Dutch holiday trickster, Zwarte Piet, helps reignite culture war over racial symbolism | National Post

A good balanced discussion of cultural traditions and contemporary values, and just how difficult it is for people to be aware of how some of these, like Zwarte Piet, do embed historical racism, and thus will be challenged:

“A tradition like Black Pete comes from a time when whites didn’t need to consider what non-whites thought of it, partly because the racial balance of power was more uneven and partly because the mass media didn’t carry its images as readily or vividly from contexts where they were ‘comfortable’ to ones where they were not. So now people can try to do what seems like the same thing, but it brings forth a different response.”

Dutch holiday trickster, Zwarte Piet, helps reignite culture war over racial symbolism | National Post.