@IRFRANK,
What is there to agree with?
Santa Claus is overwhelmingly portrayed as a white man in America? Yes.
Jesus is overwhelmingly portrayed as a white man in America? Yes
Given the origins of the Santa Claus myth there is no logical reason to consider him anything but white. Now if black or Asian families want to depict him as black or Asian, I couldn't care less. I understand why they might want to and I would be the last person on earth to tell their kids that their parents are wrong because St Nick is a white man.
As for Jesus, I can't imagine any rational theory that might suggest he was black or Asian. If one wants to quibble about the definition of "white" and assert that all "whites" are people of Northern European background than I would agree that in such a context, he wasn't white (he surely didn't look like Jeffery Hunter).
If, on the other hand, one accepts that Semitic people are Caucasian, and accept "white" as a synonym for "Caucasian," then he was surely white.
It all depends upon your definition of "white." Are Italians and Spaniards "white?"
Again, if black or Asian families want to hang on their walls a picture of a Jesus that more closely resembles them, I couldn't care less.
It is, though, somewhat telling that in some cases people find it difficult to accept a white icon.
Obviously John Henry isn't at the same level of legends as Santa Claus and Jesus, but somehow I have a feeling that I would get yards of sh*t if I announced that in telling my kids the legend of John Henry, I made him white because so are they.
This is a tempest in a teapot.
Nothing Kelly said was racist, and it is ridiculous that anyone should find a problem with the depiction of Santa Clause as white.
She wasn't "outraged" that anyone might prefer to depict Santa or Jesus as black.
The vitiolic reaction to her comments is ridiculous.
