It's like these people (I know) are LOOKING for a bad experience because they are ashamed that they have grown up in a better environment than their Grandparents.

If you've experienced racism/bullying/physical threats you don't really focus on Santa's color.

I think the best answer is to this is to simply say:

"If that is the worst thing you can worry about then your life has got to be a hell of a lot better than your parents' was."

I don't know if it's shame that they've grown up in a better environment than their grandparents.

I've been of the mind that grievance hunting is a way to unearned power.

There's covert narcissism in being the perpetual victim. It gives you something to identify with -- though I think, as McWhorter observes, it's something pernicious.

By the way, I always just figured black families have a black Santa because Santa is daddy. Not that I really gave this any thought, but it was what occurred to me when I started seeing all this stuff on Santa's color recently.

Amy

Small correction: I was just watching the video and your quote is from Glenn, not John.

As to this ridiculous issue of the color of Santa, I agree completely with Glenn. This crap is just perpetuating the racial tensions and giving the racial extremists grist for their mill. It's not helping anything!

I don't buy the Santa is daddy bit. Santa is fat, my dad is not. Santa has a beard, until a few years ago my dad did not. There are so many ways that Santa and most fathers don't match that skin color is just one detail among many.

(I'll leave out the fact that my father gave me a rutabaga for Christmas on year. That's another issue entirely.)

This is the same issue with Jesus not being black. These people are racists and think that anyone who doesn't look just like them can't be significant or important.

As much as I think that the "cultural appropriation" outrage from the perpetually-offended is nonsense, I wonder what they would say about this. Or does it not work when "white" culture is appropriated? (of course it doesn't, just look around)

(I just noticed that this video is from 2013 and addresses a dumb article from then, but of course it's still apropos, and I'm sure we'll get this same kind of stupid article every year for a while; alas.)

Thanks, Onlooker. I thought McWhorter was an older dude, so I figured he was the guy on the left. Didn't bother looking at the name right there over his head!

Corrected.

You're welcome.

I really enjoy listening to Glenn's show, especially when he has John on it.

By the way, for anybody interested, you can listen to his show via podcast. That's how I do it. And you don't miss anything as it's all talk. You can see the "Podcast" button at upper left, or find it thru iTunes, etc.

He's a smart man and has the courage to run against the grain of identity politics, etc. And though I don't agree with him all the time, I do learn things and challenge my own perspective many times. Good stuff.

Pussies are never sastified!

First Kwanzaa and now they want my Santa!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa

The thought of an imaginary white man who lives at the North Pole, gets around by flying sleigh, and plays with elves climbing down their chimney to leave gifts terrifies them?

I'm with Bob in Texas. If that's the worst thing you have to worry about....

Also, how do they feel about Father Christmas, Père Noël, and Sinterklaas?

Considering that Santa Claus is derived from the legend of Nikolaos, a Greek bishop of Myra (in Turkey) and was brought into this final form by Washington Irving, Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, and Coca-Cola advertising, all this posturing about his race is ridiculous. He's cultural icon. Let's leave it at that.

Yes, Kathleen, there is a Santa Claus - and he's generally depicted as a fat, jolly white man with a beard.

Why Santa exists, as told by Terry Pratchett:

=========================

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? [Santa Claus]? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

I've never been a parent to double-down on the lie. No Elf on the Shelf or reindeer footprints around here. But I think denying kids the magic of Santa just to satisfy some juvenile need of your own, to feel "superior" to those who lie...well that's stupid and cruel.

If black people want a black santa, why don't they make one? They already appropriated The Wizard of Oz, and Annie, and Karate kid, and Steel Magnolias, and...plumb invented some weird-ass
"African" holiday with native-American corn as the symbol....so why not take santa too? Apparently separate-but-equal is fine, so long as it's the blacks choosing it.

I think the obsession with slights and microagressions results from a total lack of knowledge of history, even recent history. No one remembers the Great Depression and how skinny everyone one was (and no, not from an eating disorder). No one remembers the lynchings in the South (and actually, 2/3 of lynchings were whites, it was just lawlessness). No one remembers white/black water fountains and entrances and segregated schools including college. I remember the very end of the sharecroppers in the South in the 1970s, with their one-room homes up on cement blocks, with newspaper covering the walls to keep out the wind. And an outhouse. They don't remember lots of things, because they are too young and don't read history, that would put their lives in perspective. Just trying to imagine these kids at college having to use an outhouse all the time. heh. Any yet on a TV interview yesterday a black woman claimed that racism is getting worse. It may be true that the CLAIMS of racism are getting louder....

Momof4,

What Pratchett said is the thing. Santa is a teaching story. It promotes giving freely to each other. It also has justice elements. Those who are not good do not get rewarded. Used like that it is a good and useful story.

But like anything it can be taken too far. Insisting the story is true and falsifying evidence to support a lie is not healthy. Parents who go to great lengths to push the Santa story are really teaching their kids that their parents are liars and not to be trusted.

Craig,

People who have built their culture and identity around being oppressed cannot admit that they aren't oppressed. Doing so would require recognizing their entire world view is a lie. There is also a moral component to the grievance cultures. If you are the oppressed one then any horrible thing you do is only evening the scales a little. That is why the US must be an irredeemably racist and sexist nation. If there was an end to the racism and sexism then the evil acts would be just that, evil acts, instead of small corrections.

A culture based on trading small evils is inherently morally bankrupt.

Hey!

If I can't have cornrows because "cultural appropriation", then get the hell away from my Santa Claus!
He wasn't the icon of selfless giving on the African continent at all. The concept is alien to equatorial Africa, anyway, the winter solstice having little or no significance there.

And while you're at it, please explain how "black" is all one race, when Africa has diversity to a greater degree than Europe and the Americas.

Unless, of course, you're intent on using color to get money in the USA...

You want heritage? Maybe you should think about why you have the urge to claim a completely alien society's customs.

If they're afraid of Ol' St. Nick, wait till they get a load of Krampus.

If black people want a black santa, why don't they make one? They already appropriated The Wizard of Oz, and Annie, and Karate kid, and Steel Magnolias, and...

Harry Potter.

It's a twitter thing. Well, that's where I encountered it. Yer welcome.

But I think denying kids the magic of Santa just to satisfy some juvenile need of your own, to feel "superior" to those who lie...well that's stupid and cruel.

Very much agree with you on this, momof4 -- though I'm an atheist. Kids need to imagine. I used to tell my mother I could fly, and show her, too, at Shiawassee Park in Farmington, near where I grew up. My mother, thankfully, didn't snarl, "You're NOT flying; you're just running and flapping your arms!"

No need for that sort of thing.

A few years later, on my own, I decided there probably wasn't a god.

PS I wished my fellow white Jewgirl editor a Happy Kwaanza.

Santa can be played by a black guy at the local mall, whatever. I mean, I assume when black families invite Santa to visit they don't send some random white guy to "Oh go buy that quart of milk I forgot"

From a "cultural" aspect the history of General Tso's Chicken is very funny. Hope the student complaining about it has a sense of humor.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7639868

From a "cultural" aspect the history of General Tso's Chicken is very funny. Hope the student complaining about it has a sense of humor. ~ Posted by: Bob in Texas at December 24, 2015 5:59 PM

The origins of the burrito don't exactly fit the politically correct cultural model either, being mostly a US invention.

A friend of mine from Mexico said he'd never heard of a burrito until he came to the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrito

"People who have built their culture and identity around being oppressed cannot admit that they aren't oppressed. Doing so would require recognizing their entire world view is a lie."

And then they'd have to figure out what to replace it with, what to do with themselves, and what to find meaning in.

Which is too hard and too much work.

'If black people want a black santa, why don't they make one?'

They have? I've seen black santas in predominately black neighborhoods. I saw a black santa figurine riding a crocodile in New Orleans. The show Blackish centered around this very santa topic and I've seen black santas on BET.

I've seen Black Jesus and black Cleopatra. In fact I think out of everyone I mentioned a black Cleopatra seems the most popular.

Reminds me of a cartoon I once saw of a department-store Santa sheepishly saying to a young boy:

"I'm sorry, young man, but I'm afraid I don't speak Spanish."

And there's a similar situation with a Dutch girl in the movie "Miracle on 34th St." Turns out Santa DOES speak Dutch, because...he IS Santa!

(I have to say though, that I didn't enjoy the movie much as an adult, and I doubt I would have enjoyed it much had I seen it when I was, say, six. I still can't figure out who's supposed to enjoy it...)

And my mother only lied to me ONCE about Santa that I know of - it was the first time I heard of Santa. After that, whenever I asked if he were real (starting at age 7 or 8), she would say: "What do you think?"

She also had the sense (IMO) to make me think that Santa ONLY brought the candy and orange in the stocking. Not only was it easier for her to fill a stocking in a hurry, it would have meant that had we ever become seriously poor, we'd still have the thrill of Santa's visit every year. (Somehow, I never thought it was odd or even interesting that other families got toys from Santa; I already got enough toys from relatives anyway.) My mother's set-up also meant that she wouldn't have to take me to department store Santas for "fun," and the post office wouldn't have to deal with my letters. Last but not least, my not getting toys from Santa meant that I was less likely to be disillusioned at an early age. My mother was not afraid to tell me "no, that present would be a bad thing for you or your brother to have" or "no, we can't afford it." (I, at least, didn't hear that last one often, because I learned fast not to ask for anything that was expensive unless it was the ONLY present I wanted for the entire year - not the sort of sacrifice most children are willing to make, IMO.)

On a day-to-day basis, it's good for parents to come up with reasons other than finances when little kids keep demanding things, to avoid depressing them. Or one can say: "It was your idea first, so EARN it."