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Sure, let's just keep rehashing history, and blaming the white folks alive today for what some long dead white folks did in the past, because the United States is the only country with not so great moments in history, eh?
Hey, you should read the post he was responding to (although it made no sense).
When I first saw this I thought the OP was creating some sort of satire, but this is a real article?
Santa Claus has always been and should be a European. A non-white or non-human Santa Claus would be like having a black King Arthur - it's just not right. I don't understand how there could be any insecurity among non-white children at all - how could they be insecure and ashamed believing that the figure that brings them presents every Christmas is a jolly old bearded fat man who just happens to be white? If they don't feel shameful and insecure when generosity is displayed by people of a different race in real life, why should they feel that way about Santa Claus? Just accepting that Santa Claus's whiteness is no big deal would be the truly non-racist thing to do.
If Santa Claus (or some other similar figure) originated from African legends and was imported to the U.S., and happened to be black, I wouldn't have the least bit of insecurity or shame about it. Indeed, under that scenario depicting Santa as black would be the only proper thing to do.
St. Nicolas, from whom Santa Claus is based, was Greek.
During the Middle ages, often on the evening before his name day of the 6th of December, children were bestowed gifts in his honour. This date was earlier the original day of gifts for the children, which moved in the course of the Reformation and its opposition to the veneration of saints in many countries on the 24th and 25th December. So Saint Nicholas changed to Santa Claus. The custom of gifting of children at Christmas has been propagated by Martin Luther as an alternative to the previous very popular gift custom on St. Nicholas, to focus the interest of the children to Christ instead of the veneration of saints. Martin Luther first suggested the Christkind as the bringer of gifts. But Nicholas remained popular as gifts bearer for the people.
...and...
Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas and Sinterklaas, merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking world as Santa Claus.
In the English and later British colonies of North America, and later in the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" (a name first used in the American press in 1773)but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving’s book was a lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.
So, yes, Virginia, there was a Santa Claus, and, no, Virginia, he wasn't a fat guy wearing a red suit and riding in a reindeer powered sleigh.
Do people have so little to do or to be concerned about that the race of Santa freaking Claus is a debated issue?
It's like debating what race bugs bunny is, since they are both...wait for it...FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.
Hey, you should read the post he was responding to (although it made no sense).
I just get so sick of people being hung up on skin color, and then me as a white person being blamed for the atrocities committed in this nation's past! As if that is going to be productive in getting people to come together, get along and finally stop being hung up on each others pigment! Someone else said it (maybe on another thread), white, black, we're all in the same heap of s***! Meanwhile the elitists continue to attempt to divide and conquer, and we fall for it!
in a year or two there will be protests how Santa should be a gay, vegetarian Athiest chinchilla.....then maybe all bases will be covered and America will be represented accurately
in a year or two there will be protests how Santa should be a gay, vegetarian Athiest chinchilla.....then maybe all bases will be covered and America will be represented accurately
I wonder what kind of presents a gay, vegetarian, atheistic Santa would bring. I'm sure they'd be faaaaaaabulous. Alas, in my house, he'd be just as welcome as just about any other version of Santa.
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Someone else said it (maybe on another thread), white, black, we're all in the same heap of s***! Meanwhile the elitists continue to attempt to divide and conquer, and we fall for it!
