does he wear the same long underwear under the suit that he sits around in while he's his skinny self trying to fatten up? Is Donner really in charge of the reindeer? How many elves does it take to wrap a big screen TV?

Well. At least you can type, well done.

now I'm curious. Do you have a picture of YOUR Santa? How fat is he? Is he a four eyes? Does he have rosecea? short man's complex? secretly wishes for someone to use the whip on him?

Exactly, excellent points. Even if you do not like Jon Srtewart, he did a funny job with the topic and the point of why anyone on a News Show would even be bringing this topic up. Your point on the Black Friday thing (oh, no is this another racist name?) is right on.

So... Your view is that white can mean many things when it's convenient.

This is just another of the divide and set groups against each other method so adored by Marxists such as Alinsky. The groups who have communist roots come in and try to legislate nativity scenes from the landscape via courts.
Who cares if someone feels uncomfortable! Their problem, not mine, their perception. Everyone is uncomfortable with something, but you don't legislate your view of the perfect world. I feel irritatede when WalMart has lines at the check out on Welfare check day. I felt uncomfortable when my former married boss had gay trists in the office when I had to work evenings. I feel uncomfortable when Obama takes over the TV for a news conference, not because of race, but because his hirstory of being ignorant and Marxist. Where do I go to legislate all that away?.
Grow up, everyone will feel uncomfortable at times , and utopia, by definition is a place that cannot exist.
Growing up, we all had heroes who were black or Hispanic or white, it was what they were, and they did not have to look like us for them to be admired by us. I know the same is true across many cultures. Only the politicians and ACLU try to cause problems to divert us from the dastardly deeds, they are doing - and they are of all races and religions! It is time we stopped apologizing for being white or Cherokee, or anything we might be, and accepted we can admire who a person is without making them be politically correct for some self-serving people out to destroy the US..

Make your Santa whatever color you want him to be...hell, make him female, I don't care...just stop worrying about MY Santa and how he makes YOU feeeeeeeel... and leave MY Santa alone.

Oh I get ya, but as far as we know, no one has figured out how to bend time or self replicate in such a way as to deliver presents all over the globe either, it is fantasy, children should have the allowance to have fantasy. George Washington probably was a man with many things about him I'd rather not know, which I would probably choose to ignore (a form of fantasy), his skin color would probably rank about as low in real importance as if he had wrinkles.

it doesn't hurt exactly-but in Hiraghm's example, it would be incorrect. Most kids who loved skating and followed the Olympics would have a conniption if you tried to tell them when Kristi Yamaguchi was top in her field that she was white. Interesting and sad fact- Kristi's mom was born in a japanese-american internment camp.
Santa is just any child's fantasy. MK was a being silly and using her bully pulpit poorly.
But to your earlier point, the dominant culture does tend to fix the imaging in. I don't look like Barbie, but I didn't spend time worrying about that. I grew up with a pakastani-american girl who is one of my closest friends who used to say when we were in high school that she wanted to read about american heroines that looked like and had the same culture that she did. I never forgot that. I just finished my first techo-thriller and the heroine in my novel looks like my friend. "Pendulum of Justice" is available on amazon and B&N-check it out and welcome

I think the Mediterranean Type is within the "White" category. "White" in my view comes in two groupings: "Mediterranean" and "Caucasian." The Semitic tribes, to me, fall within the "Mediterranean" group.

Hence your original assertion that "Jesus also was white." was incorrect. Yes?

By Jesus' time, there was a lot of intermarriage/mixing with the Greek and Macedonian population in the Middle East, just as there was in Italy. Julius Caesar was referred to as "red" (reddish blonde). Alexander and many of his men were blond. Many in the population were blond, blue-eyed and fair-skined. The population of Palestine likely resembled modern Jews, who come in a wide variety of pigmentations, eye colors, and hair colors. The Mediterranean population -- including the Middle Eastern population -- are white in comparison to black Africans. Any attribution of skin color, hair color, and eye color to Jesus is speculative, but he was not black African, and he was not Oriental. There are ancient stories that depict King David as blonde. If so, and if Jesus was of the lineage of David, he would have the recessive gene and could have been blond. The "crowd" in Jesus' Palestine would have had skin colors ranging from Mediterranean olive to white; eyes that were brown, black, blue, "golden" (Amber), hazel, and green, and mixtures thereof; and hair colors ranging from black to blonde. The majority were likely olive-skinned, brown haired and brown eyed. Regardless of his pigmentation, Jesus would not have stood out from the crowd, even if he were of a minority color.

Now the real question is, if a Japanese-American child chooses to visualize George Washington as looking Japanese because he wants to think of a hero looking like himself... Does that somehow hurt you or I at all?

I believe the reason that politically correct speech is going by the wayside is because we are FINALLY getting to the point where it is the fringe element whom even has words which are intended to offend people racially. Blatant racism, such as bothering to screw up a child's version of a made up character meant to bring happiness to all so that you can make sure your made up version of that same character is the one EVERYONE sees when they close their eyes. Racism will go by the wayside as we stop caring about such stupid things. Guess you'll be there with it.

Arrgh! Just for the record Jesus Christ was a typical Mediterranean person which means that he was black-haired, black-eyed, and olive-skinned. If you disagree please cite specifics in the bible or other writings that indicated that he stood out from the crowd in his physical characteristics.

The only reason I pay a little attention to what John Stewart says is because what he says is inflammatory and creates race, gender, class and age-related, hatred in my (our) society. He needs to be watched, like a rabid dog needs to be watched.

Just for the record: Santa Claus is based on the historical character Saint Nicholas, who was white. Jesus also was white. I do not object to depictions of Jesus by various ethnic and racial groups that depict him as of their own ethnicity or race. Neither do I object to similar depictions of Saint Nicholas. It is a way for a culture or race to absorb the ideals of Jesus or Saint Nicholas and make them their own. However, depicting both as white is not a form of oppression in any way, nor a form of racism.

In 2009 or 2010, the sociology department at my university put on a seminar on the unreality of race. The guest speaker put up a picture of President Obama. "What is his race?" Several people replied Black or African-American. The the speaker put up a picture of the President's mother. "Why isn't he White?"

Race is an ASCRIBED status: other people define your race and you have no choice in the matter. MLK was probably pretty darned white, when you stop to think about it. Interesting point.

What a stupid waste of time. If Coke says Santa is white. He is.

I saw that picture. an Australian friend sent me this yesterday *WARNING* it will blister your ears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ncS2gGk...

Oh. Yes it 's a charged topic. I found it strange MK would even choose this as a controversy. Is it one? I have a coffee table book all about Santa. It was a gift to me and full of interesting trivia. Most important to US culture was simply retailers hijacking the scandanavian st. Nicholas. Purely for advertising and to commercialize the holiday. Americans have always done the marketing thing well. If she wanted to go off on Christmas she should have picked the black Friday fighting at big box stores.