Santa is white

Here we go again. People are still debating whether a make-believe character can be a color other than their own.

Many conservatives cannot stand the idea of Santa possibly being black. Why, the idea of such a thing! Ronald Reagan would have never stood for it. (Here, of course, is where I insert a picture of Mr. T performing as Santa at the White House in the Reagan administration. Come on, you all knew that was coming.)

But it’s not just Santa. I’ve seen science fiction geeks get all crazy when someone suggests that Superman could be black. “But he’s not!” they scream.

Well why not? Geez, he’s not even from earth. He could be green with yellow polka dots. Why would that distract from truth, justice, and the American way? (OK, well, admittedly it would make it harder to pose as mild-mannered Clark Kent…)

There are indeed instances where the race or gender or sexual orientation of a fictional character is important to the story — but if it’s not, who cares? Why does it matter one bit what race Santa is?

That’s what I can’t quite figure out.

Megyn Kelly from Fox News is at it again, insisting that not only is Santa Claus white (despite being based on St. Nicholas, who was from modern-day Turkey) but so is Jesus (who was a Jewish lad from the middle east).

This fits in with the conservative bubble, where everything involves them and has to fit into their world view or it either doesn’t exist (climate change, evolution) or it is changed to be just like them (Jesus and Santa).

It’s a lack of empathy, a lack of being able to see things from others’ points of view that is the basis for much of conservative thought. They are against gay marriage until they have a gay child; they are against maternity leave until they have a baby; they are against Obamacare until they need health care coverage for their family. Whatever problems anyone has don’t mean a thing if they don’t affect them personally.

Megyn Kelly has had to backtrack a bit over her statements, but, as you can expect, she now claims that she is a victim of racism. As if insisting that your personal heroes can’t be of a different color than you means you’re a racist! Oh, right, yeah it does.