Like when Japan had that weird youth culture of wearing brown makeup, again my reaction was “that’s unfortunate 
” because it’s clear their intention wasn’t to imitate or insult black people
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Redlining was one that has hugely affected black families in the US, as banks could legally discriminate against who to give a bank loan to:
Its the individuals really. Not the practice/ tradition itself.
When it comes to the Black Pete discussion I can see both sides of the argument.
Black Pete and Sinterklaas have always been a very beloved tradition and holiday in our country. You can kind of see it as our version of Santa Clause and his elves, who will reward those who are good and punish those who misbehave. The two are very beloved figures in our country and are always seen as kind and giving people. Thus most children and grown-ups who have grown up with these two, don’t tend to perceive Black Pete as a racist thing. In their memory, Black Pete has always been a friendly figure who helped Sinterklaas give gifts to children. Who showed good behaviour all year round.
So even though, though Black Pete has been known as a good person by many and it personality-wise nothing like a stereotypical black man. His appearance still does matches a lot with the stereotypical anti-black people cartoons that were drawn back in the day. When slavery still was still very much a thing in the Netherlands and some other countries as well. The falling down the chimney reasoning wasn’t actually a thing until the years later. So the likely-hood that his face was inspired by such cartoon portrayals is very big.
So some of the black people in the Netherlands feel hurt by the normalization of Black Pete, even though, he has been mostly seen as a positive figure by children and adults alike. For them, it’s just a painful reminder of how black people were treated in the past. It also doesn’t help that Sinterklaas is an old white man getting help from a black servant . Because even though it’s all under friendly circumstances and no slavery has ever been implied between them. Given the fact that this tradition came to be during a time slavery was quite normal in the Netherlands, the context of it can be interpreted very differently.
Some will see it as an innocent holiday for children, where Black Pete is just a character that happens to be black because he’s from Spain. While others will see it as a holiday where blackface is normalized.
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Still. Name them. I might not know about them, cause I lack information in the sources I look into.
Like let’s pretend that we don’t know for sure if there is systematic racism in places like America.
Do you really think that racists would be so open about their racism in a 21st century world where it’s not acceptable anymore?
No. They gotta be more subtle
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The first one is very disrespectful.
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For example, the “Muslim Ban” banned people from countries that had never posed a terrorist threat simply because they were Arab
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That’s not the argument I voiced certainly. It’s not about racists being open or not about their racism. I don’t argue with the fact that there are racists. And when I say racists, I mean people who are biased not only toward black people, but also, asian and white etc. I just wanna know what specific policies are there, that discriminate certain race.
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Nonono. Don’t pull this Muslim ban. It was what? Like 7 countries? That happened to “produce” most terrorists? And how many are there Muslim countries? And let’s admit that being Muslim is not a race
Oh gosh yeah, I remember the protests during the arrival of Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten/ Black Petes. I can see why people wanted to protest it, but did it really have to be at a place where children were? They didn’t even know what black-face was or even grasp what the protesters were mad about. They were just children waiting for their two favourite figures.
I think that if both parties would want to protest about the matter, they shouldn’t have done it there.
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Wow, uhm, exactly how I wanted to say it. You showed basically every side of it so well said!
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I just don’t know that that’s true. The chimney part is a more recent iteration as the traditional character seems to be dressed in moorish clothes… but it seems to be up for debate.
I thought this article was interesting: Black Pete: the scandal we Dutch can’t stay silent about any more | Joost de Vries | The Guardian
Particularly this passage:
“One of the go-to arguments of the pro-Black Pete side is that quarrelling about it ends up spoiling the entire celebration for children. But if this were really about the children, surely the Black Pete supporters would have paid more attention to a report published two years ago by the children’s ombudsman. It clearly states that many children of colour find the Black Pete season very troubling: during those weeks they’re more often confronted with racial slurs, usually by other children who call them Black Pete and poke fun at them.”
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Interestingly the terrorists mainly come from the US itself. But have you ever heard of a Somali terrorist? I’ve heard of Somali pirates, but trump isn’t concerned with them making their way over the ocean on their dinky boats.
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Exactly.
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I guess it would depend on numbers? I dunno how many Somali terrorists performed acts in USA. Do you? It’s not a rhetorical question btw, I’m not being rude xD
It would depend on what u define as terrorist? I don’t think that mass shooters are terrorists.
It’s kinda concerning people always think of Muslims when they hear the word “terrorist”. Especially considering the huge rise in alt-right terrorism
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Also the opinion of the black friends I have who have grown up with the holiday. The opinion seems a bit divided , some don’t mind it because they just see Black Pete as a friendly character made for children. While others just seem to straight up dislike it and wouldn’t want to be associated with it because of the way his appearance is portrayed.
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Also why would the chimney soot make him entirely black? Not only that but opaque black?
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Somalia isn’t a country where many terrorists have made attacks on the US, no. They’re not a threat in terms of direct terrorist insurrection. If it had been the main ISIS countries, that would have been 100% fair enough. But Pakistan is much more prevalent for ISIS at the moment, unfortunately. The difference being that they’re not Arab
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