This year, SantaCon was mercifully quarantined to Midtown, mercifully far away from the parts of New York which maintain a soul. The brigade of drunken frat bros dressed like Christmas-branded characters have been bringing their tasteless shenanigans to New York every December for years now, and has earned a reputation for being aggressively irresponsible. This irresponsibility ranges from brawling in tree pits to vomiting on private property and generally having no respect for locals or businesses.
Filmmaker Jeff Seal ran headlong into last year’s SantaCon antics with the purpose of confronting and interviewing bros on their thoughts regarding the #metoo campaign and racism in America. Not surprisingly, responses ranged from uninformed to racist.
Seal explained to us his motivations for making the video and why he decided to blur only some faces:
So back in 2014, I made this video about SantaCon being held on the same day as the Millions March — a march in protest of the killings of unarmed black people by police officers. When I asked the Santas about Millions March, their feelings ranged from indifferent to hostile, which pissed me off, so I always wanted to go back and provoke as much white fragility as I could.
I thought a lot about whether or not I should blur everyone’s face. Basically, if I had been at a Trump or an alt-right rally I would have definitely NOT blurred their faces. I would have joyfully outed their ass-backwards thinking. But, because I cornered people at a bar while they were drinking and trying to have fun, I just don’t feel comfortable branding them as racist idiots on the internet. If the people in this video want to identify themselves, they’re free to do so!
Also, I feel like making them anonymous further emphasis how this type of thinking is prevalent in lots of Americans and not just a few individuals I happen to have caught on camera, and I like idea of stripping them of their identities and just leaving a pile of stupid thoughts.