December 2021 Blog: “Self-determination, Celebration, and bell hooks”

When, as a teenager, I first heard about Kwanzaa, I thought it a curious holiday.  First, it was younger than me, created after the shock of the 1966 Watts rebellion in order to unify and uplift Black Americans.  In my relatively uninformed, sheltered mind, it seemed inauthentic, a “made up” holiday, not a real one.  But, as Prof. Jessie Daniels of Hunter College and CUNY put it, “All holidays are made up, …including Christmas.”

We create collective cultural celebrations to unify and nourish the community.  Descendants of those kidnapped from Africa managed to build a rich vibrant culture here, despite the horrors of slavery, hatred, and institutional racism.  Kwanzaa is one of thousands of cultural expressions that offer Black Americans opportunity for inspiration and solidarity.

But, as the late, great bell hooks pointed out, it’s not as if the values and ritual celebrated through Kwanzaa came into existence out of thin air.  hooks explained that they've been around for generations.  For example, take the principle of Kujichagulia, sometimes represented by a red candle lit for Kwanzaa.  According to Detroit’s Operation Get Down, it stands for self-determination, the right to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.”  Against all odds, such rights were exercised by generations of Black Americans through grassroots community organizing.

What can we white anti-racism activists learn from this heroic resilience?  Given the realities of racism in the U. S., we struggle to define, name, create, and speak authentically about race.  Traumatized by the horrible narrative of oppression, whites often escape through denial, or deflection, or self-flagellation. None of these responses create positive change.  Can we manage to build a community of activists that works effectively in coalition?  As white allies, can we “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves” in ways that center justice and compassion?

Perhaps we can follow bell hooks’ advice offered in her 2003 book, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. She explains that “[t]o build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.”  Are we willing to be vigilantly aware of the work we must do?  What would reinforce our commitment?

How about seasonal celebrations?  You might think that I would suggest we participate in Kwanzaa.  Perhaps some of us will, and with good results.  But it’s important to avoid the pitfalls of appropriation and shallow fetishization of what some consider their sacred cultural practices. 

As white people it might be best to be in conversation with BIPOC people about how best we can show our respect and support.  In such conversations I’ve learned that respect and support can come by approaching collaboration across racial lines with humility and curiosity.  There are no easy solutions, and no Black person can speak for all Black people. There is a dazzling diversity of traditions and holidays within Black communities.  For example, bell hooks choose not to celebrate Kwanzaa, in part due to some abusive patriarchy in its history. 

But that doesn’t mean other Black Americans can’t adapt Kwanzaa and make it their own, like those at Prof. Jessie Daniels’ “queer multi-racial church,” as she calls it.  While acknowledging the debate about Kwanzaa within the Black community, it has evolved to serve Daniels’ congregation.  In her sacred space, self-determination is fueled by love.

Are white anti-racism activists brave enough for this work?  Perhaps if we saw it less like penance and more like love, we’d find the courage. Perhaps then we’d see, as did bell hooks, that Black self-determination “embraces coalition building across race.”  Perhaps then we’d believe her when she writes in Killing Rage that Black people “want to share the liberatory power of black self-determination.  Our freedom is sweet.  It will be sweeter when we are all free.” 

FURTHER ACTIONS:

1) Learn more about Kwanzaa , such as through Prof. Jessie Daniels’ blog. Have conversations with other white people about the beauty, reality, and complexity of the origins and practice of Kwanzaa. 

2) Honor bell hooks and the empowerment and liberation she supported in communities around the country by organizing book discussions of one or more of her remarkable works. Try this chapter from Killing Rage: “Moving from Pain to Power: Black Self Determination"

3) Learn more about how self-determination grows in grassroots organizations.  For example, see how the right to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves” operationalizes in grassroots community organizations like Operation Get Down in Detroit. 

4) Seek rituals and interpersonal support that can help you transform your own negative energies surrounding racism (fear, guilt, fragility, anger, saviorism) into tools for reaching across racial lines to work in coalitions attentive to BIPOC voices.  These tools include knowledge, humility, and commitment.