Quote:
Originally posted by TasteOfYourLips
And do you think that black/asian person dressing as a white person with white features is racist? Keep in mind that we're talking about a country with no history of colonialism/blackface/yellowface.
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But we're not talking about a country without a history of colonialism. In fact, The Netherlands had colonies all over the world, including in North and South America, and played a massive part in transatlantic slave trade (look up the Dutch West India Company). Our entire economy was built upon this.
Even if you look beyond the use blackface itself, which I think is inherently racist but doesn't have the same history here as in certain other places, you can't deny the Zwarte Piet character is questionable at the very least. Just look at his outfit
(which looks something a slave would wear in 17th century Holland) and the way they get to the Netherlands by ship (transatlantic slave trade, anyone?) to fulfill the role of a servant to an old white guy. If you take into consideration the history of The Netherlands I can't see how you could deny certain racist connotations in this tradition. Having (mostly) white people paint themselves black to play this role just adds to the injury.