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…
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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.…
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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…
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