I used to love getting puzzle books every Christmas as stocking stuffers.
But this year, a fun family round of “Where’s Waldo” is a game we all can play without even opening the gifts themselves thanks to Hallmark’s unwittingly racist oversight. (Hint: Metaphorical Waldo has a rectangular mustache and a bad sidecomb.) And since they put it on a line of designed blue and silver gift wrap, it’ll be extra fun. In between setting out cookies and wassailing (what is wassailing anyway? It sounds messy), we can all sit around with hot chocolate and see who can spot the swastika first.
Here, you try!
Ah, you probably beat me.
And so did this one Californian lady. She was just enjoying a nice leisurely browsing sesh on Sunday in her local Walgreens when she saw the familiar hate symbol strewn across the Hannukah display. After telling the salesfolk that their choice of decorations was about as appropriate as burning crosses and donning white robes at a million man march, they agreed it might be best to go ahead and take it down. And get rid of it. And hopefully erase it from everyone’s memory forever.
By saying “Oh, it wasn’t for the Jews anyway”:
“The disputed wrap was featured in a Hanukkah display but Hallmark spokeswoman Julie Elliott says the gift wrap wasn’t intended for the Jewish holiday.”
Yeah, man! It’s not for you guys. Why can’t the rest of us enjoy the nice gas chamber gift wrap if we like? *facepalm* Her later news release comment was “it wasn’t intended to offend anyone”. Ah. That’s better. But, ya know, I’d be lying if I said something about her initial statement didn’t appeal to me. Not because I’m a horrible person – but because of what symbols mean to us when we let them. Yes, part of me wants to say they should have passed this holiday paper through a few more levels of design proofreading by the higher ups. But another part of me just keeps thinking, “Are we ever going to be able to re-reclaim this symbol to mean the nice thing it originally did?”
I mean, maybe not right now while the remaining survivors of the hell-on-earth horror that was the holocaust are still alive to remember that nightmare on a daily basis. But, eventually, can it go back to meaning the positive, hopeful, thing it did to the spiritual culture that created it? Why should the sadistic bastards of the past get to have it forever so that when it inadvertently (it was inadvertent, yes? Hopefully?) finds its way into a holiday design, people don’t have to feel personally offended?
Let’s give a gift to ourselves this year.
Let’s slowly redefine this thing that looks like half a squashed spider.
No gift wrap necessary.