Black Santa and White Jesus

In Minnesota, there’s an online outcry about a black Santa at the Mall of America.  Apparently, some people are so appalled by a black Santa, they took to trolling.

 

All kinds of crazy are happening in this opposition, because Santa--as an imaginary character--can take on any race.  He’s imaginary.  Made up.  Pretend.  Doesn’t a little girl or boy have the right to imagine Santa in whatever color his/her little mind can dream up?!?

But now, Jesus… Jesus is a different story. 

Jesus actually is a color.  Jesus lived at a certain time, in a certain place.  Misrepresenting Jesus’ race is an actual problem.  Jesus was a real, live brown person, yet we make him out to be white all the time.  Where’s the outrage?

When you see a Caucasian nativity scene, how often do you notice it’s wrong or incorrect?  For many years, white Jesus didn’t phase me—I was blind to noticing it.  In fact, in the past, I probably would have noticed a black Jesus though, because I had been socialized to believe that whiteness was the norm.  Dark nativity figures stuck out, even though they were accurate.

Google Image Search of "Nativity Scene"

But this year, I tried to commit to only using brown or black images of the nativity.  And I can tell you, as a pastor who has had to use a ton of nativity pictures this year, it is harder than heck to find non-white figures.  Even though Jesus was actually brown, non-white images barely exist.  (Thanks, Middle Ages and Renaissance.)  I finally had to give in and use “darker white” images for worship.  

I know there’s an argument out there:  “Jesus, as God, can take on any color because he represents us all.  Jesus should be able to be whatever color we need him to be.”

But I think this argument is full of hypocrisy for some people:  There’s outrage if we change Santa’s color to black (he's pretend--did I mention that?), but it’s perfectly ok to change Jesus’ color to white.  What?!

But beyond some of the hypocrisy, even deeper, there are real problems with white Jesus.  Jesus was from an oppressed culture, like many people of color are today.  He spoke prophetically about liberation of "the least of these." Jesus looked, sounded, and acted more like Martin Luther King, Malala Yousafzai, or Nelson Mandela, than any white person.  And when we make Jesus white, it is far too easy to forget that.  We tame him.  In fact, by making him white, we lead ourselves to believe that he is on the side of the power structure, instead of the one who turned the power structure upside down.  By accurately portraying him as a person of color, we are confronted with the reality that the oppressed are who bring liberation.   

This can be an uncomfortable thing to think about: that our salvation is in the life of a brown, middle eastern Jew... that our salvation comes through an oppressed peasant who wandered the country-side and upset those with power, money, influence... that our salvation comes through liberation from oppression and not power.  When we accept this, then the brown Jesus becomes more significant. 

 

The cost of continuing to let  whiteness be the norm doesn’t get at the depth of how salvation came.  Whenever I see a white Nativity scene, I’m going to take notice, remind myself that the brown baby is more accurate, and that Jesus’ brownness calls me into a deeper, more challenging faith.