On The Glenn Show, Glenn and John consider the recent controversy over Santa Claus’s race. Why has this debate sparked such strange passion on both sides? They discuss what John identifies as a tendency by some African Americans to be seen as “serious black people.” Glenn counsels that blacks must strive to not let race dominate their lives, and recalls Amartya Sen’s prescription about the non-inevitability of identity. They consider how James Baldwin both exposed and embodied some of these issues. They close with what could be termed the Trayvon Martin counterargument.