whence they came.

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The Ninth Day of Christmas at SBPDL - Errant Snowballs

Washington DC is a town known for safety. However, Black people are already known not to like the snow and have a difficult time discerning the myriad complexities of gun safety.

Now, combine snow with gun safety and put these two combustible Black elements into Washington DC and you have a recipe for an ultimate SBPDL.

Black people have long been incapable of cooperating with the police, and this difficulty is exasperated exponentially when a Black person is the one carrying around the badge. There are many competent Black police officers in the United States (Chief Moose and Carl Winslow come to mind), and yet the power of the law in their hands leads to a crippling arrogance that, when compounded with high levels of snow fall and a massive snow ball fight, spells trouble:

WASHINGTON — Washington's police chief criticized a veteran detective Monday for pulling a gun during a mass snowball fight. Authorities said the officer is on desk duty while the case is under investigation.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she had watched video clips from the weekend confrontation and has no doubt that the off-duty officer pulled his gun after snowballs hit his personal vehicle during Saturday's record snowfall.

Click here for video of the event.

"Let me be very clear in stating that I believe the actions of the officer were totally inappropriate!" Lanier said in a statement. "In no way should he have handled the situation in this manner."

When you click on this story, it takes you to a Fox News link (remember, Black people don't like Fox News, even though the network does little to encourage racism. Here, they picture a white cop with the story who was trying to get the bottom of the event, for a Black detective became irate when he was pelted with numerous snow balls).

A better story can be found here, which delineates the race of the individual who became noticeably offended by the icy projectiles that were flung his way:

"Washington, D.C. police are investigating reports that a detective brandished his gun during a mass snowball fight on a city street after an Internet video surfaced that appears to show the incident.

Police said Monday they were looking into reports that a plainclothes officer pulled a gun after he and his personal car were hit by snowballs. Police say witness accounts and videos from the scene appeared to support the claims.

Hundreds of people were involved in the snowball fight during Saturday's record snowstorm.

Sadly, this Black police who had a difficult time cooperating with snow balls and goofy white liberals (watch the video and tell us these aren't the kind of goofy white people that Stuff White People Like bashes) has been reprimanded:

"A Washington, D.C., police detective has been put on desk duty after pulling out his gun during a snowball fight Saturday.

The off-duty detective, whose name has not been released, was driving past a snowball fight in the city when his Hummer was hit by snowballs. He allegedly stopped the car, got out, and took out his gun. He also pulled out a walkie-talkie and called for backup.

Most of the incident was caught on video and quickly posted to YouTube.

According to an eyewitness, a D.C. Police detective (pictured above with gun) went nuts after kids pelted his Hummer with snowballs at 14th and U Streets NW this afternoon. The veteran detective got out of his car and eventually grabbed for his gun, displaying it to the crowd. He did not immediately identify himself as a police officer. He calmed down once his fellow uniformed cop arrived."

Black people don't like the snow and worse, they find the idea of balls of snow being utilized as weaponry offensive to the rules of civilized war and thus it is incumbent upon them to brandish guns in retaliation for this grievous insolence on the part of goofy white liberals in Washington DC:

A plainclothes police detective allegedly pulled his gun out and waved it at a large group of people in a snowball fight at the corner of 14th and U streets NW Saturday afternoon.

An off-duty member of the Metropolitan Police Dept. was reportedly driving his personal car in the area when the car was suddenly pelted with a barrage of snowballs, according to a statement from the MPD.

The detective stopped his car, got out and approached a crowd of people that might have thrown the snowballs. He then got into a verbal fight with members of the crowd, according to police.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes errant snowballs, for if an officer of the law can be put in an untenable situation where only a gun can even the score, then it is wise to refrain from throwing snowballs at any Black people. Ever.

As the goofy white liberals in the video state, "Don't bring a gun to a snowball fight," unless of course, you will be in a snowball fight in a majority Black city. Then, you might need one.

Sadly, a snowball fight in Philadelphia did become lethal over this Christmas season in Philadelphia. RIP Teven Rutledge.

And this wasn't the first time a Black person has found errant snowballs to be worthy of reciprocity in the form of a gun, as Joseph Best of Philadelphia pulled a gun on Ebony Smith in 2003, for - you guessed it - an errant snowball:

A 10-year-old girl is fighting for her life after a man whose daughter was hit with a snowball returned and sprayed bullets into a group of children.

Joseph Best, 32, was arrested in Philadelphia and remanded on charges including attempted murder.

Ebony Smith, who police say was not involved in the snowball fight, is said to be in a critical condition with a head wound.

Best's daughter was hit with a snowball as she and her friends walked past a group of girls having a "friendly snowball fight", said Captain Charles Bloom of Philadelphia police.

A scuffle then broke out among the dozen or so girls, aged from 10 to 15. The groups soon parted ways, but Best returned with an older daughter and another brawl erupted, this time between adult relatives of both groups.

Police broke up that fight, but said Best came back again hours later, leaned out the passenger side of a moving car and fired at least five shots into the group of children still playing on the street. Authorities are trying to determine who was driving.

Police said the girl who was shot had been inside a house during the scuffles.

"This little girl had nothing to do with anything. She wasn't involved in the fight," Capt Bloom said. "He just seemed to be randomly shooting into the crowd."

It's just never a good idea to throw a snowball in the direction of Black people, regardless of what race you might belong too.

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The Eighth Day of Christmas at SBPDL - No Free Toys

Christmas 2009 is in the books, yet we haven't finished the 12 Days of Christmas at SBPDL.

The season of Christmas is a festive time of giving presents to others, in the hope of granting them a reprieve from the doldrums of the winter with gift-wrapped bliss.

Receiving gifts is wonderful, yet seeing the smile creep across the persons face whom you give a gift too is worth 100 of the best gifts ever given. Knowing you have brought joy to another person through a gift. To quote A Christmas Carol again:

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour."

One of the supreme ways to induce laughter is by giving a family member, loved one or friend a wonderful gift - or perhaps an inside gift/joke - that strengthens your bond to them through the efficacy of a fantastic yule tide gift.

The idea of a "gift" is one that is vital to creating a sense of social cohesion and in establishing a proper equilibrium of community:

"A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free.

In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy.

By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness."

And yet, Black people have for long been the beneficiaries of white peoples kindness and liberality, that they know take for granted "gifts" in any form and expect the societal obligations that white people must fulfill constantly to placate their Black rulers:

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Police were called in Sunday when a charity toy giveaway turned chaotic.More than 1,000 people showed up at an event sponsored by Johnnie's House, a domestic violence non-profit group.Some parents were upset when their children only got one toy for a $10 registration fee.

"When you personally gave her your $10, she promised everybody a bag of toys, and we received nothing but one toy per child, and some children didn't even get nothing," said an angry Shermirrea Wright.Some of the toys were stolen before the families arrived."A lot of toys were stolen from the premises today," said Johnnie's House founder Johnnie Gaskins.

"That left us even shorter."Gaskins promised that more toys will be distributed when they are collected or registration fees will be refunded."

Video of this event can be found here.

Black people know that disingenuous white liberals will provide them with all the niceties and necessities to live a life far above the pathetic existence of the poor English who Wordsworth described in London 1802:

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Like the Salvation Army, people who donate toys so that others can enjoy happiness are trying to augment philanthropy throughout their community, and yet, some people are appalled by the lack of imagination in the gifts or the amount of such gifts:

Worse, Atlanta had another event where Black people found themselves deprived of free toys:

SMYRNA, Ga. -- A church pastor is accused of making questionable decisions involving a Toys For Tots program.Andrew Manning and his wife Gayle are furious. They have 9 granddaughters who will get nothing from 24/7 International Church on Cobb Parkway.The Manning's paid the church $1 in order to receive donated Christmas gifts through Toys for Tots.

“I think he should go to jail. He broke a lot of hearts and made a lot of promises that he couldn't stand up to be,” said Andrew Manning.Toys for Tots said the pastor of the church was running a scam by charging some people a $1 fee to make copies of drivers licences and social security numbers to verify their identities in order to prove how many kids they had.Maj. Tim Teed said,

"It's definitely running a scam If they are charging money for free toys, yes, that’s a scam."Teed added, "They requested eight requests for 13,000 toys going to one organization. If that one organization is going to charge a dollar per request, that could possibly be $13,000 that they are going to profit."Pastor Segun Masha said he was not running a scam.Masha defended the charge.

He said, "If you had a copy, you didn’t need a dollar, it was a choice. You could go to Office Depot or bring it from home. We gave them the option."Masha said the reason he submitted eight requests for toys is he was working as a middle man, helping Spanish churches who didn’t know how to sign up.Five-year-old Ashanti and her 4-year-old brother Jason have a short wish list. All she wants is a Barbie doll and all he wants is a toy truck, but this Christmas they won't get anything.

Their grandmother Betty Montgomery said, "I just tell them I can't afford it this year. I wasn’t even able to get a Christmas tree this year."Montgomery is on a fixed income and kids' mom just lost her job. Montgomery and dozens of other people were hoping to pick up a couple of free gifts at 24-7 International but they all left empty handed.Smyrna police said the pastor's actions were unethical, but not criminal because the $1 that was charged is said to be a donation and not a fee.

Video of this event can be found here.

Of course, not all people wait until the gifts are ready to be handed out and it convenient to procure them when no one is looking (no suspect has been named in this case as of yet, and it would be misguided to paint them with a Black brush just yet):

REVERE, Mass. -- Police in Revere are trying to solve a crime against children.

73 presents were stolen from the First Congregational Church in Revere over the weekend. The stolen toys would have helped out 46 families in need.

“I know people are having a hard time this time of year, but to steal from children? That's awful,” said a local resident of the crime.

Why even point out this story? Because when you juxtapose the kindness of strangers who then have their toys stolen, with the entitlement mentality of the Black people in Atlanta demanding more and more toys, well, you get a picture of a community in dire need of help.

Interestingly, Canada has the same problem, and Black people there find the same enjoyment out of stealing toys meant for kids.

Even when rappers, like Shawty Lo, try give back to the community by giving out presents, some people find this in-group display of generosity weak and displeasing.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes no free toys, for Black Friday only comes once a year and free toys from generous individuals attempting to build a community with gifts just isn't enough to pacify Black people around Christmas.

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The Seventh Day of Christmas at SBPDL - Salvation Army Volunteers

Christmas is the time of year when people feel generous and help those in need, offering alms to the needy and donations to worthy organizations who strive to help people who are less fortunate.

Remember A Christmas Carol? One of the great Christmas tales of morality, generosity and woes of a greedy existence? Allow SBPDL to share a quote with you from that story:

"There are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew, "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas-time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

Could one quote more accurately sum up the role that The Salvation Army attempts to play each year in helping the lives of millions of people around the United States who lack basic necessities around Christmas time?:

The Salvation Army, an international movement, describes itself as an evangelical movement and part of the "universal" Christian Church. It has a quasi-military structure and was founded in 1865 in the United Kingdom as the East London Christian Mission by William and Catherine Booth. It is well known for its evangelical, social and charitable work. The Salvation Army seeks to bring Christian salvation to the poor, destitute and hungry by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs, but its ministry extends to all, regardless of ages, gender, color or creed.

Through the hard work of Salvation Army volunteers, who stand in the cold and ring that familiar bell of hope and peace - that enticing sound that elicits patrons to part with coins so that some 30 million fellow Americans can be helped come Christmas time - the poor and downtrodden of America are shown Christian charity around Christmas.

However, not everyone who volunteers around Christmas for the Salvation Army is awarded the same amount of respect that they should be, for these men and women who brave the snow, rain and wintry conditions are the targets of vagrants and modern-day Scrooges:

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- A charity known for it's giving spirit in the holidays has become the victim of a robbery.

CMPD says two people broke into the Salvation Army Red Kettle Warehouse, held two people at gunpoint and stole several red kettles, along with the money inside.

The Salvation Army says the suspects got away with 13 kettles and about $4000 in cash.

Luckily no one was injured.

The first suspect is described as a black male, 5'10", average build, was wearing a black hoodie, and a black bandanna around his face with skulls on it.

They were also wearing sunglasses and gloves.

The Second suspect is described as a black male, 6'4", 240 lbs, and was wearing a black hoodie, black bandanna and sunglasses.

Police say the men got away in an older model square green Jeep Cherokee."

Charlotte is a town hit hard by the financial collapse of the real estate market and the meltdown of the United States economy, and many needy people were deprived the good-natured donations that these Black people found necessary to obtain through illegal methods.

Sadly, Charlotte isn't the only city where Black people find the Salvation Army an easy target to rob for a few coins:

"A Salvation Army major was fatally shot in front of his three children Thursday afternoon as he walked into the the organization's community center in North Little Rock, authorities said.

Around 4 p.m., two black men dressed in black approached Philip Wise, 40, of Maumelle outside the community center at 1505 W. 18th St., Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper said.

Wise’ children — ages 4, 6, and 8 — were walking with him when the men came up to them, police said. His wife, Cindy, also a major in the Salvation Army, was inside the center at the time and called 911.

One of the men pulled a gun, demanded money and then shot Wise, police said."

Philip Wise, a man who volunteered his time to help out the poor found himself a victim of the very individuals he hoped to alleviate of their anguish:

"Police say Wise took two bell ringers home and then returned to the Salvation Army with his three young children. Officers say two armed men approached Wise at the back door and demanded money. They say they then shot Wise at least once. He died at the scene.

Police are not saying if money was taken.

Wise's three children witnessed the shooting. Their ages are 4, 6, and 8. His wife was inside and reportedly called 911.

North Little Rock police are searching for two black suspects. Police say they are in their late teens to early twenties and were dressed in all black.

Police say Wise had been with the Salvation Army for 16 years. For the last three years he has managed the Salvation Army chapters in Sherwood, North Little Rock, and Maumelle."

Donations for the Salvation Army have been down in recent years, at a time when people need help the most. And yet, in two cities blessed with diversity, Black people have found the need to steal kettles of coins for their own nefarious plans and worse, deprive three children of their father for Christmas dinner.

Some Black people - who might be the beneficiaries of the benevolence of others in the form of the coins in that kettle - bring their kids along for the raid of others gifts:

"Twenty-five-year-old Onesha Gibson and 21-year-old Kimberly Baggett of Carbondale are free on bond after being charged in the theft last week.

A bell ringer outside a Carbondale Walmart says he and a co-worker noticed the kettle missing just after two women with children walked past and got into a taxi."

The Salvation Army is not a military organization, but one intent on spreading happiness and goodwill for all mankind. Take for instance this story of Detroit, Michigan and the Salvation Army, where hundreds of homeless people were fed thanks to the kindness of a thousand strangers:

"Starting at 7:30 a.m. today, all of this food is to go into the bellies of folks attending the Salvation Army of Metro Detroit's annual Christmas breakfast at the Masonic Temple in Detroit.

Salvation Army chef Gary Van Wicklin said he believes the breakfast has been held for the past five years.

The breakfast -- expected to feed more than 2,000 people -- is open to everyone, but most who come are in need of a good meal.

"It makes you feel good knowing that you're feeding the people that otherwise might not have anything to eat," Van Wicklin said. "It starts off their day right."

But the organization isn't stopping at breakfast.

From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Salvation Army's Bed & Bread Trucks -- mobile units that give away food to people in Detroit every day -- are to deliver upward of 1,000 turkey dinners, complete with mashed potatoes and sweet potato pie.

Preparation started three weeks ago, Van Wicklin said."

A war is being waged against Salvation Army volunteers, and it is starting to turn deadly. Those in need of help are stealing from themselves and others at a time when giving and sharing - as described by Scrooge's nephew above - is at its peak, around Christmas time.

Interestingly, cities in America that have a high rate of volunteerism, tend to be those populated by a majority of white people. And those with low volunteerism tend to have a copious amount of Black people in them, where only a minority of white people can go out and volunteer before they find themselves in the same predicament as Philip Wise:

"A new federal report on volunteering in America’s largest metropolitan areas has found that the cities with the highest levels of volunteering are largely focused in middle America; and that high home ownership rates and educational levels equate to higher volunteer rates while long commuting times and high volunteer dropout rates have the opposite effect.

Volunteer rates in America’s largest cities range from a high of 40.5 percent in Minneapolis-St. Paul to a low of 14.4 percent in Las Vegas. After Minneapolis-St. Paul, the cities with the highest volunteer rates are Salt Lake City, Austin, Texas; Omaha, Neb.; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Tulsa, Okla. The cities with the lowest volunteer rate are Las Vegas; Miami; New York; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Riverside, Calif."

On this Christmas, Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Salvation Army volunteers, for occurrences all over the United States where hard working people donating time and energy to help out the poor and then find themselves the victim of those they seek to assist is no longer an anomaly. Just ask Philip Wise's family.

Anytime you read a story where the suspect in the case is not revealed, the chances of it being a Black person behind the whole ordeal just shot up 100 percent.

The color of crime around Christmas still seems to be the same as any other time of year.

Link to story about Charlotte crimes can be found here and here.

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The Sixth Day of Christmas at SBPDL - Traditional Views of Santa Claus

Black people have a lot to be thankful for in the United States this magical Christmas Day. Sadly, for Black children around the nation - of whom more than 70 percent are born out of wedlock - they were visited last night by a large, fat, jolly white man bringing toys and goodies for good little boys and girls.

No, we aren't talking about the family that adopted Michael Oher, nor the many white families that adopt Black babies... we are talking about Santa Claus, that incredibly talented white man who lives in the North Pole and, with the incredible dexterity of his many elves and 9 reindeer, visits the homes of children and bestows upon them gifts for them to open on the 25 of December:

"Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or simply "Santa", is a legendary figure who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24 or on his Feast Day, December 6 (Saint Nicholas Day).^[ The legend may have part of its basis in hagiographical tales concerning the historical figure of gift giver Saint Nicholas. A nearly identical story is attributed by Greek and Byzantine folklore to Basil of Caesarea. Basil's feast day on January 1 is considered the time of exchanging gifts in Greece.

While Saint Nicholas was originally portrayed wearing bishop's robes, today Santa Claus is generally depicted as a plump, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast."

Basically, the entire history of Santa Claus is covered in the heritage of a Western European blanket and good ole Santa is a gift-giving, corpulent white guy, capable of delivering smiles and joy to kids of all races - as long as they haven't been naughty.

What compels this altruistic turgid white guy to dedicate his entire life to bringing joy and happiness to young people? Why invest so heavily in hoping to brighten kids lives with presents under the tree and stuffed stockings of candy and toys?

Well, some Black people find this notion of a bovine white dude watching them 24/7 to be a tad overbearing and encroaching on their personal freedom, if not down right racist. The fact that he watches white kids 24/7, notwithstanding, Santa Claus is viewed by Black people as the embodiment of George Orwell's Big Brother.

Worse, some Black people have the audacity to declare Santa an unreal entity:

"Back in September, Newsweek featured an article titled “Even Babies Discriminate“. Mandy beat me to the punch and blogged about it. However, what I wanted to blog about could wait, until now.

Towards the end of the article, we learn that teachers in a rural Ohio school read a version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in which Santa is black. They introduced the concept of Santa as a black man. At the school Christmas party, Santa showed up, and yes, he was black.

The problem is, Santa isn’t black. You know why?

Santa Claus isn’t real.

I love ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. I love Christmas in general. I watched Frosty the Snowman three times tonight. None of that changes the fact that Santa Claus is a fictional character. We don’t “do” Santa in our house. Jack is told that he is “pretend”, like the Disney Princesses and Lightning McQueen. Does he understand that? I don’t know. But I know he won’t be getting any presents from Santa, and that we do not encourage the Santa myth at all.

Now, I know that other parents like pretending Santa is real, and that’s OK, I suppose. My beef, and the reason for writing this post, is that a school was essentially teaching kids that Santa is real. Not only that, but they were teaching kids that this fictional character is black. So, then, the kids grow up, find out Santa Claus is a sham, and these kids who were so happy to learn that Santa is brown like them are doubly upset."

Thankfully, this view is in the clear minority, for most Black people believe in Santa Claus and more importantly, have created the myth of Santa Claus being an obese Black guy:

"And for me Santa Claus always was, is now, and always will be a black man.

Part of my investment in Santa's blackness derives from my personal biography. My father is a brown-skinned man who smokes a pipe and has had a full beard of gray hair since my infancy. Black Santa looks like my dad, so I am drawn to him. But my father is nothing like a jolly elf. Professor Harris is a stern disciplinarian and a politically engaged intellectual. I can't imagine anyone less likely to hang out with toy-building magical creatures while wearing a fur-trimmed red suit.

My attachment to black Santa is rooted in a fierce racial consciousness I have nurtured since childhood. In my adulthood I have revised much of my unthinking, black nationalist assumptions. My feminist commitments, interracial political work, and emerging cosmopolitan sensibilities make me somewhat less likely to exercise an automatic preferential option for blackness. This journey of political consciousness is also reflected in my holiday choices.

As a kid, black Santa represented a benevolent spirit of goodness and kindness directed toward African American children. Black Santa cared about little girls who look like me. I did not need blue eyes or blond ringlet curls for black Santa to find me adorable. Black Santa did not put a blond baby doll under my tree. He knew that I needed to rock, hold and nurture a baby doll with brown skin and kinky hair. Black Santa expected Nat King Cole to be playing on the stereo when he arrived on Christmas Eve.

Symbols matter. They help shape our understanding of national culture and identity. A president is not a country, but he embodies the national identity. Santa is the secular, commercial symbol of a religious holiday, but he nonetheless embodies the popular imagination of the holiday.

It is time for Americans to get comfortable with black Santa."

Yes, even though Santa Claus is a myth from the cold environment of Western Europe (and the marketing gurus of Madison Avenue) a rewrite is in order to ensure that Santa Claus embodies the new Black World that we all live in currently, to placate the national identity that is being forged, for we no longer live in Pre-Obama America.

Anything white that reminds people of The Greatest Generation must be replaced with a prominent Black face and Santa Claus is a symbol of ethnocentrism so pervasive that Black children find the image of a Black Santa as alien as white people do:

"In keeping with that spirit of diversity, several dozen families attended a recent holiday party at the West Medford Community Center, where an African-American Santa fielded toy requests from tiny tots while handing out candy canes. Cosponsored by the New England Alliance of Multiracial Families, the event, the 11th to feature a Santa Claus of color, attracted parents and children for whom encountering a black Santa (with a white Mrs. Claus standing alongside him) was not just a curiosity but a priority.

Deleatra Bolton of Malden, accompanied by her husband and two young children, said it was refreshing to find a "nontraditional" Santa in a state like Massachusetts, where such sightings tend to be rare. In Maryland, the state she'd lived in previously, black Santas are far more commonplace than up North, Bolton said.

"In our house at Christmas, all the angels and Santas are black," Bolton said over the fa-la-la of holiday music emanating from a boombox. "My daughter is 4 and just starting to realize about race." This year, she said, her daughter had wondered aloud why there was a black Santa at home and a white Santa at the mall. "I told her that Santa can change his color depending on whichever house he visits, and that what's important about Santa is what's on the inside, not the outside," Bolton said with a smile."

Santa Claus is a paragon of virtue, kindness and sharing and for these traits to be synonymous with a fat, bearded, white guy is not only racist and vile, but insulting to Black people who hope to remake Santa in the image of a Black man once and for all. White people can't have any positive symbols anymore to share with the world and culturally speaking, Santa Claus must be recast as a Tyler Perry character in the hopes of forever placing a Black man squarely in the residence of the North Pole once and for all.

Santa Claus was once a white gentlemen, who had consumed quite a few to many meals and became the portly, lovably benevolent septuagenarian who all children love to visit at the mall and then impart upon him their most coveted secrets: what they want for Christmas.

For Black children to continue to be told that only a white person can grant them these wishes on Christmas Day reinforces negative stereotypes about the patriarch role of the white man as being forever the protector of Black people:

"Students at St. Stephen Elementary School found out last week that Santa Claus can have the same skin color as them.

That's because two Santa Clauses — one white, one black — were invited to the rural Berkeley County school at separate times last Friday to take pictures with students of the same skin color.

Principal Willa Norton's decision to invite two Santas has drawn criticism from a few parents and from two civil rights organizations, which said the school shouldn't have divided the students by race without asking parents first.

Marguerite Lyons, who found out about the two Santas while picking up her son outside the school Thursday, said dividing the children by race smacked of prejudice. All the children should have seen one Santa, she said.

"I don't care if (Santa) was Chinese or Puerto Rican," said Lyons, who is black. "Everyone's the same."

Norton said everything was done to benefit a student population that is predominantly black and from low-income families. More than 97 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 75 percent are black.

She said most of the children probably wouldn't have a chance to meet Santa otherwise, and she wanted to use the opportunity to let students know that the possibilities are endless.

"It was just an opportunity for my kids to be exposed to a Santa who looks like them," said Norton, who is black. "I just want my kids to know that everyone can do all kinds of things."

She said she even tried to find a Hispanic Santa for the handful of Hispanic children and an Asian Santa Claus for the school's one Asian child.

Parent Jay Paulin, who is black, said he liked that his daughter and the other children could talk and take pictures with a black Santa.

"It shows (Santa) can look like them too," Paulin said.

Norton said she told all of the 489 children that the Santas they met weren't the real Santa, just his helpers who agreed to take pictures while the real one prepared for Christmas."

No, the end of Santa Claus' reign as a white man incapable of hitting the gym is upon us and the correct and racially sensitive image of Santa Claus as a Black person is soon to be the norm in the United States of America. Whiteness is the first causality of diversity and Santa Claus' traditional whiteness must go. He - as an obese white man - is a callous example of cultural imperialism by white people upon the colored masses of the nation.

The end of the white Santa Claus is nigh, and this occurrence couldn't come soon enough for Black people, who have put up with a dominant white culture for far too long:

ATLANTA -- The man in the big chair taking Christmas requests at The Mall at Stonecrest might not fit the image most Americans have of Santa Claus. Though he has a beard, wears a red velvet suit and is pleasantly plump, this St. Nick is African-American.

Two years ago, during the first Christmas season at the newly opened mall in Lithonia, a suburb east of Atlanta, a white Santa was on hand to grant holiday wishes. Then requests started pouring in from African-Americans who said they wanted a Santa their children could relate to. Before long, there were two Santas at the mall, one black and one white.

"They had to try and meet the needs of their clientele, about an equal mixture of African-Americans and whites. I think they are doing that real well by offering both," said Myron Mills, 41, the black Santa who greets children on weekend evenings. "In addition to that, we have put a spin on it. I'm also a unique Santa because I sing."

Like Stonecrest, suburban shopping malls across the country have had to address the issue of diversity during the holiday season. Not only does it apply to Santa's skin color, but it means offering black-theme holiday cards in the Hallmark store, stocking Hispanic-looking dolls in toy shops and selling ethnic designed tree ornaments from carts in the mall hallways.

While African-American community groups and churches in many urban areas have long provided black Santas for children to visit, suburban malls -- where Santa is often the major attraction during the holidays -- often have not, despite efforts dating back to the civil rights era. In the 1960s, for example, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference boycotted Federated Department Stores to get them to hire a black Santa in Cincinnati.

While resistance to the idea remains in some places, diversity has gained support in recent years.

"As people become more culturally sensitive, we are beginning to see more diversity in icons such as Santa Claus. It is becoming more prevalent because America is experiencing a clashing of cultures and a transition," said Deborah Williams, a diversity consultant at Leadership Edge Management Consultants in Atlanta.

"It is difficult because our society has traditionally been based on white dominance. But in this evolution, the needs of changing communities will have to be addressed. And over time, people will become more comfortable with two Santas, a black Santa or one of another ethnicity."

For 9-year-old Zachary Kimmel, a white child who was waiting in line, there is no reasonable explanation for two Santas.

"It's freaky," said the third-grader, who lives in Conyers. "I don't get it because it doesn't keep with the legend of Santa Claus. Everybody knows Santa Claus is white."

His mother, Angie Venham, 35, said she made a conscious decision to come to the mall when the white Santa was on duty.

"There is nothing wrong with people having a selection so they can choose the one they want," she said. "We just wanted to keep down the confusion. You heard the boy."

Jack Greene, 69, a white who is working his 12th year as a Santa and his third at Stonecrest, said he has not noticed a difference in the preference of black and white families.

"Black people don't seem to care that much whether Santa is black or white. I have just as many black kids as white," said Greene. "In fact, some of the black people have said they prefer a white Santa."

Mills, the African-American Santa, said about 95 percent of the children he sees are black or Hispanic."

Santa Claus' days a white guy are numbered, and for many this moment couldn't come soon enough:

"Like shopping for gifts then wrapping them up, some Christmas traditions rarely change. But there's one classic image of the holiday season that seems to be changing color. Still, true believers don't seem to mind.

Black Santas in predominantly African-American neighborhoods have become a regular thing for the holiday season, but lately we see more and more in areas that are mostly non-black.

"Santa is so symbolic in these times and a Santa is a Santa. Kids see no color they just see Santa and they know who he is and they know what he stands for," said Carlton Benjamin, a professional Santa Claus.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn is known as New York City's polish enclave. Yet black Santa is a hit.

Barry Perlmutter owns a company that is a Santa agency of sorts with a multi-cultural crew of Santas ready to be dispatched to any venue in need of a freelance Father Christmas.

Perlmutter said, "I might hear from an adult, not really a child: 'Oh, that's a black Santa or sometimes we have a Spanish Santa and the adults more than the children might feel a little weird, but I want to make sure that we have a diversified group of Santa Clauses that can go anywhere anytime and make everybody happy."

And everybody's happy here at a store in the suburban town of Bay Shore, New York where customers are predominantly white, but their Santa is black -- and good for business, too.

For some kids in this suburban neighborhood, it didn't even occur to them that Santa is black. When asked if they noticed anything different about him, they struggled to find an answer.

But some of the older children did notice something was a bit different.

"He's black," said 9-year-old Michael."

Black Santa toys and decorations are big sells in the Black community and make economic sense for those companies deciding that 13 percent of the United States population is worth placating with merchandise.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes the traditional views of Santa Claus, even though the myth of a magnanimous elderly individual who bestows presents to morally upright children originated in Europe. Santa - in this current era- is Black and he has a few things in common with Tiger Woods, although Santa has always stopped at three hos.

Black children - and all non-white kids - must learn that the era of white dominance is over, and with the it, the noxious notion of a white Santa Claus too.

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Merry Christmas from SBPDL

We still have a few days of The 12 Days of Christmas to post, but we wanted to take a brief moment to wish everyone reading a Merry Christmas (and pause from any new SBPDL entries).

The 25 of December is a wonderful day as family gather near, old friends call to wish you a Merry Christmas and strangers act a little nicer in an attempt to bring about the best in humanity.

Christmas is a holiday that some believe is being devalued in the United States and turned into an increasingly secular event, as the mere mention of Jesus Christ and the celebration of his birth sends many a Grinch into fits of near spontaneous combustion.

Regardless of what you believe, Christmas has long been a source of controversy in the United States, as Puritans found the day an odious invention of the Catholics and modern Scrooges find the celebration of Christmas an affront to the only Holy Ghost worthy of praise and worship, diversity.

With the erosion of Christmas in America occurring at a speed that outpaces the Polar Ice Caps rapid melting process, you would think that Black people might join the fight to save Christmas, considering that pews are full of Black people on Sunday:

"The center's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 on more than 35,000 people, found that 79 percent of African-Americans say religion is very important in their lives while 56 percent of all U.S. adults said the same. Even among African-Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular faith, 45 percent of them say religion is very important compared to 16 percent of the religiously unaffiliated population overall.

Among the various racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are the most likely to say they belong to a formal religious affiliation. An overwhelming 87 percent of African-Americans identify with a religious group, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life."

It will be interesting to see if Black people take up the fight in the War on Christmas, or if they decide to be non-participants in a battle that will rage for years to come (indeed, if you could ask a Puritan about celebrating Christmas they would tie you to a tree and flog you repeatedly).

Stuff Black People Don't Like would like to wish everyone in the United States a very Merry Christmas. Allow us to quote from Charles Dickens:

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"

Christmas is a joyous day, and it should give everyone an ample opportunity to reflect on the wonder of childhood and the glorious Christmas' of long, long ago, and then the chance to look at your family and think about the simple pleasures of life in the now, the present.

The future will catch up with you quickly and if you don't stop to live in the present, you won't be able to enjoy the simple joys of life.

So on this 25 day of December, in the year of our lord 2009, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

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