There's been a lot of talk about the "race" of Santa Claus lately, but not a lot of history on where he comes from. Now, people in the know are aware that Santa runs sweatshops all over Southeast Asia and is a silent partner in Bain Capital. But I digress...
Here's a Santa Myth that Fox News could truly embrace: Sinterklaas, and his "assistant" (slave), an impish Moor.
Sinterklaas looks a lot like Santa, but he's usually portrayed more like an actual Bishop, modeled on St. Nicholas, who was Greek and probably not as "white" as Fox News would like. But instead of elves, Sinterklaas has "Zwarte Piet" ("Black Pete"), his "companion" (slave) who is even in contemporary Dutch culture usually played by a white man in blackface.
Here's a little from the Wiki:
A Zwarte Piet (Black Pete, plural Zwarte Pieten) is a companion of Sinterklaas, usually an adolescent in blackface with black curly hair, dressed up like a 17th-century page in a colourful dress, often with a lace collar, and donning a feathered cap.Fox News should be touting this construct of Santa far and wide, especially in the South. It most certainly fits the neo-racist construct.
