The Devil as a Black Man

I've already done a post about the portrayal of Satan in History Channel's new series The Bible, though I mostly concentrated on the man's resemblance to President Obama. For those of you who don't remember, here's the picture.

The History Channel apologized for any resemblance the man has to the President, and the creators of the show expressed their admiration and respect for the President.

But this leaves a bigger question, why is the devil dark-skinned in the first place? Most of the other characters on the show, including Jesus, look to be of Northern European descent, and this image of light-skinned goodness and dark-skinned badness seems prevalent in many traditions.

As a Huffington Post article elaborated, this image of a dark-skinned bogeyman dates back to the Puritans, who tended to perceive any racial differences as rooted in evil, and extends to the white supremacist views in the 1800's that painted the devil black.

Interestingly, the Bible itself does not spend much time on Satan's appearance, nor does it elaborate on Jesus's skin color. The exploitation of religion to justify various racial and cultural prejudices is well exemplified in this case.