Do you know what Kwanzaa is?

[bedstuy]

I don't think more than a few people celebrate Kwanzaa. 

I live in a black neighborhood.  We still have "boycott Florida" posters up, we have a Nation of Islam office, a black Israelite office/abandoned storefront, a black nationalist Jazz club, every possible variety of black church, Marcus Garvey murals and tons of super-specific examples of black culture. 

I have never seen anything related to Kwanzaa or heard anyone talk about it.  If nobody celebrates Kwanzaa where I live, I can't imagine that anyone does.   

[bedstuy]

A fake holiday that blatantly rips off Christmas and Hanukkah.  I have nothing against celebrating black culture, but isn't that why we have Black History month in February?

Nobody is asking you to celebrate Kwanzaa.  If you showed up at someone's kwanzaa celebration in Oakland or Cabrini Green, I think they would ask you to leave.  Kwanzaa is a black holiday for black people.  The idea is not that black people want you to celebrate their culture, they reject your culture and want to create their own. 

The way mormonism is bottom-up folk-theology, attempting to create a sense of identity for a group of people in America, Kwanzaa is folk-ethnic nationalism.

[bedstuy]

A fake holiday that blatantly rips off Christmas and Hanukkah.  I have nothing against celebrating black culture, but isn't that why we have Black History month in February?

Yes, there's no need to celebrate black history or culture in any of the other 11 months.

Oldiesfreak seems like one of those who would complain about the lack of a "White History Month".

I don't care if there's a White History Month.  And if people want to celebrate Kwanzaa, then that's their right as Americans, and I respect that.  It's not for me, though.

That's the whole point of kwanzaa.  It's for black folks.  White people don't and aren't supposed to celebrate kwanzaa.

[bedstuy]

That's the whole point of kwanzaa.  It's for black folks.  White people don't and aren't supposed to celebrate kwanzaa.

So should only Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  Should only Germans celebrate Octoberfest?  Should only Mexicans celebrate Cinco De Mayo?  (As for the last one, I understand why the French wouldn't join in the festivities.)

No.  But, correct me if I'm wrong, kwanzaa is a holiday born out of black nationalism.  That isn't an ideology interested in multiculturalism.  I know some of these people because I live in a black neighborhood.  It's essentially a clique of a few 50-70 year old black folks who want to complain about how bad white people are and pay lip service to some bastardized version of African culture.  I honestly do think this type of ideology is essentially racist, parochial and pointless.