During his defense of Megyn Kelly's claim that "Santa was White", Bill O'Reilly displayed a picture of a Non-White St. Nicholas.
Uh, oops.
Instead of actually looking at the picture that his own network has placed on the screen, O'Reilly continued to claim that the originator of the Santa Clause myth "was White", even though he was from Asia Minor, which is now known as Turkey, and instead went on to proclaim that the reason Ms. Kellys remarks generated so much criticism was really simple.
HATERZ Gonna HATE poor little helpless Fox News. Boo Hoo.
“As you may know, Ms. Megyn Kelly causing some controversy after she said last week that Santa is a white man and so is Jesus,” he said. “That after an Internet column expressed disappointment with Santa’s Caucasian profile. Immediately, immediately the far left was outraged.”
“The historical truth is that Saint Nicholas, the prototype for Santa, was white,” O’Reilly remarked. “He was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Asia Minor, now the country known as Turkey. Saint Nicholas was a very kind man, a protector of children and sailors, his feast day is celebrated on December 6.”
Megyn Kelly was mercilessly
mocked because what she said is so demonstrably wrong. St. Nicholas - the real person- was not a "White Man".
“Historically, you can’t import a category like ‘white’ into fourth century Asia Minor,” Harvard Professor Laura Nasrallah, an expert on early Christianity, told Politico on Monday.
Similarly it makes little sense to impart "White-ness" to Jesus simply because European paintings depict him that way despite the fact that he was a
Palestinian Jew who would have had brown skin, curly hair and a good sized nose. As Religious Scholar Reza Aslan points out, Jesus would have
Looked Like Him, not Bill O'Reilly.
Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth — which has just been optioned as a possible feature film — said historical Jesus was born in Galilee, which would have made him a Palestinian Jew.
“He would look the way that the average Palestinian would look today, so that would mean dark features, hairy, probably a longer nose, black hair. To put it in the simplest way possible, he would’ve looked like me,” said Aslan, an Iranian-American Muslim.
But Aslan went a step further and did something most people haven't done. He pointed out that the real life Jesus, and
The Christ that people worship as an icon
are not the same. The Christ - just like Santa Clause - is a fictional creation, as such he can be of any race and of any color.
“What I just described is Jesus. What Megan Kelly described is the Christ — and they’re different people,” Aslan said. “In other words, the Christ can be whatever you want him to be.”
The distinction between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith may be strange to consider, he said, and makes some Christians uncomfortable, but he insists they’ve become separate characters.
“Religions are man-made – literally – man-made institutions that are built long after the death of the prophet for which they are named,” Aslan said. “So the reason that I, as a scholar, don’t have a problem with that differentiation between Jesus and Christ – these are two different things, and you can go back and forth between them – is based precisely on that one fundamental fact. Which is that Jesus didn’t create Christianity — his followers created Christianity, and so, of course, Christ of Christianity is different from the Jesus of history. And that’s okay.”
So in the end The Christ and Santa Clause can be
any color and of any race because - psst -
They Aren't REAL. They're Icons.
The fact that Fox News Hosts have to continually insist that not only are the Icons "White" and "White Only" but that the real men who inspired those icons were "White" even when that isn't born out by their own examples is really just sad and pathetic.
It's worthy of ridicule.
It's also damaging to proclaim their manufactured Whiteness must be preserved, while simultaneous denying that it matters. "Just because something is uncomfortable, doesn't mean it should change.." said Kelly. Well actually No, that's Exactly why it should change, and in this case it can easily change.
Particularly when you now have a Black Kid who went to school dressed as Santa get sent home because the School says to him "Santa is White"?
The family of an African-American high school student in New Mexico says he's crushed after a teacher questioned why he was wearing Santa garb during a school holiday dress-up day last week, CNN affiliate KOAT reported.
The teacher told Christopher Rougier, a freshman at Cleveland High School, that he couldn't be Santa because Santa is white, the student's father, Michael, told KOAT
Oh how about when the Tea Party does a Christmas book for kids, and in is
Obama-Clause Steals Christmas from them?
“Are you familiar with the beloved holiday tale of how President Barack Obama destroyed Christmas with his union-boosting, New World Order-establishing, God-hating policies?” begins Gawker, highlighting a copy of a Tea Party book aimed at children. “No? Let’s take a look at this Tea Party’s christmas picture book, The Liberal Clause.”
“With simple sentences and colorful drawings that should appeal to four-year-olds and Tea Partiers alike, The Liberal Clause tells the story of how a small town is taken over by the Liberal Party of Elves and their leaders Elf Peloosi, Barry ‘Liberal Clause’ Obama and his wife ‘Lichelle,’” Gawker continues. Photographs from the book, highlighted at Talking Points Memo, follow.
Clearly he couldn't be the REAL Santa Clause for the same reason he couldn't possibly be the REAL President. He's not White.
Because apparently only a God-Fearing Conservative White Man can be so good and kind and generous as Santa. It's not like the spirit of Christmas can fill the hearts of all parents and their children - Nope. Santa isn't a part of each and every one of us, he's a White Guy and you kid - can't be him because you're black as coal.
And Jesus was White too. And so is the Easter Bunny. Ghandi was a White Man, wasn't he? And haven't you heard about that Mandela? Yeah, he was a White Guy too. So was that Dr. Luther-King guy. He was White as the Morning Sun when he gave that inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech about how skin color shouldn't matter. Even if Neal Boortz complains that they always "Portrayed Him as Black" why should that matter, eh?
While we're at it we might as well admit the Rudolph was a White-Nosed Reindeer because Santa needed something Bright to Shine didn't he? How could Red work anyway?
We all have to come to understand that Aladdin must have clearly been White. So was Mulan. Spartacus [Kirk Douglas] was White wasn't he? Sitting Bull [as portrayed by J. Carrol Nash in 1954] was White, because how else could he have beaten Custer? So was Sakagewea. The WWII Code-Talkers were White. [In fact, up until Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves most Native Americans in "Cowboys and Indians" movies - weren't Indians] Al Jolson was White, so clearly the Tuskegee Airmen were White too. Bambi was White, as was Thumper. Dumbo is White. Elmo is White. Bert and Ernie are White. The Little Mermaid was a White Mermaid, the Wicked Witch of the West is White under her Green Skin, Michael Jackson was White [ok, yeah, eventually kinda], Bubbles was White, Barry White is White and so are YOU!
Because, isn't everyone?
And now that we're all White and the Same, can't we just get along?
Yeah, Right.
The fact is that Black and Brown people aren't the ones tying to re-write facts and history to suit their own comfort and political correctness because it might be uncomfortable and embarrassing to have someone who doesn't look like yourself be the "Hero" all the time. Dressing up White People in Dark Face and lightening up Dark People into White People didn't start with Megyn Kelly - it's been going on for Centuries. One good thing now is that people have started to notice, and put it to a stop.
Vyan