Political Correctness is a Mental Disease
As a science fiction writer, I am abashed and appalled when real life things happening on Earth sound more, starkly, blitheringly, Lovecraftianesquely insane than anything I can imagine happening on Mars or Mongo, or on Earth after the release of the Brain-Eater bacillus.
You cannot make this stuff up.
A high school teacher has been disciplined after a parent says the man told his black son that Santa Claus is white.
Officials at the school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, about 24 kilometres north of Albuquerque, announced that the teacher recently was disciplined for his comments to the student, but they declined to say how, KOB-TV reported.
The move came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer.
Michael Rougier said his son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, and the teacher asked the boy: “Don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”
Michael Rougier said the teacher’s comments enraged him.
“There’s no room for that in the classroom,” he said. “Whether this teacher felt Christopher may have been wearing this out of context, there’s no room for it. There’s just no room for it.”
The incident happened the same week that Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly said on the air that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white. Her comments drew national attention and prompted a slew of heated comments on blogs and social media sites.
A spokesman for Rio Rancho Public Schools said the Cleveland High School teacher knows he made a “dumb” mistake and has since apologized to the Rougier family.
“This situation involves a teacher recently hired by Cleveland High who made – and admits he made – a stupid mistake. The remark was inappropriate and should not have been made,” said Kim Vesely, Director of Parent, Community, and Staff Engagement for Rio Rancho Public Schools.
Vesely said the teacher had been put on paid administrative leave
Michael Rougier said he still has concerns. “If he has that attitude, how is it affecting students, studies, grading habits, trending toward Caucasian kids?” Rougier said of the teacher.
The teacher still works at Cleveland, but Christopher has been removed from his class, KOB-TV reported.
Not to cause more controversy, but I have it on good authority that Joshua ben Joseph, the Messiah, was Jewish (which only counts as ‘White’ when and if the Thought Police servicing Political Correctness say so. Other times, not). As far as I know, Santa Claus is a make believe character who is described as a right jolly old elf, whom paraanthropoligists have determined is racial memory of the Pictish peoples who migrated from Atlantis, or else members of Homo floresiensis. Scholarly opinion is divided.
Saint Nicholas, the Patron Saint of Mariners, also known as Nicholai of Myra, is a fourth century figure, famous for sneaking gold into the houses of a man who otherwise would have sold his virgin daughters into prostitution, to award them a dowry for marriage. His feast day is December 6th. He is said to have been born at Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor.
St. Nicholas was well known for his piety, and many miracles. and was seized and tortured by police, refusing to recant, and released when Constantine became Emperor.
St. Nicholas also punched out Arius the Heresiarch of the Arians at the Council of Nicaea. My kind of Santa! (An Arian is either one who misdoubts the coequal divinity of Christ, or bronze-age Indians who are also somehow Prussians. I get the two confused.)
Saint Nicholas was so beloved that centuries later the Coca Cola company depicted him in a famous soft drink ad dressed in the red and white which are the official Coke heraldic colors; and Clement Clarke Moore wrote a poem about his feast day eve visit that has since become a classic. Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, wrote a sequel to Moore (what we would now call a fanfic) in the form of a song about one of his flying magical reindeer with a grotesque nasal impediment.
It is a little known fact that one of Moore’s more controversial stanza was suppressed by the racial censor at the time. Erudite scholarship has unearthed it.
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
His eyes-how they slanted! His skin, a dusk yellow!
And racial features the same as any North Polar fellow!
I saw with a start that he was an Eskimo!
(Which only sort of makes sense, you know!)
The REAL Santa Claus (File Photo)
The Censor disapproved the use of the word, Eskimo, and suggest the line should read, “He was an Inuit. Which only makes sense, didn’t it?” But Moore removed the racial description entirely, changing his figure to an Elf.
Scholars affirm that Santa is a Njoldor, descended of Celebrimbor of Hollin (note the similarity to Holly, Santa’s heraldic leaf), who are the craftiest of the Elder Kindred with the making of fair and fine objects, and wise in the ring-lore.
Santa’s Elves at Work
There is mounting evidence, however, that Santa is not an ‘elf’ of any kind, but a member of the Northern Water tribe, whose girlfriend is the moon.
Mrs Claus
Others say Mrs Claus is a redhead. And stacked. The debate continues.
Jessica Claus of the Northern Water Tribe
So far, all agree she wears blue.
They First Meet when she Orders a Coca Cola
But as for the real Saint Nick on whom the legends is based, he is from Asia Minor, making him a Roman, or Romani, from whom the present day gypsies are descended. I am not sure if that counts as ‘White’ or not. Legend says the gypsies stole the Fourth Nail which otherwise would have been used to crucify Christ, and for this little act of mercy, any petty thefts or frauds they commit are forgiven.
Born in Lycia, I believe Lycians count as ‘White’ when and if the Thought Police servicing Political Correctness say so. Other times, not. Since the Mountains of the Caucasus run through Asia Minor, it is safe to say the Lycians are Caucasians technically, albeit they are only ‘White’ if one of them shoots Treyvon Martin. I believe that is the way the Politically Correct Ahnenpass rules now work. Aren’t you glad we live in a country with Ahnenpass rules, dear Americans?
So that is the controversy. What race is Santa? That is the most important thing about what the figure symbolizes. His skin color.
Why does the world, dead in its sins, and damned to the grave and corruption, at this season of year, think on these things, and on these things decide to become ravished with ire?
Wrath comes not from misfortune, but from a feeling that one is deprived of a thing justly owed. What is owed here, and to whom? That Santa Claus should be of one color and not another, or of no color, or of any? That no one should have an opinion on this topic, or, if having an opinion, should keep silent?
I seem to recall strong objections, often repeated, when Aang and Kitara and Sokka in a recent film version of THE LAST AIRBENDER were not the correct race for members of the Water Tribe or the Air Nomads. So, in that case, race did matter very much when a member of one race could play at being a fictional character who may or may not have been another race. But in this case, the shoe is on the other foot, and the teacher, who neither stole, nor cursed, nor spat, nor gave an unfair grade, made a comment no more and no less reasonable than the partisans who slandered and demonized M Night Shaylaman as a racist, has been punished for speaking wrong speech.
Mr Shaylaman has enough troubles trying to live down the memory of THE HAPPENING, which is still causing PTSD flashbacks in reviewers. And he is from India. Or Philadelphia. Or one of those third-world nations. Does not that make him a minority? Or at least Pennsylvania Dutch? I thought minorities by definition could not be racist, since racism is based on the powerful using their privileges to oppress the weak? Ah, but that was last year.
So this has made the news. This madness is the new normal. Soon, soon, everything in the CONDITIONING CHAMBER will begin to seem normal to you, the slanted floors, the curving mirrors, the laughter in your head, everything.
Where is your charity, mad creatures? Where is your dignity, which will allow you to suffer insult in silence, like men?
Why not try to be a little bit more like Saint Nicholas of Myra, whatever his skin color, or whatever yours. You cannot change your skin to match his, but you can ask God to change your heart to match his.
Ho! Ho! HO! Merry Christmas to All!
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
