This Christmas: Barack Obama and Black Santa

Posted by John Ridley, Huffington Post at 9:21 AM on December 6, 2008.

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, St. 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 take pride in a 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 Obamas' 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

Tagged as: obama, obama, christmas, diversity, santa, black santa