Megyn Kelly: Jesus and Santa were white

thoughtone · Dec 13, 2013

Santa was made up, but Jesus?

source: Politico

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On Wednesday night Megyn Kelly declared on her Fox News show that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white. Discussing a piece in Slate by Aisha Harris about a black versus white Santa, Kelly that "just because it makes you feel uncomfortable it doesn't mean it has to change."

"You know, I've given her her due. Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change," Kelly said. "Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have, he's a historical figure that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?"

Santa Claus can be traced to a real life monk named St. Nicholas who lived in what is today Turkey, according to the History Channel. Jesus Christ was born to a Jewish family around what is now Israel, and his race has long been debated with several scholars saying he likely looked like what many modern day people of Middle Eastern descent look like.

The unusual segment, where the panelists also debated whether Santa Claus should be a penguin as Harris writes in her piece, seemed to be directly contradicting what Kelly said on Monday when she appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

"I'm a straight news anchor, I'm not one of the opinion hosts," she told Leno. "The way we do it on the Fox News Channel is the straight news anchors like us give a hard time to both sides."

It seems as though there may be other things to debate that are "straight news" beyond whether Santa and Jesus where white.

QueEx · Dec 13, 2013

From my readings and my Jesuit professors from undergrad, the scholarly consensus is that Jesus was most probably a darker-skinned man. Of course, my sources could have been tainted and my professors could have been tired of arguing with me and just conceded the issue.

thoughtone · Dec 13, 2013

QueEx said:
From my readings and my Jesuit professors from undergrad, the scholarly consensus is that Jesus was most probably a darker-skinned man. Of course, my sources could have been tainted and my professors could have been tired of arguing with me and just conceded the issue.

Song of Solomon 5:11

His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.

QueEx · Dec 13, 2013

Jon Stewart Demolishes Megyn Kelly and Fox Freaking
Out Over Santa's Race and the War on Christmas

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thoughtone · Dec 14, 2013

QueEx · Dec 14, 2013

Melissa Harris-Perry on Megyn Kelly Santa
flap: No wonder we’re racially divided

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On Saturday, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry addressed the question of Santa’s skin color by taking it up with the jolly old elf himself. In her weekly open letter segment, Harris-Perry wrote a letter to the North Pole.

“This week,” she said, “the debate about Santa got heated. Not an existential discussion of whether the man exists, but the other one…about his race.”

Harris-Perry discussed Fox anchor Megyn Kelly’s bland assertion to kids that Santa is white, which Kelly made in response to a Slate.com editorial asserting that the U.S. needs a more inclusive, multicultural Santa figure.

Kelly has since attempted to play off the remarks as a “lighthearted joke,” but the topic has continued to resonate on TV and online.

Harris-Perry decided that rather than take the subject up with Kelly, who undoubtedly has enough people shouting at her, she would discuss Santa’s race with Santa.

“Dear Santa,” she began, explaining that this was not a plea for clemency in the naughty-nice divide, “but rather to make an appeal. I think we’re going to need you before Dec. 24.”

She said she knows it’s early, but could she enlist his aid in settling a debate that’s roiling the media right now?

“Are you white? Are you black?” she asked. “When you’re coming from the North Pole, do you have a legal visa or are you undocumented?”

“Can you find a kid if he lives in an apartment building and not a house with a chimney?” she asked. “Can you find her in a homeless shelter? Why do you leave so many more toys under the big trees in the wealthy neighborhood and so few in the poorer communities?”

The current controversy, she said, demonstrates how far we have to go in understanding people who aren’t like ourselves.

“If we can’t imagine Santa across the racial divide, no wonder we have trouble creating an america without a racial divide,” she concluded.

SOURCE

Greed · Dec 14, 2013

Teacher disciplined for 'Santa is white' remark

Apparently, white people being white is suddenly news.

Teacher disciplined for 'Santa is white' remark
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS | Associated Press
59 mins ago

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico high school teacher has been disciplined after a parent says the man told his black son that Santa Claus is white.

Officials at the school in Rio Rancho, about 15 miles north of Albuquerque, said Saturday that the teacher recently was disciplined for his comments to the student, but they declined to say how.

The move came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer.

Michael Rougier told KOB-TV his ninth-grade son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, and the teacher asked the boy: "Don't you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?"
The teacher's name was not released.

Michael Rougier said the teacher's comments enraged him.

"There's no room for that in the classroom," he said. "Whether this teacher felt Christopher may have been wearing this out of context, there's no room for it. There's just no room for it."

The incident happened the same week that Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly said on the air that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white. Her comments drew national attention and prompted a slew of heated comments on blogs and social media sites.

A spokeswoman for Rio Rancho Public Schools told The Associated Press that the Cleveland High School teacher knows he made a "stupid mistake" and has since apologized to the Rougier family.

"The remark was inappropriate and should not have been made. The teacher feels very badly about what occurred," district spokeswoman Kim Vesely told the AP in an email. "He self-reported the incident to the principal and has apologized to the student and to the student's parent. Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken."

Michael Rougier said he still has concerns about the teacher. "If he has that attitude, how is it affecting students, studies, grading habits, trending toward Caucasian kids?" Rougier said.

The teacher still works at Cleveland, but Christopher has been removed from his class at his family's request, Vesely said.

http://news.yahoo.com/teacher-disciplined-39-santa-white-39-remark-211521412.html

thoughtone · Dec 14, 2013