People you know who celebrate Kwanzaa? And does teaching our kids this do us well?

In My Humble Opinion
1

…and why?

My son came home with some Kwanzaa stuff. His recollection of the lesson: Black people were slaves in America like Jews were slaves in Egypt and they have a holiday to remind them of their African-ness. They have candles, but it’s not a menorah. Then he proceeded to tell me all about the candle colors. I was impressed, actually, but he was extremely upset when I told him that (per my recollection of some Slate or NPR article or something) only about two per cent of black people celebrate Kwanzaa. (I left out the political parts.)

He looked very crushed.

So I was wondering if anyone here celebrates it and why…and if you’ve ever been the recipient of a “Happy Kwanzaa!” because of (presumably) your skin color? I can see my kid doing this to a clerk at Safeway or something.

And if you think that teaching kids about Kwanzaa in schools is always a good thing? I feel like I had to un-teach a little - he really did have it in his head that all black people dress up in African fare and recite some Swahilli words and light candles every December. :smack:

I’ve mentioned before that he goes to a Jewish school. And yes, they’re talking about Christmas next week. One the one hand, I think it’s great. On the other, isn’t it…kind of false? Kwanzaa isn’t as widespread as white folk believe. And as a history teacher, I’d sooner put that in the 20th C. History class.

2

There still is no real uniformity on black “African-ness” I still have black employees that do not like the term “African American.” They find it insulting saying they are Americans and don’t need the African qualifier. Reasoning being you don’t say, European Americans or French Americans. Then others prefer it, but it definitely in Chicago, is not a settled matter.

It’s especially upsetting to blacks who are not descended from slaves. Like those from Africa or the West Indies or even Brazil.

I would not single anyone out with a particular holiday. The term Happy Holidays is good enough.

I don’t see how it could hurt for a child to be taught about Kwanzaa or any other holiday. As long as it’s done in an academic way.

My understanding from talking to the black people (and they are black not African Americans :)) is that they have fought long and hard to be accepted as members of society. So they don’t want to have to celebrate Kwanzaa or any other thing that sets them apart. After all Rosa Parks wanted to be on the bus with everyone else, not separated.

So if they want to celebrate Kwanzaa fine but they don’t want it shoved down their throats

3

How many blacks from the West Indies and Brazil aren’t descended from slaves? I’d assume almost all are.

4

Well, all the ones who have come to the US after slavery was banned, are not descendants of American slaves.

5

I’ve never heard of anyone celebrating Kwanzaa. So it does strike me as a kind of trying-too-hard-to-be-multicultural thing. I remember some elaborate story problem about it in a high school math book.

Then again, who cares. I don’t like celebrating any holidays, so I guess Kwanzaa is one of my favorites.

6

Not of US slaves, no, but they’re still descended from slaves who were part of the transatlantic slave trade.

7

Maybe it’s because I’m biased–having an Afro-centric parent–but there are plenty of people who celebrate Kwanzaa. Not the majority of black people, true. But I’d be willing to bet a non-trivial number have at least attended ONE Kwanzaa-related activity once in their lives.

I had a HS teacher who held an annual Kwanzaa party. I attended it twice and it was a very festive affair. We did the rituals involved (I distinctly remember pouring the libations), but other than that it was a normal party. The attendees were both black and white.

Kwanzaa is sort of like Juneteenth celebrations, IMHO. Just scoop up a random black person on the street and chances are they do not know what Juneteenth is. But seek out a black person who is a little educated, who travels in black “consciousness” circles, and they most certainly will.

Some people, like my mother, take Kwanzaa quite seriously. If I lived with her, I have no doubt she’d be dragging me to all kinds of Kwanzaa things. All her friends are the same way. So from my experience, it is a very real thing.

8

This makes no sense.

Pretty much all people of African descent in the New World, including the Caribbean, are descendents of slaves. They came from the same stock as American slaves. IOW, mainly West Africa.

Black folk who come here from Latin America or the Caribbean may not identify culturally with black people here, true. But it has nothing to do with when their respective slaveries were banned. It’s because they are simply culturally different. Turns out that language and religion are kind of important.

9

Congratulations on making your kid feel “crushed.” What actual harm does teaching the kids about Kwanzaa do?

Hey, I’m white & I know about Juneteenth. (It began here in Texas.)

10

Hey monstro does your mom celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas or instead of Christmas?

11

How is it MY fault if hardly any black people celebrate Kwanzaa?! That’s the teacher’s job to let them know that. He was crushed because he had this idea about all black people in general and it was wrong.

12

I hear it’s big in Wakanda.

13

I live in the metropolitan area of a predominately black city and have known plenty of black people both in the past and presently. I’ve never been aware of anybody I know celebrating Kwanzaa.

14

None, of course. But you could say the same about National Grandparents’ Day or any other modern holiday that’s not terribly popular.

15

A number of years ago, I posted a question asking how many people actually celebrate Kwanzaa. I never did get a useful answer. The 2% figure cited in the OP is the first number I’ve actually heard. And I’ll say that sounds about right. Even here in Detroit, Kwanzaa has almost zero visability, except when it gets mentioned on the news after Christmas.

I’ve known several recent African immigrants. I daresay that culturally, they have little in common with your traditional “African American.”

16

No, she is a big Christmas person too. She’s a minister, so this kind of makes sense.

FWIW, everyone I know who celebrates Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas and consider themselves Christmas. Kwanzaa isn’t a religious holiday.

People should also remember that Kwanzaa, unlike Christmas, isn’t something that makes celebrants rush out in the street, singing Kwanzaa carols and throwing tinsel in the air. There are no Kwanzaa trees or special decorations. It’s kind of a serious holiday. So you may actually know people who celebrate, but they aren’t gonna exactly announce themselves.

The whole “no one I know celebrates this day, so it’s made-up!” thing kind of annoys me, to be honest. It’s like saying, “No white people I know celebrate Hanukkah, so it must be made-up!” I have worked around Jewish folk for most of my adult life. Only a couple of them have talked about Hanukkah enough for me to know that they celebrate it. I have no idea if the others do or not, but I wouldn’t assume–based on their lack of discussion about it–that they didn’t.

(I work with this one Jewish guy. I asked him if he celebrated Sukkot and he looked at me like I was crazy. Turns out the answer was no, and he couldn’t answer any of my questions about it either. My therapist explained it to me, but she also doesn’t celebrate it either (and she’s married to a rabbi!) Yet, the reform synagogue I pass by everyday puts up a sukkah every year. My guess is that only really devout Jews get into it.)

A certain segment of black folk, those especially devouted to their identity, celebrate Kwanzaa. I assure you, if you go to enough predominately black churches and communities centers all across this country, especially those of a political liberal bent, you will find Kwanzaa paraphernalia. I’m gonna wager that most of the folk in this thread aren’t regular visitors of the local Phyllis Wheatley YMCA, nor go worshipping in the Ebenezer Baptist Church or Cathedral of Holiness Church of God in Christ downtown.

The holiday is also a recent creation. My generation is the first in which people could have actually grown up celebrating it. So it has not been around to become a family tradition yet. I’m sure Christmas took more than a generation to become popular, too. (And I also imagine that if the holiday is to last, it will probably be pared down to a single day of celebration, rather than an 8 day-long political affair.)

17

I’ve never thought of Kwanzaa as a marginal holiday as I’ve heard it mentioned at school, work, and in the media for most of my life. I just assumed it is celebrated by those interested in geneology, history, or cultural traditions which better reflect their heritage. But it is unlikely that a person who celebrates Kwanzaa is going to converse with straight-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned me about the tradition, so it is probably practiced by more people than I’m aware of.

I’m in the South, and Kwanzaa decorations are sold alongside Christmas items at Pier 1, TJ Maxx, and I noticed a couple things at Target yesterday. Oh, and some wildly colorful batiks just made an appearance at the fabric store alongside the Christmas prints. Retail buyers are probably better gauges of the cultural importance of Kwanzaa than this white girl, but a shopping expedition proves the holiday is observed locally. I think a discussion of cultural traditions should begin in elementary school, long before bigotry is reinforced by those claiming sole proprietorship of the holiday season.

18

OK. It’s not that there’s an interesting holiday–but that the number observing it is too small to matter.

As of 2008, only 1.2% of adult Americans identified themselves as Jewish.

19

I am a black person who is getting married on the first day of Kwanzaa this year. I’ve had a number of people comment on me getting married right at Christmas and a few who have made Boxing Day jokes, but not a single person has mentioned Kwanzaa. It took me a while after setting the date many months ago to have it occur to me, as well. I’ve never celebrated Kwanzaa, nor do I personally know anyone who has mentioned celebrating it.

20

Several years ago I received a Kwanzaa picture frame and a Kwanzaa teddy bear for Christmas from my father. Neither of us have any African American heritage, but both of us have kind of a weird sense of humor so I chalked it up to an odd joke and thanked he and his wife via voice mail for “the gifts”.

A few weeks (maybe even months) later my dad asked me about the music box he’d ordered me for Christmas. It turns out that he had ordered a porcelain doll and small music box online and had them shipped directly from the company to me. Somewhere there is a family trying to figure out why someone sent them foofoo girl presents for Kwanzaa.

This isn’t incredibly helpful for the purposes of this discussion, but I can at least attest that Kwanzaa is popular enough to command its own line of picture frames and teddy bears from popular online retail sites.