Kwanzaa for White Allies, Day 4: Building and Sharing Community Wealth

The anti-racism movement can benefit from allies being both more generous and more financially strategic.

The themes of Kwanzaa can be readily applied to the four issues that allies should consistently reflect upon, which concern: 1) your personal journey toward more energetic allyship, 2) your degree of support for people of color, 3) your capacity to effectively influence racism skeptics, and 4) your ability to positively affect the anti-racism ally movement. The theme of Day 4, “Ujamaa,” concerns issues #2 and #4 above.

The typical definition of ujamaa is “cooperative economics;” when I reviewed commentary about what this meant from the creator of Kwanza as well as others, two related but somewhat distinct meanings emerged. Each of the meanings raises different types of activism for allies to think about and engage in service of racial equity.

One meaning of ujamaa has to do with familyhood, generosity, and wealth sharing. The core idea is that the resources of the world are not to be amassed and hoarded by a few, even if large-scale economic systems encourage such behavior. Rather, the spirit of ujamaa suggests that each person should be concerned with the degree to which their approach to both work and managing their resources reflects a mindset of fairness and equity.