When NBC decided to take on The Wiz as its latest live
production….Twitter went into a firestorm.
And that firestorm was people sounding off (who clearly didn’t know what they were
talking about) questioning the so called "audacity" of NBC to remake a classic –referring to The
Wizard of Oz.
One tweet that stuck out : “ how come there were no white
actors in this?”
All the uproar but I guess those same people somehow didn’t
see the cast of The Wizard of Oz?
Or hell mostly any TV sitcom on right now.
Have those same critics been in the store this holiday
season trying to buy their daughter a Barbie that looks like them?
Being the majority you don’t take those type of challenges
into consideration.
Which is why a Black Santa Clause is a pretty big deal.
I remember growing up, the only Santa Clauses in our house…
were the same color of my mother – dark brown.
The white angel on top of the tree was even doctored up and
painted brown.
That may sound petty but now I see why my mother did it.
We used to only go to Swifton Commons Mall to take pictures
with the black Santa…whose sack wasn’t a bright red, but instead a multicolored
kente cloth.
Swifton Commons of course came and went…and so did the black
Santa.
By the time I had children, I couldn’t find a black Santa.
So when Macy’s offered opportunities to take pictures with
their African American Santa…for FREE this was
a big deal.
Its important for your children to see people that look like
them.
Being a majority, you don’t have that problem because well –
you’re the majority.
This year, I was prepared for my kids to have their pictures
with Santa… just days before, they took pictures with the other Santa (not my choice) so I knew they wouldn’t be scared this
time.
When we approached him, my daughter seemed cautious.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t wanna take a picture with him,” she whispered.
“Are you sure, I have hats for you to wear like Santa,” I
tried my best to convince her.
“I don’t want to. That’s not Santa. Santa is white,” she
argued.
My heart jumped.
I wanted to instantly interrogate her and ask who the hell
told you that.
But it was pointless.
Society told her Santa is white.
Society told her to be afraid of a Santa who has the same
skin color has her. The same skin color as her brother, her father, her grandfather.
I was devastated.
My son not knowing what was brewing between me and his
sister willingly took his picture.
We moved along so other brown children could see a Santa
that looked like them.
I just wonder how a white parent would feel had their child
been afraid of a white Santa and said Santa was really black?
Now do people see why black Santas are important?
Do they see why black Barbies are needed?
Do they see why diversity is so important?
I just took my daughter to see her first ballet – The Nutcracker.
She was mesmerized –
seeing ballerinas in real life. It was a little girl’s dream come true.
But one thing was missing. Ballerinas that looked like her.
“Are ballerinas only white?”
Yes.
Well no.
Well kinda.
The ballerinas we saw that night – were all white. But not
only whites can be ballerinas.
We came home and looked up Misty Copeland on Youtube to see
a ballerina that looked like her.
But she still wasn’t really buying me on the Santa part.
And then later, I told her Santa isn’t real.
