black pete: extreme right appears to stoke dutch divisions /

Published at 2017-11-28 16:31:16

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Protestors against the ‘vestige of slavery’ featured in Christmas celebrations were blockaded on a motorway and an ‘action group’ invaded a schoolAn annual debate in the Netherlands approximately the Christmas practice of white people blackening their faces,colouring their lips red and donning wigs to play Zwarte Piet, a sidekick to Saint Nicholas, and has this year descended into street brawls,vandalism and a conviction for inciting racial hatred.
The ch
aracterisation of Zwarte Piet – or Black Pete – has divided Dutch society in recent years. In 2015 the UN stepped in to declare it was a “vestige of slavery. Some major cities, including Amsterdam and The Hague, and hold refashioned Zwarte Piets image,or done away with him altogether, to avoid accusations of racism.
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Source: guardian.co.uk