The first thing I want to mention is that Kelly choose the topic of Aisha Harris' Slate piece, and she is, after all the person who made the assertion that Santa and Jesus are white, which tipped off the conversation. Who's baiting who? After all, despite the slightly eyebrow-raising title "Santa Claus Should Not be A White Man Anymore", the piece isn't arguing for a black Santa, but a nonhuman figure who transcends our human baggage--a penguin Santa. A penguin Santa Claus could, possibly, be more inclusionary by not really resembling any person, but being a character we could all at least like, because penguins are adorable. It's Megyn Kelly's claim that Santa and Jesus Christ, as historical people, were definitely white, that sounded kind of knee-jerk to me.
But that is how they are depicted in popular culture, aren't they? Which leads me to Kelly's defense:
“Many questioning whether I understand that Santa is a mythical figure, others’ suggesting that I am a racist who is outraged at the idea of a black Santa,” she continued. “Well, this would be funny if it were not so telling about our society, in particular the knee-jerk instinct by so may to race bait and to assume the worst in people. Especially people employed by the very powerful Fox News channel.”Far be it for anyone to imply that there's necessarily anything exclusionary about a network that considers cultural diversity a "War on Christmas"--and by extension, a war on Christianity, or implies that there is something ridiculous about Christmases that aren't white. One doesn't presume that Kelly is "outraged" by the idea of a black Santa, so much as not aware of what a black Santa means, culturally.
She also wondered "Why is white skin alienating?" I think I can understand why she asks that. I can understand that as a little girl, a Santa Claus that was Megyn Kelly-colored brought her a doll that looked just like her, a doll that was advertised during the commercial breaks of TV shows that featured families that looked just like hers. The alienation for people of color isn't so much the whiteness--it's the absence of color. The question isn't "Why does it have to be a white Santa?" so much as "Why can't it be a black Santa?" Who is assuming the worst in people?
White people in America just don't experience that flavor of alienation. We are more than adequately represented in popular culture. But perhaps she can easily imagine the alienation some white people feel when they see people of color in places they historically usually aren't. Like the White House. Or the discomfort they even feel seeing them outside the polling places in their own neighborhoods. And I might even suppose that the topic of a black Santa might be of concern to the predominately white Fox News audience that already, for some reason, believes that their Christmas is under siege.
I think she understands those things quite well.
4 comments:
I have been gifted with chocolate Santas many times.
It's only now that I realize how much racism I've been bombarded with.
Thank you, Megyn and FAUX Nooze...may your 3 Idiots on a Couch show always be blessed by white Gun-Jesus.
~
My friend Vixen,
you present some interesting questions.
Is Santa Claus white? Is white good? Is the affirmation of white a repudiation of the color black? Was Jesus bin Joseph white? Does it matter?
If you take ten sticks and paint each one of them white, some will say that you simply have ten different, discrete sticks, all painted white.
Others will say that actually the ten sticks are all participants in a universal quality of "whiteness."
They would assert that there is a universal, conceivably sacred quality that transcends individual expressions of color, and this quality is known as whiteness.
Bertrand Russell disagreed with the idea of universals, but even he understood that it was a real position and could not be dismissed.
In "A Dictionary of Symbols" by J. E. Cirlot, he starts his entry on color symbolism by saying, "Color symbolism is one of the most universal of all types of symbolism, and has been consciously used in the liturgy, in heraldry, alchemy, art, and literature."
I would posit that white is good and black is good and that it is a wonderful thing to have a white Santa and that Santa participates in the universal quality of whiteness (or at least that is the majority of portrayals in culture for the last 200 or 300 years). After all, is Sherlock Holmes white? Is Tarzan white?? Zorro is brown, presumably, because he was Hispanic. Is Superman white? Is Wonder Woman white?
Wedding dresses are white to reflect purity and virginity. (I think a lot of girls today wear white wedding gowns when they should be wearing red... but hey, that's just me.)
I think it's just fine if people want to see Santa as the purity of whiteness, but if they want to see Santa as black, that's ok too.
When I got back from VietNam and went to college, most of my friends were in SDS, and I had a marginal role in the civil rights struggle.
What started out as a legitimate protest against oppression and victimization has gradually turn, over the decades, into something else. I don't know whether Megyn Kelly's situation was contrived, but it is true that the accusations of racism have become shrill and unreasonable.
My view is that she was attacked, and that she asked a valid question (what's wrong with being white?).
Some years ago in New York at the Whitney museum, people wore a button that said, "I can't imagine wanting to be white."
Today I think the time has probably come to remind people that it is good to be black, but it is also good to be white.
In the earliest symbolism, night and day were symbolized as black and white.
There is nothing wrong with day, and there is nothing wrong with night, and neither has anything to apologize for.
-- Formerly Amherst
There is a saying: Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance--but don't rule out malice. I think that the reason this particular set of comments got jumped on was
Fox News' history of highlighting racial bias in some of their stories, and the way Kelly seemed to be implying that a black Santa was not okay. It's possible, though, that her comments weren't intentionally meant to sound that way--goodness knows one can unintentionally offend, but just because it isn't intentional doesn't mean that the offense is less real. Calling the comments a joke, and implying people who pointed out what was wrong with what she said as being "humorless", is kind of like blowing them off.
Lukewarm condemnation for Martin Bashir, but a brouha over Santa-Claus-is-white. That probably says a lot.
In as much as Megyn Kelly also asserted that Jesus bin Joseph was white, I think we can pretty well assume her comments were spoken out of naivety. No one with any knowledge of Judaism in that period would be willing to publicly say something that silly. And since the white Santa comment came in the same paragraph, I think you can conclude that these assertions were spontaneous innocence.
And anyway, the entire substance of every subject can't be shrunk and defined and limited by different people's interpretations.
--Formerly Amherst
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