WHY I CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

It's Christmas time again and as always the question is why, as an African American descendant should I celebrate? My answer to that is I do, and we should! 

As a child I was caught up in the fantasy believing that some gray bearded, fat white man in a red suit sneaked into our house – even though we didn't have a chimney - and put presents under the tree. My mom was completely into this tradition. My father seemed to just go along with the program. 

It was clearly a blessing when we were “old enough” for them to release us from the fantasy. So what is the truth about Christmas? What does it really mean – TO ME? 

There are many controversial questions about the birth of Christ and the religious significance of the celebration. I don't care about that. The history of the suffering of our enslaved ancestors is my focus. It speaks to the fact that slaves were no less burdened and abused during the Christmas season than any other time of year. His-story makes it seem like slaves enjoyed the Christmas holiday as much as the master did. Like Santa Claus, visions of Christmas joy and freedom where truly fantasies and the fight for survival was no less diminished. 

Enslaved African Americans did not view the holidays as a time of celebration and hope. Rather, Christmas served only to highlight their lack of freedom - and presented an opportunity for escape which many slaves took advantage of. Christmas wasn't a time of fun and relaxation for slaves. They did all the grueling household and field labor that kept these places going, sleeping and cooking in primitive cabins and working in unhealthy conditions under the threat of the whip.

Some masters gave slaves passes to visit family members who had been sold to other plantations. Some slaves used the passes to explain their presence on the road and delay the discovery of their escape through their masters' expectation that they would soon return from their "family visit." The cover of the holidays was essential for success. Clearly, there was little positive value in the slaveholder's version of Christmas. 

This quote from “Documenting the American South” illuminates how slave masters used the holiday to further control their slave populations by giving meaningless false hopes and kindness: 

"Frederick Douglass described the period of respite that was granted to slaves every year between Christmas and New Year's Day as a psychological tool of the oppressor... In his 1845 Narrative , Douglass wrote that slaves celebrated the winter holidays by engaging in activities such as "playing ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey"... He took particular umbrage at the latter practice, which was often encouraged by slave owners through various tactics...”
BECAUSE masters got the slaves drunk and made them fight each other for their amusement.

"In My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass concluded that "[a]ll the license allowed [during the holidays] appears to have no other object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary freedom, and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were to leave it". While there is no doubt that many enjoyed these holidays, Douglass acutely discerned that they were granted not merely in a spirit of charity or conviviality, but also to appease those who yearned for freedom, ultimately serving the ulterior motives of slave owners”.

Slavery ended more than a century ago but the struggle for freedom continues. Christmas is a time and reason for open dialogue and renewing our individual responsibility to become better human beings by opening our eyes to the continuous travesty of justice existing in America, and letting our voices be heard.

There are generations of my people who are still in bondage – in slavery – and need our conscious and concerted efforts to achieve freedom because they are kept in ignorance of their humanity and equality by generations of the slave holders children who still whip, rape and oppress them in 2021. THE COTTON PICKIN' TRUTH

So with all that In mind, why do I celebrate Christmas? Because I am proud of my ancestors who used the Christmas holiday to escape to freedom! I am inspired by their extraordinary courage, ingenuity and bravery. Their escape from bondage lead to the birth of free generations who live happy and prosper and experience the world as human beings and I celebrate them!

Let us honor their memory by using our freedom to help free those still in bondage so we can finally celebrate a Christmas that has real meaning.