Saint Nick Meets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I finally got around to taking down my Christmas decorations today. I have to admit, this year I was quite the minimalist; I only hung up a wreath and my Christmas cards, so needless to say the “take-down” took all of five minutes.

I like to read my Christmas cards as I take them down and remind myself of who sent them and how nice it was of the person to think of me during the holiday season in the first place. (And yes, there’s always that twinge of guilt for the person who sent me a card and I forgot to reciprocate—oops, maybe next year, well, that’s what I keep telling myself anyway.)

So I’m flipping through my Christmas cards and there he was: A Black Santa.

Yup, a black jolly old Saint Nick smiling up at me and wishing me a “Very Merry Christmas!”

I stopped and shook my head. Why hadn’t I noticed that I had a black Santa hanging up in my living room for the past month?

I was trying to think back to when I opened the card. Did I, in fact, notice that the traditional image of Santa got … umm… much, much … darker?

I usually have a lot of people over and I know many of them read my Christmas cards. Did they notice? No one said anything to me about the black Santa hanging up in my living room.

Then I thought to myself: Is that a good … or a bad thing?

If I didn’t notice, does that make me a racist? Or am I just color blind?

It’s a hard question to answer. All I know is that “life” or the “universe” (or whatever you want to call it) has a not-so-subtle way of making you take a moment to stop and reflect. Maybe it’s not so ironic that I stopped to stare at my little black Santa on this Martin Luther King Day and be forced to reflect on my own racial awareness.

Today, let’s all take a moment to remember how far this country has come in the historic fight for racial equality and acknowledge all the work that still needs to be done.

I also want to thank the couple who sent me my little black Saint Nick...I’m going to keep him up all year long!