Source: project Muse Author: Katrin Sieg Abstract In the spring of 2012, the use of blackface/blackfacing in German theater, long an unremarked-upon practice, became the object of public protest, and prompted heated debates about the politics of race and representation. Through a discussion of the Deutsches Theater’s production of Unschuld (Innocence) by Dea Loher, which stirred…
On Saturday 20th December New Urban Collective organized the conference ‘Powered by Diversity’, the culmination of NUC Unchained activities organized in 2013 – 2014 including debates, master classes and an exchange to London around the legacy of slavery, institutional racism, discrimination and Black Pete. The Black Pete debate has not only sparked an (inter)national debate…
On Saturday March 14th, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Didier Reynders, paraded through Brussels as a ‘Noiraud’: blackfaced, dressed in a 19th century nobleman’s suit, he and his comrades roamed the streets and restaurants of our capital to raise money for children in need. Undoubtedly well-meant and a yearly Brussels’ philanthropic tradition since 1876, this event…
The European Network of People of African Descent (ENPAD) condemns the police brutality against Black persons in Cova da Moura, Lisbon In the light of the recent and recurring events of police brutality against Black people in European countries, the United States and beyond, Portuguese police have now added to this structural violence. During…
Since the 1800s, every Christmas, Zwarte Piets (Black Petes)—depicted by white Dutch people in blackface—parade through cities and towns throughout the Netherlands. Last week, the European Parliament debated whether the Zwarte Piet tradition promotes racist stereotypes. Mitchell Esajas, chairman of the New Urban Collective, a network of youth from diverse cultural backgrounds, spoke at the…
Our Colonial Hangover analyzes the debate surrounding the racist component of the Dutch Black Pete character. Although the debate always heats up around the time of the Saint Nicholas celebrations every December, it reached an unprecedented level of ferocity in 2013. Black Pete is the black-faced assistant to that generous friend of children Saint Nicholas.…
AFROPHOBIA – a Dutch tradition, ‘Zwarte Piet’, was the background for a seminar at the European Parliaments sessiuiobn in Strasbourg. Our correspondent in Strasbourg, Peter von Kohl (DK), met the host of the seminar, Malin BJÖRK (GUE/NGL, Sweden), and the co-chair, Mitchell Esajas (NL), to discuss the extend of rasicm based on color of skin.
The European Network Against Racism and MEP Malin Björk (GUE/NGL, Sweden) are organising a debate on ‘Afrophobic stereotypes vs tradition: the case of Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands’ on 16 December in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This debate, which will gather Black-led and anti-racist organisations from across Europe and MEPs, will discuss blackfacing and…
For the Netherlands most people think of a liberal drugs and health policy. The Dutch society has a reputation for being open, tolerant and diverse. That the Netherlands has abolished as one of the last European countries the enslavement of peopleand that until 2010, several overseas territories belonged directly to the Netherlands, has not stick…
Representatives of the Initiative of Black People in Germany eV (ISD), Zwarte Piet Niet, Zwarte Piet Kick Out and the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) discussed on Friday, 12 December 2014, the need for the racist caricature ‘Zwarte Piet’ in Nicholas Celebration abolished in Germany. Berlin, 12.13.2014: At the meeting on Friday morning the representatives…