A non-black person's guide to Kwanzaa

CNN ^ | Dec. 26, 2017 | Kendall Trammell

[PROCON]

(CNN)You don't have to be black to understand how Kwanzaa works.

All it takes is a kind heart and an open mind willing to learn the history of the holiday that celebrates African-American culture. Here's some common Kwanzaa knowledge everyone should know.

You can spell it Kwanzaa or Kwanza

Regardless, it's still pronounced "kwahn-zuh." You can listen to this nice man say it here.

~~~SNIP~~~

You can celebrate both Christmas and Kwanzaa

They're not mutually exclusive. Karenga wanted Kwanzaa to be a nonreligious holiday for African-American families to come together and celebrate their ancestral roots. So you can have your merry Christmas and a happy Kwanzaa, too.

[ExTxMarine]

Mexicans don’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

That's not exactly true. A more accurate statement would be that MOST Mexicans don't celebrate Cinco do Mayo. The State of Puebla does celebrate Cinco de Mayo, including festivals and re-enactments of the Battle of Puebla.

But, the level of the celebration that American's do for Cinco de Mayo is larger than all the rest of Mexico, combined. And THAT is, as you stated, because beer and liquor manufacturers used it as an excuse to sell, Sell, SELL!

[bar sin·is·ter]

The word Kwanza doesn’t seem black enough... How about “La Quanza” or “Le Quay Quay”?

[silverleaf]

And then there’s Festivus
For the rest of us

[silverleaf]

Oh you bad Mist’ Rhett

[anton]

Wasn’t Rochester Jack Benny’s boy?

[ek_hornbeck]

That's not exactly true. A more accurate statement would be that MOST Mexicans don't celebrate Cinco do Mayo. The State of Puebla does celebrate Cinco de Mayo, including festivals and re-enactments of the Battle of Puebla. But, the level of the celebration that American's do for Cinco de Mayo is larger than all the rest of Mexico, combined. And THAT is, as you stated, because beer and liquor manufacturers used it as an excuse to sell, Sell, SELL!

Sept 16 (their independence day) is probably the most important secular holiday in Mexico. May 5 seems to be a big deal only in tourist areas and border cities, where it's mainly done for the benefit of Americans who want to party in Mexico.

There are several other examples of relatively minor holidays that have been inflated in prominence for purely commercial reasons. It's my understanding that Hannukah is (or rather was) a very minor Jewish holiday compared to Passover etc, but was given great prominence so that Jewish Americans could also partake in the frenzy of consumerism in December.

[Little Pig]

[JimRed]

Festivus for the restuvus!

[anton]

La Quanza would be mexican.
Le Quanza would be French.

I think it is Al Quanza.

[Polyxene]

Don’t call me “cracka”! I’m a Saltine-American! LOL!

[Moonman62]

CNN doing another racist article.

[morphing libertarian]

the last three years this is the only place I hear mention of this fake holiday.

[ek_hornbeck]

Come now. I'm sure there are two or three Huey Newton wannabes in some all-black college dorm that light Kwanzaa candles.

So we have semi-official "holiday" for the sole benefit of these two or three lunatics.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I think that now that Kwanzaa has been exposed as a fraud and eliminated, we need to start working on getting rid of another phony, “multicultural and diversity” holiday. Cinco de Mayo. What a freaking joke. A phonyass holiday created to sell Mexican beer.

[MortMan]

Well, they do complain that nobody understands Kwanzaa...

[AmericanVictory]

There was this white guy named Adolph. He set it up for white people to celebrate their ancient nordic cultural traditions.

[George Rand]

This Christmas I spent time with my girlfriends fathers family(he’s just about remarried) and his fiance is a Liberal from Hawaii. Well, one of her daughters asked what Kwanza was and I quickly responded, “Its a fake Holiday.”

The look was priceless.

[MD Expat in PA]

I am proud to say that I’ve never known anyone (knowingly) who celebrates this fake “holiday” nor know of any celebrations in my circle of existence. (and I do know plenty of black people.)

Same here.

As I posted on another thread about this stupid made up "holiday", I used to live and work in Baltimore, went to school in a Baltimore City HS, I had some black neighbors, many black co-workers, a black boss for a number of years and a few black friends over the years, and not even one of them ever celebrated or even mentioned Kwanzaa. And with the exception of one who was a JW, they all celebrated Christmas.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

CNN is apparently the only one talking about Kwanza. Not content to let it fade and die, CNN never saw a racial scab that they didn't want to pick and bleed.

 

[Bigg Red]

Amen.

And we especially don’t need a “holiday” invented by a racist, murderous felon.