Danny explores whether the “Can Santa Be a Black Man?” bulletin board was inherently racist.
Indiana University’s Community Education program recently put a bulletin board in the Foster Residence Center asking the question, “Can Santa Claus be a Black man?”
It wasn’t long before the display was taken down after sparking outrage and debate. At face value I can certainly understand asking things like, “Can Santa Claus be a Black man” and “If Santa Claus were a Black man would he only visit the ghetto?” causing problems. However at the same time I can’t help but think that these questions, as well as the thoughts behind them, need to be put in the spotlight.
It would be really easy to just say that these things are offensive and then try to shut down any discussion, but I think shutting down discussion is part of the very reason that these racist stereotypes are allowed to flourish. It would do a lot of good to have an open conversation to confront the ideas and teachings that encourage such thoughts.
These are the kinds of thoughts and sentiments that Black people face each and every day and I believe that we have seen that just expecting them to go away by shouting “That’s racist!” simply will not work. The board had room for people to respond to the questions so it looks like they were trying to get some conversation going and make people think. I think it would have gone better in a designated forum but I can understand and respect that they wanted to post the questions in a way that could catch the eyes of passersby.
Imagine someone giggling about the idea of a black Santa only going to the ghetto but then realizing just how terrible a thought that is. That person would be challenged to think about what that entails. Why would Santa only visit the ghetto? Does that mean being black means the ghetto is their place and there’s no way they could live anywhere else? Would an image of a white Santa mean that he only visits white neighborhoods? Or maybe they say something to that effect and someone questions them about it?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that while they may need to be executed in a more proper manner the conversations this board was trying spark need to happen and I think that some people have been a touch too quickly to say that this board was spreading racism and ignorance.
What do you think about this bulletin board and the intent behind it?
This is not just an abstract academic question. It’s also about jobs and money and practical ethics. If you’re a department store or mall or charity looking to hire a Santa for the holidays, do you consider a black man just as eligible to be Santa as a white man? (Assuming Santa has to be male, which is a hole other kettle of fish.) Businesses won’t want to admit this, but many of them have hiring preferences for white men to play Santa, so this is about employment, not just some sort of college-level seminar on cultural narratives or whatever.… Read more »
should be “whole” other kettle of fish. Not a Freudian slip, I swear! 🙂
My kids asked if Santa is Black after my mom told me the story (in front of them) of how I fell madly, truly, and deeply in love with a Black Santa at a department store when I was 5 years old and then proceeded to follow around every Black man with a beard that I ran into for the next two years.
I said, “You know that nobody’s ever seen the real Santa, right? The guys at the mall are just his helpers. Santa’s busy. I think he could be anybody.”
Well, damn….
Well played
At my inner city YMCA, the printout they have of Santa came out very dark and he does look black. My fiance told me not to laugh when she first showed it to me. I was a little disappointed that’s the first reaction people have, but ultimately have decided it’s probably a good thing for the kids of whatever race to observe this kind of low-key replacement of a traditionally white figure.
Yeah laughing because he’s a different is odd to say the least.
The historical Santa Claus, the Bishop Nicholas of Myra most likely was (as this reconstruction shows) neither white nor black. In fact he was a Middle Eastern man. Just like Jesus. We would label them both POC today, though not black.
So I guess in the end a black Santa is no more right or wrong than a white one.
I can agree with that.
To me it really doesn’t matter what color he is. I just wish we could get away from the racialized ideas that come attached to the different variations of Santa.
If we’re going to consider historical context, then we have to dispense with our racial categories entirely. Whatever racial category you would use for the original Saint Nick is wrong, because those categories are just weird obsessions that modern people use. No one in the first few centuries C.E. was white, because “whiteness” had not really been invented yet. He sure as hell didn’t speak English, because English had not been invented yet either. What a white American in the 21st century would call “Middle Eastern” or “Greek” today is a product of stereotypes, flawed racial categories, and centuries of… Read more »