After avoiding this story for close to two days, I finally got around to it while I was reading up on the veterans arriving at Standing Rock to stand alongside the oppressed, on News.Mic.
White people ain’t having, bruh. White people are showing their frustrations towards all these cultural appropriation going on, bruh. White people are standing up against cultural appropriation, bravely, in the comment sections & Twitter, bruh.
Ay, man, way to go, my white brothers and sisters. Enough!
According to News.Mic, the Mall of America hired its first black Santa, and white people are mad. Rightfully so, or not, they are mad!
And the good, brave white folks have been airing their frustrations in the comments sections of the publications that have ran the story. From CBS’ comments section, to Yahoo’s, and on Twitter, white people are making their disapproval of black Santa known.
In one of the many comments sections comment, one Chris Guy says, “I don’t understand why Santa would be black. He is a white character. Just seems kind of racist to make him black for the sake of having a black Santa. I don’t really care, but in our racially sensitive society, I don’t see how this is considered okay. Oh, the hypocrisy.”
First of all, you do fucking care, Chris. Or you wouldn’t be bringing up this point of how white character Santa is being portrayed by a black guy… at a mall. Be confident in your convictions, Chris. Even if they are as stupid as this one, when we know damn well how non-white characters continue to be portrayed by white characters on TV. The Huffington Post even has an article titled 25 Times White Actors Played People Of Color And No One Really Gave A S**t. And mind you, Chris, some of those characters aren’t made up characters like Santa, some of them are real life human beings that lived. Real life people of color whose characters were portrayed by white people in a film.
Commenting on Chris Guy’s comment with some hard hitting facts, Seanmscully asked him, “Do you consider people from Turkey white? ‘Cause that is where St. Nicholas was from. Maybe a white guy with a good tan?”
Let’s hit Chris’ idea of white Santa some major blows. Thanks for that, Sean M. Scully. I suppose that’s what your name is judging from your username.
Saint Nicholas was born in the Roman Empire in 270, in what is known as Turkey today. He supposedly had a habit of secret gift-giving, which is how the idea of Santa Claus came about. But because, you, Chris, and many white people had the privilege of seeing Santa as white all your life, you have now been programmed to believing that he is indeed white. Which is not factual. Because if we are to use geographical evidence, Turkish people are not white. They’ve got more color in them than the Anglo-Saxons who make up the majority of white America.
But what are you even saying, Chris? Your argument is redundant. Are you saying that where there aren’t an abundance of the white male species, that those kids don’t deserve the fairytale that is Santa Claus? Kids in Africa, and Asia also want to see Santa; because they were made to believe in him through the white man’s television shows. So, Chris thinking that Santa is white and that him being any other race is some kind of cultural appropriation that shouldn’t be crossed because it’s racist is stupid.
It’s stupid, Chris!
And for those whose issue with black Santa is that they are going to have an even harder time explaining to their kids why Santa is black, that right there is the problem. Why have we racialized this kids’ character who stands for all that is good? Society should ask itself that question. Because that is the real issue here, not that Santa is black. We really continue to fuck up as a society if we think a black Santa is an issue, and not that we hold an inherent belief that Santa is white.
We are letting St. Nicholas down with our buffoonery. Santa is a fucking fictional character and he should and can be anyone with a fucking white beard.
edwardmekondjo 