Now you may have heard of Kwanzaa… that celebration that coincides with Christmas
and Hannukah.
You may have even been to a Kwanzaa celebration.
In the 80s and 90s, Kwanzaa was everywhere.
But do you really know what this holiday is about and why it started?
Let’s jump back a few decades…
In 1965, tensions between black communities and law enforcement reached a boiling point
and Los Angeles saw the most violent urban riot in 20 years.
As the Watts Riots unfolded around him, LA-based PhD student and activist Maulana Karenga saw
an opportunity to restore unity in black communities and foster African American cultural institutions,
values and traditions.
So in 1966, Karenga created Kwanzaa with the purpose to help connect black Americans to
their African roots and with each other in the face of marginalization.
In fact, the name “Kwanzaa” even comes from a Swahili phrase... “matunda ya kwanza”
meaning “first fruits”.
Karenga decided that this new holiday should fall in the seven day period between Christmas
and New Years.
He even added a second ‘a’ on the end of Kwanzaa to represent each of these seven
days.
Each day represents a different principle: namely, unity, self-determination, collective
responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
During Kwanzaa, Karenga wanted communities to celebrate by gathering together to light
candles and to join in a huge communal feast called karamu, inspired by a Zulu harvest
celebration.
Every celebration is different, but generally, families come together to light a kinara,
read poetry and dance to traditional African songs.
Karenga travelled the country spreading the word about this new holiday.
It then gained momentum through schools and colleges.
And pretty soon, families started adopting Kwanzaa into their yearly celebrations.
At first, many African American Christians were opposed to Kwanzaa, as they didn’t
want it to be a replacement for Christmas.
But as Kwanzaa became more popular in the late 1960’s, black Churches began to embrace
it, and the holiday became a supplement, rather than an alternative to Christmas.
Some churches even organized Kwanzaa celebrations.
But Kwanzaa really took off in the 1970s, as the black middle class started to grow.
After the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed race-based discrimination in employment, the number of
African American middle-income earners increased dramatically, and continues to grow into the
1980s and 90s.
As black families started to move into white suburban areas, they began to feel isolated
and Kwanzaa became a way for them to reconnect to their history and culture.
By 1995, the holiday was celebrated by an estimated 10 million Americans, compared to
just a few hundred when it was founded.
With Kwanzaa’s cemented popularity, it didn’t take long for corporate America to notice.
By the mid 1990’s, an entire industry had formed around the holiday.
Companies like Heineken even created an advertisement around Kwanzaa’s seven principles.
The slogan read “Unity, Purpose, Creativity, faith, Heineken Beer is Proud to celebrate
Kwanzaa and everything it stands for.”
This was something that Karenga had specifically sought to avoid, saying "The challenge for
the African people is to avoid the problems of commercialization that they've learned
from other holidays like Christmas."
In fact, one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa is the importance of a self-sustaining, cooperative
economy between African Americans, one that emphasizes black owned businesses and discourages
mass commercialization.
But Kwanzaa’s mass marketing appeal was somewhat short-lived.
By the mid-2000’s paraphernalia started to disappear from shelves, and many adherents
abandoned the holiday as a yearly tradition.
Today, only 2 percent of Americans are believed to celebrate Kwanzaa, despite the fact that
African Americans now make up 13 percent of the population.
After five decades, Kwanzaa still stands as an important reminder of the historic challenges
that black America has overcome and it still remains a uniting force for millions.
Kwanzaa emerged out of the fight for equality during the Civil Rights movement.
Of course, social norms in the United States have changed somewhat since the 1960’s,
but minorities still face greater challenges than their white counterparts.
To get a better sense of what discrimination in America looks like, check out this video.
If you're black in America, you run into bias at a pretty young age.
If you walk to school in the morning, you might have to wait longer to cross the street.
Drivers stop less frequently for black pedestrians than for white.
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