It’s December So Bring on the Kwanzaa Haterism

With Dr. Maulana Karenga and Tiamoyo Karenga

I’d be happy if we went from October 31st to January 1 and skipped both Thanksgiving and Christmas…except for Kwanzaa.

That feeling is even stronger when I listen to shock jocks like KFI 640 AM’s Bill Handel inaccurately try to explain and articulate what the Kwanzaa Holiday is.

I do not expect people who are not Black to get Kwanzaa, I don’t even expect most Black people to understand the principals behind Kwanzaa quite frankly. But I get especially peeved when people try to use Dr. Maulana Karenga’s alleged history to distort and somehow disqualify Kwanzaa.

First, Dr. Karenga is the founder of Kwanzaa and I have been very lucky to call him a mentor in my life. What I have learned from him and the US Organization has helped me to develop my outlook on life.

Second, I refer to Dr. Karenga’s alleged history because I wasn’t there. While I know plenty of people who were around in L.A. during those times who have shared with me their thoughts on Dr. Karenga, I have always prided myself on making up my own mind when it comes to people.

Dr. Karenga has never done anything to me and as long as I have known him he’s done more to help educate me than many of my teachers and professors.

Now onto to Kwanzaa. It’s not for everyone. If you can’t dig it, stick to Christmas or the December holiday of your choice.

Kwanzaa is not a religion. It’s not an African holiday. It is an African American and Pan-African holiday. Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense—hence the seven principals.

During Kwanzaa, we as Black people, take time to reflect on our values, community, and self. Something quite frankly we should be doing every day of the year. It requires self-reflection, something that we aren’t all capable of. It requires a commitment to bettering your community—again, something we aren’t all capable of.

Somehow people continue to think that Kwanzaa is not a real holiday because it was started by a man and not out of a book who nobody knows who wrote to begin with.

Kwanzaa is as real a holiday as any of the other Hallmark holidays celebrated by the masses throughout this country. I think the real gripe is that the powers that be haven’t found a way to commercialize it and/or profit from it.

Anything that reinforces positive thinking among Black people is always up for debate and likely to be scrutinized and picked apart. This is nothing new and has been going on since the first one of us stepped off the boat.

Luckily, many of us who do celebrate Kwanzaa are strong enough to withstand the naysayers and the haters.

Thank you Dr. Karenga.