Hey White Allies: Kwanzaa Can Help You Reflect on Your Work Too

Reflecting on some key questions puts you at no risk of cultural appropriation, and may boost your allyship in the new year.

photo by Lucas Thors

The holiday Kwanzaa, a multi-day event lasting from Christmas to New Years — was created to encourage to foster celebration, reflection and recommitment to the causes of equity and spiritual renewal among people from the African diaspora. The core principles of Kwanzaa, commonly expressed in Swahili and usually talked about with respect to black people, have actually been designed to have universal application to any person or group concerned with making the world a better place.

At the end of a tumultuous year in race relations, anti-racism allies could benefit from some additional reflection on how their work might be strengthened going forward. The Kwanzaa principles, one of which is highlighted every day of the celebration, can apply to the four questions that allies should consider central to effective and sustainable anti-racism allyship. Each of these four questions begins with the phrase: How are my thoughts and actions helping me…

1. sustain my own anti-racism effectiveness?