Megyn Kelly added another chapter to the “White Santa” sh*tshow by responding to critics, gawkers and anyone passing by the TV during her Friday night broadcast. The gist of the entire debacle? We’re all a bunch of sensitive little flowers who can’t take a little joke. From Fox News:
“Humor is what we try to bring to this show, but that’s lost on the humorless,” Kelly said on The Kelly File.“This would be funny if it were not so telling about our society, in particular, the knee-jerk instinct by so many to race-bait and to assume the worst in people, especially people employed by the very powerful Fox News Channel.”
This is where I’d fire up my Daily Show time machine and pull up every clip I could find from Fox News involving race, race baiting and racism, just to put a little pie on their face and keep our pie based economy afloat for another week.
Kelly goes on to claim that her comments were influenced by the same depictions Aisha Harris noted in her Slate piece that kicked this entire thing off.
“Contrary to what my critics have posited, neither my statement, nor Harris’, I’m sure, was motivated by any racial fear or loathing,” Kelly said Friday. “In fact, it was something far less sinister: A lifetime of exposure to the very same commercials, mall casting calls, and movies Harris references in her piece.”
“We continually see St. Nick as a white man in modern-day America,” Kelly continued. “Should that change? Well, that debate got lost because so many couldn’t get past the fact that I acknowledged, as Harris did, that the most commonly depicted image of Santa, does, in fact, have white skin.” (via)
The entire debate on whether Santa or Jesus is white, black or purple is meaningless. It doesn’t change the heart of the season or the acts connected to the myths. Jesus still walked on water and healed the sick, Santa still delivers gifts and joy worldwide in one night, and Krampus is still kidnapping and eating children regardless of the race involved.
Instead everyone became an expert on Santa Claus and we ran into comments like this one on YouTube. It’s a lovely time to be alive.
And I should note that Kelly doubled down on Jesus being white at the same time, noting that the debate is “far from settled.” I guess this means we have something to look forward to after Christmas.
She is right about one thing though, race is still an incredibly volatile issue. It’s nice that we could all take a moment away from remembering Nelson Mandela to point that out in the silliest way possible.
(Images via YouTube/yazchattiest/Fox News)
