This Christmas: Barack Obama and Black Santa

Everybody's talking about Obama delivering on diversity for his white house staff. And by everybody talking about it, I mean this one article I read over on That Minority Thing.

And while Obama's staff being the most diverse ever is all fine and good, this holiday season there's only one area in which I really want to see some diversity from Obama. I want him to bring a black Santa around for his two lovely daughters.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for a photo op of brother Santa with the Obamas. That's it. That's all. No commentary, no declarations. No speechifying about the iconography of the event. Just a picture of the Obama family carrying on as if black Santa were as normal as night following day. As eggs for breakfast which, for a lot of families such as my own, having black Santa come around for the holiday is the height of normality.

Black Santa's at inner-city malls, he's in ads in Ebony magazine, but he remains something of the "drunk uncle" of the holidays. Society by and large tolerates him but doesn't really deal with him.

In contrast, for many black families, it's fake white Santa we have to avoid like Jonas brothers music and explain to the kids he's just some guy in a suit Black Santa hired to help out.

And while some would say that traditionally Santa is a Nordic cat, historically Saint Nicholas of Myra is the inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. Myra was in Lycia, which was a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, which is now in Turkey.

Santa's from Turkey! Santa could very well be dark skinned! And since he doesn't really exist, it doesn't truly matter. It's like insisting that Big Foot speaks English, not Spanish.

So let's have our Black Santa this year. Let the hip taking pride in black President-elect and black Santa. Let the liberals grin and bear it while the haters are left dumbfounded by the image.

A visit to the Obama's from Black Santa is not imposing any particular viewpoint anymore than white Santa has been an imposition all these many years. Or white Jesus for that matter. It's just Christmas as usual.

And what a gift it would be this Christmas to make such a massive statement without saying a word.

For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com

Comments

[curiousasheck]

Ha ha ha!! Excellent John!

You need to go see BO and say. . "Hi Bo, we're going to have a new government dept. The Dept of Creative Diversity. I can start right now."

BO. "Huhh? Uhhh John you don't have any Government experience.

"True but I do now wheres my desk going to be?"

Win win all the way!

Happy Holidays John

[kwa7154]

SANTA is really SATAN.

[hellifiknow]

It would be nice. It is also nice that this year I was able to find a few decorative Black Santas which always seem to be super difficult to find anywhere. It irks me when Barbies and Santas and other things are only done in Caucasian tones. Doesn't everyone deserve to see their ethnicity represented if they so choose?

[slurrrrpee]

I just hope Obama picks the most qualified and talented cabinet and Santa.

[anghiari]

You First John...get the suit and make the rounds...then lets talk

[janeinmia]

Instead of black Santa, how about black baby Jesus in the manger? That's what I would like to see under the Christmas tree.

[sherifffruitfly]

The press is on HIGH alert for *any* signs that Obama is doing anything "against" white folks. Any photo suggesting such would be worth A BRAZILLION bucks to the paparazzi - er, journalist - luck enough to get one.

So you can just forget about Obama keeping such a course of action on the DL.

In any case, I suspect that while your suggested course of action is perfectly reasonable, Obama will follow a pick-your-battles strategy (according to which haggling over Santa's color won't be chosen).

(There can be more than one reasonable course of action, of course.)

[Groovyyaya]

I often think of the Cosby Show when the topic of ethnic Santas come up (which was the reason why my parents told me they were really "Santa's Helpers" cause the REAL Santa is way too busy this time of year. Anyway, Cosby had a much better and funnier explanation - Santa is magic, so he can appear as whatever ethnicity the kid is in the house... in essence, Santa is ALL ethnicities... :)

[ErniePyle]

I would prefer a nice secular holiday celebration that let all "celebrate" their particular "santa,"

[lennix]

santa came on november 4,2008 and thats enough for me lol

[davispty5]

AMEN!

[hortonhearsawho]

Santa is a mutt too...

[guajiro]

Don't know where you learned your history from Riddles, but the mountain ranges bigfoot roams are the ancestral lands of the original American indians whose language has a common ancestry dating back over 10,000 years. To this day, indians from the mountain ranges in Mexico have a similar dialect to those in North America and all the way in between. So yes, he most probably does speak spanish......and indian.....and. On your "black Santa" theme, if you want a black Santa Ridley, why don't YOU portray him? Surely you would not miss a chance at meeting with the president on such a significant occasion, would you? And what's with the reindeer? If Santa was from the area of Turkey, then why not show up in a sled pulled by eight Brahma oxen? Brahma, or Zebu as it is otherwise known, are a breed of hardy cattle that emigrated with their human ancestors to new lands.......just like Santa did. See you in a Santa suit, Ridley?

[SouthpawSass]

What's wrong with having a white Santa John? What, did he not bring you that Ricochet Racer you asked for? Jeez, get over it.

[OHNJPat]

Actually, no, his black father and or mother would have brought that "Ricochet Racer".

[DistressingDelilah]

Sure people are going to talk about it..but that is ok...I think it is great!

[lovethesinner]

In case someone missed this from earlier comments, I just wanted to re-post this link from Huffpost blogger Casey Gane-McCalla:

The Top Ten Reasons Obama is Black:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#28077550

What John and Casey are saying in these excellent posts are what I've been praying for my whole life: a real discussion about race.

[guajiro]

The link is about prop 8 and has nothing to do with Obama being black. Just saying.