• 04/08/2022
• By binternet
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Santa Claus, a figure in search of diversity?Receive the last hour alerts of the duty<

Breaking codes, black people no longer hesitate to put on the famous Santa Claus costume everywhere in the United States.However, it took controversy to launch the ball and publicize their absence.This advance also materializes in Canada, but is slow to see the light of day in Quebec.

In December 2016, the Mall of America, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, hiring Larry Jefferson as Santa Claus.Its performance in the second largest shopping center in the country is flawless and attracts media attention.But on the web, negative comments follow one another.The problem, according to these Internet users?Jefferson is black.

The former soldier did not put his boots and his red coat, far from there."These gossip of a handful of people had nothing to do with the immense dose of love I received," says the one who continues to brighten up his "Ho!Ho!Ho!»Young and old across the United States.He even saw his contracts double since this episode.

If he notes that more and more African-Americans put on the famous costume during the holidays, M.Jefferson insists: "Everyone can make Santa Claus, regardless of their skin color".This figure, he says, must be representative of the entire population.

"It's important to see more black Christmas fathers.This is a great opportunity for children to see that positive images do not only concern whites, "adds Vivian Walker, an African-American mother living in Cleveland in Ohio.While the controversy was raging on M.Jefferson, she launched a Facebook group (Black Santa Directory) to list events featuring racialized Christmas Fathers in the United States as elsewhere.

The idea came to him from his personal experience: to offer his children a Santa "in their image" was a whole challenge."I have long drove up to Detroit, almost three hours away from my home, to go see a black Santa Claus," she said.Today, Vivian Walker joins 1,700 people on the social network, and can also count on the help of Jihan Woods.

This mother of twins established in Texas also wanted to present a Santa Claus "representative" and "inclusive" to her children.So she launched an application called Find Black Santa last year."I told myself that I was not the only one in this situation," she explains.

In mid-December, the tool had been downloaded more than 7000 times.If he especially lists the events where a racialized Santa Claus is in the spotlight in the United States, some activities outside the country-especially in Canada-are listed there.

In the country

Initiatives to diversify the image of Santa Claus have indeed emerged in Canada in recent years.Last week, an Edmonton studio organized a photo session with a black Santa Claus, on the initiative of the Zimbabwean cultural center of Alberta.And in Toronto, for the second year in a row, Allister Thomas, a graphic designer by profession, put on the costume of the chief of the North Pole in an East York shop.

But in Quebec, the chances are thinner to cross a Santa Claus from diversity, notes Victor Gaudreault, director of the Agency of Fathers Noël Professionals of Quebec.It is that he has never seen candidates of color apply, any more than a client formulate such request.On the other hand, he claims to have already hired black people to play a elf."We have less an idea in advance on these characters while the image we have of Santa Claus, it is the traditional image of the old white man with his beard".

Same story in the Val-David Santa Claus village in the Laurentians."It's a bit early to ask such a question," reacts to the phone Claude Rousseau, director of communications for the park.He has never received requests in this sense of visitors.

But it is not closed to the idea, he assures, although he anticipates negative reactions."I wouldn't say yes right away.But as soon as I have someone who loves children and who looks credible, it is not the color of his skin that will play.It is more his intelligence, his ability to create a link quickly with the child ".

Crystallized figure?

The representation that we have today of Santa Claus has moved very little since its appearance in the 19th century.Before his arrival in Quebec (around 1900), the character established himself with our southern neighbors with Dutch immigration.Sinter Klaas - Later became Santa Claus - would be inspired by Saint Nicolas, a generous bishop with a white beard probably born 1,600 years ago in Asia Minor (today Turkey).

"New stories have enriched the scenario, but it remains the same," observes Karin Ueltschi, author of Santa's truthful history, published in 2012.In reality, current Santa Claus is a mixture of myths and legends going up to Antiquity, she explains.

Take his habit: red and white come from the costume carried by Roman priests.Boots ?In the Middle Ages, they allowed beliefs to move from the world of the living to that of the dead.Moreover, this "exchange" between two worlds is "deeply" anchored in the imagination of Santa Claus, adds the one who is also a professor of medieval literature at the University of Reims.

Around 1860, New York illustrator and caricaturist Thomas Nast layer on paper The "modern" representation of Santa Claus.In the pages of the Harper’s illustrated Weekly, he dresses with a red costume lined with white fur the old man with a little rustic.Santa Claus already has his large black belts and thick boots, but rather than wearing a hat, he is wearing a crown.La Tuque à Pompon will be the idea of Coca-Cola, who will take up the character in his advertisements in 1931.

The figure spreads through American metropolises, and inevitably ends up landing in that of Canada, Montreal.That said, if Santa Claus is now a must of the holidays, we owe it mainly to the department stores that flourish at the same time.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the temples of consumption that push on the Sainte-Catherine used Santa Claus as an advertising mascot to attract customers, explains Jean-Philippe Warren, sociologist and author of the Hourra test for Santa Claus!, published in 2006.The Eastern Francophone competition will not take long to adopt in turn the sympathetic guy, who will be renamed Santa Claus.

This figure, moreover, will not have a wrinkle during the following century." It's the same thing !exclaims m.Warren at the end of the.What has changed is the power of the commercial event that has become Christmas.The roller compressor over a hundred years has been so phenomenal that it is almost completely triumphed around the world.»»

Et ce qui est « remarquable»», ajoute le professeur à l’Université Concordia, c’est que dès 1900 « tout le caractère sacré de Noël était déjà en place»», avec en toile de fond l’idée de la générosité chrétienne reprise à des fins mercantiles : « le sapin, les guirlandes, la musique, la publicité… le père Noël»», énumère-t-il.

According to him, the chief of the North Pole, who is now an almost everywhere on the globe, is there to stay, no matter his skin color."Whether it's a black, a Caucasian, an Asian, we don't care. L’important, c’est que ce soit lui qui apporte les cadeaux»», mentionne M. Warren, ajoutant qu’il doit aussi rester ce « vieillard joyeux, bedonnant et festif»».

And why that ?To keep the magic, the gifts must fall from the sky, he replies."So Santa Claus needs to pass for someone for whom everything is easy.This is the last person you can imagine producing billions of gifts and working in a factory.After that, her sex or her skin color, it doesn't matter.»»

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