It is hard to believe, but the craziness around Christmas just got crazier.
A couple days ago, Megyn Kelly, a commentator for Fox News declared that Santa Claus is white. Her comments set off a rapid response from serious to comedic. But, if I take a step back from the craziness of it all, her comments made me stop and think. Apart from the debate about the history of Santa Claus, what does it mean if Santa is always white?
To tell you the truth, until this craziness erupted, I never thought about it.
I never thought about what that meant to me.
And, even more unsettling for me, I never thought about what it might mean to a person of color. Or, a child of color.
What does it mean…
If the great gift giver;
The person who knows if you have been naughty or nice;
Is a person you can NEVER look like or be?
Does it matter?
Until now, it never occurred to me to even ask the question.
And that is the unsettling part.
At some fundamental level I think it does matter.
At least for me.
Because in the largely white, largely Caucasian culture in which I live I need to remember that the world is much larger and much more diverse than the white world in which I live. Maybe it is me who needs to begin to imagine a black Santa or an Asian Santa or an Hispanic Santa as another small step towards seeing and understanding and appreciating the world as it really is.
As God intends it to be.
Leave a Reply