What's this ridiculousness that Santa is white?

When I was a kid, there was a black Santa, and I thought he was a chocolate Santa. My parents said Santa has no color. They were rednecks, but they were cool when it came to race. Fox news is owned by a clown and staffed by morons.

Fox was reacting to a woman’s article about having black Santas and a black Jesus as part of a black neighborhood’s Christmas celebration. And Fox called it as wrong and historically inaccurate since Saint Nicholas was a 4th century Turko-Greek, so he must be white.

They also said it was a historic fact that Jesus was white, even though he was more properly called Aramaic. So both Santa and Jesus were pretty swarthy skinned. But Fox can’t handle nuance to save their life.

@zenvelo Thanks for the background. I just saw Piers Morgan ask Ann Coulter abut Santa and Jesus. Ann said, “Jesus was Jewish and if you (speaking to Piers) consider Jews white he was white.” Piers pressed her more and she said, “maybe he was beige, he was Jewish.” Piers dropped it then. Earlier in the conversation when talking about Santa Ann insisted Santa was white. I’m actually ok with Ann’s answer about Jesus. She didn’t seem to have a problem with saying people from the middle east are white, and at that same time agreeing his skin color might not be as pale as pale can be. Although, I think it is a little odd to call Jewish people a particular skin color.

I still don’t get insisting Santa is white though. Santa is not St. Nick in my mind. No one thinks St. Nick is back from the dead giving gifts. We all know Santa lives at the North Pole and delivers gifts to all the children who believe in Santa.

Essentially, people are arguing about an imaginary person. Santa Claus is not real. I don’t think we can even say that Santa Claus as he is today has anything to do with a Catholic saint from centuries ago.

This is so bizarre. What’s wrong with people?

I feel most people have an obsession with race. This is not only prominent in America but many other countries too. They just want to divide the country over a race issue. We need to focus on the spirit of Santa and not the color. There was a news where a teacher tells her student Santa is white. The comment made to this boy just sits at the top of the racism. By focusing on the color of Santa’s skin we are teaching kids the wrong lesson. When kids talk about Santa, they talk about his round belly and his white beard. I never heard any kid talk about the color of his skin. I prefer to believe Santa is universal. Anyway Santa is, in fact, a great role model when it comes to race relations. He serves everybody, regardless of color or creed. It’s the media and people who are making this a big issue.

Santa is every bit as real as the Great FSM, haloed be His name. What’s more, Santa isn’t white, he’s RED! He gives equally to kids of the rich and the poor. Well, not really. That’s just propaganda. But it was just propaganda when the Soviet and Chinese Reds claimed it too, so he’s Red.

We can argue whether or not he originated from Greece, Turkey, Norwey, Belgium. Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Spain or Britain. But whichever way you cut it, the old man looks pretty white to me.

I’ve never really seen the problem with that anyway. Just because he’s white does not make him bad. He’s not The Man in a red suit.

Also, even if he’s not a real person, he’s not a generic figure to be appropriated. The whole black santa and black Jesus thing is bizarre to me.

Yes, action figures and dolls should represent the various ethnicities that we encounter in real life. But you don’t need to have the same skin color to relate to a concept or idea.

For the record, I’m not white.

Both being invented characters, they can be whatever colour you want them to be.
To me, they both have the colour of gamma radiation. because they give you cancer

Well, considering he lives in the North Pole, I think he might be Yupik or Inuit.

Same with Jesus/God & while we’re on the subject, Pluto & Goofy, both dogs, one talks & lives in a proper house, the other just does doggy stuff…I call bullshit.

I’m pretty sure Santa doesn’t exist.

I don’t get why the color of the skin is that important.

For Greek Orthodox, the Santa is not an invented figure; he was a real historical personality. Whether we like it or not, he was white. And he was very thin, he was poor and no he was not wearing that bright red and white suit. I don’t understand why do we need to debate the color of the skin but not the fact that the Santa is most widely depicted in colors chosen by a company.

If we are to be talking about the commercial fat, red and white guy, then his skin could be any color. Actually, I believe this skin looks better in blue!

But the real debate is, why do we argue over an imaginary figure when there was someone, somewhere with an amazing sense of fairness and offering and he is pushed over by… imagination.

Was tempted to write pushed over by fat, but then decided to not be that evil today

Kind of a no-brainer that Santa doesn’t exist, more to do with his depicted image…too easy.

@fluthernutter Do you mean Santa looks white to you or St. Nick?

I agree debating Santa’s color is ridiculous. I have no problem with black Santa and Chinese Santa for that matter. I think children picture Santa however they picture him in their inagination. Black kids in black neighborhoods maybe picture adults usually as black in their imagination. I have no idea. Or, they see fake Santas who are black. It might be very nornal to them.

Technically Middle Eastern is “white,” even if their skin is not pale like someone from a nordic country. Ann Coulter was not really debating if Jesus was white or middle eastern, both are causcasian. I think the debate about Jesus is the blond hair and blue eyes is unlikely.

Why does it matter what color he is? He’s fictional character who represents the spirit of giving, which has nothing to do with race, creed, color or religion.

Exactly Pachyderm. He exists as a concept, and how can a concept have color? To insist he’s a race or color is so ignorant it makes me question their intelligence. Or maybe confirms the lack thereof.

So, those who are annoyed color is called into question at all, are you annoyed with both the woman who brought up portraying santa as black and the people insisting he is white?

Yes, annoyed with the entire tempest in a teapot Santa’s bag. We have so many real problems that need solving.

@ETpro Santa isn’t a communist because he doesn’t force people to give to his cause.

I agree that his skin color shouldn’t matter. But that doesn’t mean it’s whatever color you want it to be.

@JLeslie Both of them. One is a historical figure and the other is a fictional character. But they both have their roots in western/caucasian culture.

@Nimis I see your point, but it doesn’t really matter. Depictions of Santa drawn originally in cold northern European countries also had snow and Christmas stockings are hung on the fireplace. I live in Florida, our lights are on palm trees and everything is still green and in bloom here. Go to Argentina and it is summertime. I go to buy a card and the pictures of Christmas never represent my warm climate. St. Nicholas was probably olive skinned with more semetic features, but Santa does not look like that in the pictures. He is round with a roundish nose and skin as white and pinkish as can be. I don’t think we can say we are going for accuracy based on historical significance. Although semetic is still caucasian, I don’t think most of the people insisting Santa is white would be ok with a redraw of the man to look like an Arab, Turk, Greek, you pick it. Plus, Santa has changed over time, I think Coca Cola was one of the advertisers who depicted Santa at one point and that version really stuck.

I asked my husband how he picture Santa as a child, and he said just like the drawings. White white with a red suit. But, my husband sees himself as white also, and so does the US census, and he also grew up in an environment kind of void of race talk. Is my husband white like Santa? No. He is olive skinned and black curly hair (one day it will be grey I guess) with Mediterranean type features. Some of America would just consider him Mexican.

Aside from all this mess, how does this help Republicans gain the minority vote? They could have just agreed Santa is however a child pictures him and let the whole thing drop.

I heard Megan Kelly when she originally made the statement and then again when she explained it. I wouldn’t have said it that way but the truth is most of us see fictional characters as they are depicted in pictures. You could say Mickey Mouse is a white mouse but few would recognize him as such. Peter Pan, is he white, black Asian or what? This whole thing is not a Republican thing, view these characters anyway you wish. The vast majority however will view them as depicted by the pictures (even if the pictures were created by marketeers).

Santa originated in Sami (Laplander) mythology so he probably ought to look like this: http://tinyurl.com/o352w3f

It figures that most of this would originate from mushrooms.

Throwing this out here: Santa clause derived from the Norse God of Gift Giving (Sintra Clouse, I believe).
The Norse are white.

No chance for Santa to get a tan during Xmas season at the North Pole, where winters can dip to many tens of degrees below zero F.

We saw a black Santa one time. We told my niece it was a chocolate Santa. She bought it.