After a blogger suggested that Santa Claus should be replaced by a penguin so that kids of all races could relate to him, a firestorm erupted. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson was poking fun at the Santa Claus controversy everyone's talking about.
He dressed as Santa and joked, "You heard of secret Santa? I got a secret for you. I am black as hell."
But it all started when Aisha Harris, a blogger on Slate.com suggested that "Santa Claus Should Not Be A White Man Anymore," so that kids of all races could relate to him.
She even made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Santa Claus should be replaced by a penguin.
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly weighed in on her highly-rated show last Wednesday night, and sparked a firestorm when she said, "When I saw this headline I laughed. This is ridiculous. By the way for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white but this person is arguing that we should have a black Santa. Santa is who he is. We are debating this because someone wrote about it, kids.”
Kelly was labeled a racist and mocked by the late night comics.
Stephen Colbert joked, "A black Santa is a terrible idea. If a homeowner in Florida see's a black man coming down their chimney, he is going to get shot."
The following night, Kelly called in sick, but on Friday, she responded to the criticism and insisted she was just joking, saying, “An off-hand jest I made in a segment about whether Santa should be replaced by a penguin has now become a national firestorm, says two things, race is still a volatile issue, and Fox News and yours truly, are big targets.”
Appearing on the Today show, Aisha Harris is not buying it. She said, "I didn't feel like she was joking or kidding. It felt like, honestly, like she was angry that I suggested that he couldn't be white."
Jenny McCarthy said on The View, "I don't think kids care. As long as he brings presents and as long as he is a jolly man."
