Tweet
Why is Santa always white?
By Curtis Sails Iii Dec. 4, 2013 7:06 p.m.
EMAIL PRINT (10) COMMENTS
Walking through the mall during the holiday season is one of my favorite pastimes. The vibrant colors, the decorations hanging from the ceiling, the jingles playing on the loudspeaker and the many people moving about talking on their cellphones or weighed down by the growing numbers of shopping bags in their hands. All of these things bring a smile to my face, warming my heart, year in and year out. However, this holiday season doesn't feel quite the same.
By mid-November, the middle of the mall was littered with wooden decorations of Kris Kringle's hideout in the North Pole, parents holding their son's or daughter's hands and many small children waiting anxiously for their chance to sit on Santa's lap to ask him for gifts and gadgets. I watched as child after child jumped on and hopped down from Santa's lap. Some kids talked to Santa as though they were old friends getting reacquainted; some sat emotionless, awkwardly waiting for their mothers to turn on the flash for their camera phone snapshot; and a few cried, out of fear of being left with a stranger in a bright red costume.
The moment seemed magical for kids and parents alike, a scenario that I knew was occurring in malls across the country. However, I soon was thrust back to reality by the next kid to sit on Santa's lap. An African-American boy no older than 7 walked up to Santa and sat down to take his photo. This boy was ecstatic about his opportunity to meet Old St. Nick and gave the biggest ear-to-ear smile I had seen all day.
But then it hit me. Santa was white. Wait, what? Why is Santa white? Santa is always white? Why is Santa always white? My brain went into a frenzy, desperately searching my memory for any instance in which I had seen a black Santa Claus in a shopping center. But I kept coming up short.
I wondered, in a country where we have an African-American president in Barack Obama and where the largest city just elected Bill de Blasio mayor with an African-American wife and racially mixed children, why have we yet to integrate our holidays or their characters?
As I sat there contemplating, I wondered if Santa was African-American, would white families wait for hours to get a picture with him? Would they want their children sitting on the lap of a black Santa? And would that be a picture to add to the family scrapbook or in a frame on the fireplace? I asked myself why, in 2013, does it seem American traditions and customs are only for white Americans? Why are we being left out?
Then I thought about Trayvon Martin, shot down in Sanford, Fla., after walking to the corner store for snacks. I thought about the two African-American young people racially profiled while shopping at Barneys in New York. I thought about Renisha McBride, shot to death while seeking help after a car accident in suburban Detroit. I thought about the millions of black boys and girls who are confined to the ghettos of America, segregated into poor schools, receiving a second-class education. I thought about the governments across the country reinventing ways to stifle the black vote in state/local elections. I thought about the biggest films of the year with African-Americans in lead roles as butlers and slaves.
Then I said, "Oh, it makes sense why there aren't many black Santas." Because to white America, we're not seen as jolly and many of our men are murdered before they have a chance to grow old.
By Curtis Sails Iii Dec. 4, 2013 7:06 p.m.
EMAIL PRINT (10) COMMENTS
Walking through the mall during the holiday season is one of my favorite pastimes. The vibrant colors, the decorations hanging from the ceiling, the jingles playing on the loudspeaker and the many people moving about talking on their cellphones or weighed down by the growing numbers of shopping bags in their hands. All of these things bring a smile to my face, warming my heart, year in and year out. However, this holiday season doesn't feel quite the same.
By mid-November, the middle of the mall was littered with wooden decorations of Kris Kringle's hideout in the North Pole, parents holding their son's or daughter's hands and many small children waiting anxiously for their chance to sit on Santa's lap to ask him for gifts and gadgets. I watched as child after child jumped on and hopped down from Santa's lap. Some kids talked to Santa as though they were old friends getting reacquainted; some sat emotionless, awkwardly waiting for their mothers to turn on the flash for their camera phone snapshot; and a few cried, out of fear of being left with a stranger in a bright red costume.
The moment seemed magical for kids and parents alike, a scenario that I knew was occurring in malls across the country. However, I soon was thrust back to reality by the next kid to sit on Santa's lap. An African-American boy no older than 7 walked up to Santa and sat down to take his photo. This boy was ecstatic about his opportunity to meet Old St. Nick and gave the biggest ear-to-ear smile I had seen all day.
But then it hit me. Santa was white. Wait, what? Why is Santa white? Santa is always white? Why is Santa always white? My brain went into a frenzy, desperately searching my memory for any instance in which I had seen a black Santa Claus in a shopping center. But I kept coming up short.
I wondered, in a country where we have an African-American president in Barack Obama and where the largest city just elected Bill de Blasio mayor with an African-American wife and racially mixed children, why have we yet to integrate our holidays or their characters?
As I sat there contemplating, I wondered if Santa was African-American, would white families wait for hours to get a picture with him? Would they want their children sitting on the lap of a black Santa? And would that be a picture to add to the family scrapbook or in a frame on the fireplace? I asked myself why, in 2013, does it seem American traditions and customs are only for white Americans? Why are we being left out?
Then I thought about Trayvon Martin, shot down in Sanford, Fla., after walking to the corner store for snacks. I thought about the two African-American young people racially profiled while shopping at Barneys in New York. I thought about Renisha McBride, shot to death while seeking help after a car accident in suburban Detroit. I thought about the millions of black boys and girls who are confined to the ghettos of America, segregated into poor schools, receiving a second-class education. I thought about the governments across the country reinventing ways to stifle the black vote in state/local elections. I thought about the biggest films of the year with African-Americans in lead roles as butlers and slaves.
Then I said, "Oh, it makes sense why there aren't many black Santas." Because to white America, we're not seen as jolly and many of our men are murdered before they have a chance to grow old.
Beyond that, I would guess that conventional depictions of "Santa" spring from the conventional reason that the character is a conflation of a Christian saint from Turkey, the Northern European folk version of that saint, Sinterklaus, and the Christkindl of German people. So, not a ton of sub-Saharan Africans or American blacks were involved in the development of the idea.
This seems okay to me. It's also okay to have black Santas where there is interest in it. What's not okay is to rewrite somebody's cultural history. We've all agreed that this is not okay anymore, right?
The rest of the article is a kind of sad lament that 'Home Alone' did not star a black kid. Seriously, Spike Lee could direct a black Christmas movie, black cartoonists could create a black alternative to 'Charlie Brown's Christmas', etc. That blacks have not created these things is probably because there's no interest among blacks at the moment. Maybe that will change.
Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion...#ixzz2mZN2r62P
Follow us: @JournalSentinel on Twitter
Comment