Current Affairs
During recent years the role of Zwarte Pieten has become part of a recurring debate in the Netherlands. Controversial practices include holiday revellers blackening their faces and wearing afro wigs, gold jewelry and bright red lipstick, and walking the streets throwing candy to passers-by.
Foreign tourists, particularly those from the United States and Britain, often experience culture shock when encountering the character, as dressing in blackface is considered offensive in these and other countries. Since the 1990s, there have been several attempts to introduce a new kind of Zwarte Piet to the Dutch public, among them replacing traditional black makeup with various other shades of colors. As an experiment in 2006, the NPS (en: Dutch Programme Foundation) replaced the black Pieten with rainbow-colored Pieten but reverted the characters back to the traditional all-black makeup a year later.
The tradition continues to be popular in the Netherlands but some activists have protested against it. Four people wearing t-shirts with the words "Zwarte Piet is Racist" were arrested during the second weekend of November 2011.
The largest Sinterklaas celebration in Western Canada, slated for December 3rd, 2011 in New Westminster, British Columbia, was cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1985 following a debate over the inclusion of Zwarte Piet. Rather than remove the character, the organizers cancelled the festivities entirely because, as spokesperson Tako Slump of the organization said:
"We got a lot of replies back from our customers in the Dutch community. It became pretty clear to us that we love Sinterklaas and we can't have it without Black Peter. Those two go together."
In 2011, legislators in the former Dutch colony of Suriname stated that government-sanctioned celebrations involving Zwarte Piet were considered an insult to the "black part of Suriname's community." Efforts have begun in the Republic to prevent future governmental promotions of the character.
Read more about this topic: Zwarte Piet
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