President Obama has put out a statement honoring the start of Kawanza:

Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season.

Today marks the beginning of the week-long celebration honoring African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa — unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

We celebrate Kwanzaa at a time when many African Americans and all Americans reflect on our many blessings and memories over the past year and our aspirations for the year to come.

You can continue reading the statement here.

Of course with this comes the right trying to tell African Americans what they can and can’t celebrate. One right wing blog, Weasel Zippers has this to say:

Just because Kwanzaa was made up by a racist black nationalist who was convicted of torturing two women who were part of his group “United Slaves,” because he thought they were hiding nonexistent “crystals” of poison meant to kill him doesn’t mean it’s not a legitimate holiday, right? Or how about the fact that actual Africans have never heard of Kwanzaa? I could go on and on but I’m preaching to the choir.

Then you have Tea Party hate monger Tammy Bruce with this tweet:

You know who else prescribes to this thinking? The racist website Storm Front. I will give them credit though, at least the people at Storm Front have the balls to admit their racism. Other’s, like Tammy Bruce, are to scared too.

Every holiday starts somehow. At one time people actually said the same thing about Christmas and even Hanukkah. Is it so wrong for a group of people to come up with their own way to celebrate whatever reason they want to celebrate? Talk about sounding intolerant – these people make the GOP sound like a bunch of Ron Paulites.

Now think of that saying “Jesus is the reason for the season”. Well you so called Christians that say that and then spread this kind of hatred show you do nothing but use Jesus to try and justify your own hatred. Talk about disrespect for the man – you guys take it to a whole new level!