Megyn Kelly went viral when she declared Santa Claus “just is white,” but a decade later the idea of what St. Nick can look like has only expanded.
Aisha Harris had no idea of the uproar she would create when she recommended the Christmas Penguin.
Ten years ago, the writer and journalist published a lighthearted viral essay titled “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore,” in which she questioned the ubiquity of white Santa imagery.
“America is less and less white, but a melanin-deficient Santa remains the default in commercials, mall casting calls, and movies,” Harris wrote. “Isn’t it time that our image of Santa better serve all the children he delights each Christmas?” In fact, she suggests, a Christmas Penguin can represent the holiday instead of a person.
The backlash was swift, especially after anchor Megyn Kelly responded to the piece on her Fox News show “The Kelly File.” “This is so ridiculous, yet another person claiming it’s racist to have a white Santa,” Kelly said. “And by the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white.”
The actual reason as given by one of the creators was that they were trying to diversify their characters by adding a black character when the vast, vast majority of characters at the time were white. It just happened that this character was the theme they were working on at the time.
It fits his theme visually, since he can be in the sun (Daywalker) and the pasty white vamps cannot. But that is just coincidence. Since the vast majority of superheroes still lean towards white due to keeping a lot of legacy characters around, it is important for Blade to stay black because he is part of an under represented race/ethnicity group.
All that said, Santa being white and Blade being black is a meaningless comparison. Santa brings gifts to all children and having multiple representations that fit different groups is a positive. Changing Blade erases an early example of a non-white superhero, which is a negative.
I agree that it would be stupid of Marvel to change Blade to a white guy (and that Marvel would never do it), but it would be theoretically possible given that he’s a fictional character - just like Santa Claus. Making black Santas hurts nobody. Well, except racists who see any black representation as injurious to their fragile white ego.
Changed my mind, Santa is Chinese now. Or like, Southeast Asian, let’s go with Southeast Asian.
And people could have Southeast Asian Santas while others have black Santas and still others have white Santas. Nobody (except the racists) is saying that Santa has to be ONE ethnicity and can’t be any others. Just because one family has a black Santa doesn’t mean EVERY Santa needs to be black.
Thanks for your answer. Legacy characters that are not a white cis male usually have a story or plot related reason of why they’re not a white guy, because if the background didn’t mattered they just made him a white guy.