So, I have been rattling my brain for weeks on what I was going to write for this week’s blog post. It felt like I had an additive pressure because of Valentine’s day. Now I have done a few blog posts talking about dating;(Shameless plug) if you want to check them out after reading this blog. However, Valentine’s day just feels more official, so I wanted to do something more sophisticated. While googling all I could about the holiday, I stumbled across another holiday that takes place a day before Valentine’s day. Black Loveday. The Valentine day alternative is the 3rd nationally commemorated holiday, the first being Kwanza and 2nd being Martin Luther King Day.
In 1993, Ayo Handy-Kendi, the founder of the nonprofit African American Holiday Association (AAHA), created Black Love Day. The holiday is based on five tenets: love toward the creator, love for self, love for the family, love for/within the black community, and love for black people. These five tenets are thought to be carried out throughout the entire. On this day, people of other races are thought to mend their racial tensions through loving actions.
Handy-Kendi prides herself on creating a holiday that is meant to strengthen the bond between black and white communities by reassuring self-love and trying to eliminate the stigmas that have been created in both communities about each other. “ The goals of this day are to increase peace, stop violence, end Black self-hatred and White supremacy/racism, to offer a spiritual, African-centered, alternative to the commercialized, and sometimes violent, Valentine Day(Kendi).”
This year marked the 27th celebration of BLD, and for 2020 the theme was “Reparations 2 Repair 2 Reconcile 2 Restore the LOVE,” which emphasizes the 5th BLD Tenet, which is “To Demonstrate Love for the Black Race.” Aware of the controversy, Kendi wanted to highlight this year that Black people must love themselves enough to have these uncomfortable discussions. So we can reconcile our distrust, a part of slavery’s conditioning, release our anger, and push forward to heal and grow in unity.
Now I want to explain how I perceive this holiday, thinking about how this holiday may come off more exclusive than inclusive with the name BLD. But I recognize this to be the same as the #BlackLivesMatterMovement. We know that all lives matter, the problem there is that black lives aren’t being valued. BLD is tackling the same situation; black people are devaluing themselves off of the sheer fact that they are black, and this day is to encourage that black culture and black lives are valuable, can be loved. I was unaware of how much I needed this message that of self-love leading to unity. And it is something that I could not agree more with as the world is becoming more interconnected it is very easy to feel inferior. The world seems to value black culture (i.e. Hip-Hop, Jazz, break-dancing, braids, etc.), but they neglect and devalue the people for which they come from. This may sound corny, but I was always taught to love your neighbor as you would love yourself; if we can love ourselves more, maybe we can see more love towards others despite; ethnicity, race, age, or class. That what I believe Black Love Day is striving towards.
I really loved this blog post! I feel like Black Love Day is such a more meaningful holiday than valentines day and more people should know about it. I think the end of your blog is so important, I also think America would be such a different place if we valued black people as much as we value black culture. Keep up the good work!