For crying out loud! Did someone really make a decision to do something this absurd?

Students at St. Stephen Elementary School found out last week that Santa Claus can have the same skin color as them.

That's because two Santa Clauses — one white, one black — were invited to the rural Berkeley County school at separate times last Friday to take pictures with students of the same skin color.

Principal Willa Norton's decision to invite two Santas has drawn criticism from a few parents and from two civil rights organizations, which said the school shouldn't have divided the students by race without asking parents first.

Marguerite Lyons, who found out about the two Santas while picking up her son outside the school Thursday, said dividing the children by race smacked of prejudice. All the children should have seen one Santa, she said.

"I don't care if (Santa) was Chinese or Puerto Rican," said Lyons, who is black. "Everyone's the same."

For the record, I agree with Lyons, who seems to have adopted the philosophy of racial equality much more fully than the principal or the civil rights organizations, which were willing to concede the propriety of such racial separatism “if the parents wanted it.” There should have been only one Santa, with no racial division – and had she brought a black Santa into her school that is ¾ black, I can’t imagine having anyone object (or caring if anyone did). After all, I was not troubled when, during my two years on Guam as a kid, we had a Santa who looked just like the Pacific Islanders who made up the bulk of the non-military population there.

Now mind you, Norton was trying to do a good thing here, and I won’t attack her goal. But the execution is really problematic – and even she and her district indicate there will be a different procedure in place next year. So Merry Christmas to them all.

Posted by: Greg at 01:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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