News Disney plans to include a black Santa Claus at Walt Disney World this year as the company continues its diversity and inclusion program

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sbbr

Member
EricsBiscuit said:
To everyone out there saying Santa is fictional, Santa Claus is Dutch for Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a Catholic bishop. He was a real person. He was not black. Learn history!
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Do these look like the cheekbones of a man whose tummy shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly?

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LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
EricsBiscuit said:
To everyone out there saying Santa is fictional, Santa Claus is Dutch for Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a Catholic bishop. He was a real person. He was not black. Learn history!
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I imagine that Orthodox Christians wouldn’t quite agree with your characterisation of him as a Catholic bishop.

At any rate, the version of Santa we’re discussing here has very little to do with historical namesake, who may not have been black but wasn’t a rosy-cheeked white guy either.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
EricsBiscuit said:
To everyone out there saying Santa is fictional, Santa Claus is Dutch for Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a Catholic bishop. He was a real person. He was not black. Learn history!
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He's Sinterklaas in Dutch, he rides a white horse that arrives on a ship from Spain, and he gives out oranges. And he's assisted by Zwaarte Piet, of course.

That may sound weird, but no weirder than Santa coming from the North Pole riding a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.

BTW, I have a picture of myself and my siblings taken with a black Santa Clause at the old Wannamaker's in Philadelphia from the 70s, so this might not be as bold a move as Disney might like to think.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
LittleBuford said:
I imagine that Orthodox Christians wouldn’t quite agree with your characterisation of him as a Catholic bishop.

At any rate, the version of Santa we’re discussing here has very little to do with historical namesake, who may not have been black but wasn’t a rosy-cheeked white guy either.
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He would have been just plain "Christian" at the time, since he precedes the Great Schism by several centuries.
 
sullyinMT

sullyinMT

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
I think the fact that it's Santa Claus helps. He's been depicted in multiple other ways already, even if the jolly old rotund bearded white guy has been the default, and he's not a Disney character associated with one specific depiction.

I think there'd be more uproar over doing this in other areas, unfortunately.
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Are you saying wait until they add “Black Ariel” to the grotto to promote the live action Little Mermaid?
 
Nubs70

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
They sort of already do this in EPCOT, right? See here
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I was thinking of dressing up a culturally accurate representative from each Pavillion as Santa. A Mexican Santa, a Norwegian Santa, a Chinese Santa, a Italian Santa, a German Santa, a Japanese Santa, a American Santa, etc.
 
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
EricsBiscuit said:
If I recall correctly, it was you all who started this by implying St Nicholas was not a Catholic Bishop.
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My real point was the second sentence of that post: "At any rate, the version of Santa we’re discussing here has very little to do with his historical namesake, who may not have been black but wasn’t a rosy-cheeked white guy either."

@Sir_Cliff put it very well:
Sir_Cliff said:
Honestly not trying to make fun of you here, but I have to admit that "Santa is not black, learn history!" gave me quite a chuckle.
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castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
Nubs70 said:
I was thinking of dressing up a culturally accurate representative from each Pavillion as Santa. A Mexican Santa, a Norwegian Santa, a Chinese Santa, a Italian Santa, a German Santa, a Japanese Santa, a American Santa, etc.
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But what color would those Santas be? It’s missing the point. People are just using this idea as a way to get around their fear of a different colored santa.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
DisneyExpert said:
This thread took such a fascinating and welcome turn! I'm learning so much reading through these last few pages.

Edit: Well, never mind. All the interesting conversation I was referring to seems to have disappeared.
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I kind of understand why part of it was deleted, but I'm less sure why the discussion over race in the ancient world was deleted. That was all simple history.

Of course it wasn't really on topic, but that's not unusual here.
 
W

WDWTrojan

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
Except colorblind casting for Frozen creates actual narrative discontinuity. Anna and Elsa not being the same race implies that one or both of them is adopted and that they're not biological sisters. Genetics is still a thing, and it matters in family-based stories.

You could do a Frozen where the whole family is Black. Or where the parents are mixed-race and the children are plausibly descended from the two of them. But two ostensibly biological siblings being different races is confusing, especially to young audiences.
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Disney literally had an Asian Jasmine while her dad was black in the Aladdin show at DCA. Colorblind casting is nothing new.
 

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