It’s a dreaded question, I’m forced to answer as we approach this time in the holiday season. Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? Now unless you’ve already glanced down at the picture associating this column with my name, you’re wondering why people ask me this. And it’s really simple, as an African-American male, people assume that my heritage precludes me to celebrate this holiday. I’ll just ignore the ignorance displayed there and cut straight to the point. I don’t celebrate Kwanzaa. Why not?

First reason is kind of simple, I enjoy holidays as much as the next person who doesn’t want to do work and would like to eat himself to an early grave. However, I’m not a fan of the dubious origins that plague Kwanzaa. Or rather the dubious originator of Kwanzaa. I’m referring to the creator of Kwanzaa, a certain Ron Karenga. Ron Karenga founded the black power group ,U.S. Organization and he gained his main inspiration of Malcolm X. Now dear reader, none of this is a problem to me. In fact, I think Malcolm X and the black nationalist movement were necessary for civil rights advancement in the ‘60s. No, my problem with Karenga is the fact that he was convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment because he along with two other men abused and beat two women from Karenga’s own organization half to death. As I said the reason is simple, I refuse to celebrate a holiday created by a felon.

The second reason is a tad complex. Let me ask you a rhetorical question reader. Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? I’m sure the majority of responses to that question was a sort of puzzled “no?”. A further question dear reader, why don’t you celebrate Kwanzaa? I’m sure a multitude of thoughts are going through your head right now. Perplexed? Annoyed? Questioning where I am going with all these rhetorical questions? The answer is that the reason you don’t celebrate Kwanzaa is that you aren’t around people who celebrate Kwanzaa. Seems simple right? However, what people seem to do to many people especially African-Americans like myself is conflate Kwanzaa as just another part of black culture when it is not just another part, and instead a very specific and politicized holiday that some African-Americans deem part of their culture. So like you, I have a reason for not celebrating Kwanzaa because no one I know celebrates it. It’s not part of my tradition, it’s not part of my culture.

So reader, after bearing with me through my long diatribe I’m sure you have an impression of me as a joyless Kwanzaa-scrooge when in fact I’m anything but. I enjoy some holidays such as Christmas, mainly because I feel that even though it is primarily a Christian holiday people of all creeds seem to behave more “brotherly” towards each other than they do on most of the 365 days of the year. Which is really what any holiday is about as cliché as it sounds, bringing people closer together. And though Kwanzaa isn’t my particular choice for the aforementioned reasons, if you gain that “brotherly love” through it then it really shouldn’t be my place to judge. Just keep your Kinara to yourself.