OPINION: Christmas and white supremacy

It is sad but ironically true that we can so easily link the terms Christmas and white supremacy to one another. Yet, it can be done this year just as has been the case for the past two hundred years.

More than two decades ago, television personality Megyn Kelly argued vociferously that everybody knew that Santa Claus was white and that Jesus was white as well. What she was doing was operating on lies she had been taught and what had long become standard fare in American culture.

Children quickly learn that Santa Claus is a fictional character. The role he plays, nevertheless, continues to be a dominant one in American life. The racist belief is Santa Claus is such a caring, thoughtful, loving, and kind person that he has to be white. Long after the children have gotten out of the toy-anticipating stage, this society publicizes this jolly old white man bringing toys and other gifts to others. They commission these white men to dress-up and have children sit on their laps and tell them what they want for Christmas. Thus, the white supremacist idea is continuously perpetuated and spread. As a testimony to its effectiveness, one can sometimes hear slightly older children complain that “he is not the real Santa Claus,” when they see a Black man dressed in traditional Santa clothing and carrying out the traditional role. One would think that after all these years truth and honesty would have stood-up and prevailed, but like the seed – white supremacy – from which it grows, it lives on to influence each young generation.

Even more devastating, but growing from the same root, is the idea that Jesus was a white man. It does not matter that based upon what we know from history, anthropology, geography, and other fields of science, we support artists, writers, theologians, politicians, and preachers, among others continuing to promote the lie that Jesus was white. Even as some people were exposed to the narrative of how early Italian artists, including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, used portraits of Cesare Borgia as pictures of Jesus rather than insist on making the case for getting rid of the false, Europeanized images, they have kept quiet and let white supremacist thinking have its way. As a result, just as in the case of Santa Clause, most Americans bought and continue to buy the idea that Jesus was white. It’s the same case of ignorance and/or hypocrisy ruling the day.

In the face of such a condition, it should be apparent that parents and teachers, among others, must meet the challenge of continued white supremacist propaganda. Without the challenge, we will continue to see the white supremacist symbols and representations – Jesus and Santa Clause – all over the place. This is especially true during the Christmas season. It will include the cases wherein Black people joined with white people referring to African-textured hair as “bad hair” and white-textured hair “good hair” or “fair hair” and the case wherein light skin color is called “fair skinned.” In those cases, we are all automatically making whiteness/Europeanness the standard; Blacks are “unfair,” “bad,” just inferior.

Because of the dominance of this condition of white supremacy having existed for so long, it would cause a major ruckus in many Black churches to suggest replacing the white representations of Jesus with Black ones. The problem may not start with Christmas, but without a doubt white supremacist thinking has deeply affected Black and white thinking, requiring a major overhaul in thinking.

To those who are willing to help bring about such a change, Merry Christmas and more power to you. You will surely need all the insight, patience, and support that can be mustered in your effort. Nevertheless, the reward is well worth the sacrifice and the effort. We must not continue to tolerate Christmas, nor the rest of the year, as a time of increased white supremacist propagandizing.