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• zout@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The stupid thing is, there were already talks about moving away from the blackface. Of course the people at the television stations (who could make this happen) took their time, which caused the people of "kick out zwarte Piet' to make a stir. So far nothing wrong, but they did this at the televized arrival of Sinterklaas, so now they had crying children on tv. This caused the "all brown people back to Morocco" crowd to scream outrage, and suddenly we are at the current stage with two very vocal groups screaming at each other.

  My kids were still in the believing age when this started, and I never had a problem explaining the issues and the changes to them (Piet used to come through the chimney, when this wasn't possible anymore he painted his face black to look the same, but now he realized this looks like blackface). The right wing voters had problems explaining, because they didn't want to, and now they see it as a defeat by the "others". Throw in some politicians who can only fare well if there's disorder, and suddenly it takes over twenty years to phase out something that should have been gone a long time ago.

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  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    These culture war things are so stupid. Should be simple. Do we consider ourselves a racist country? If the answer is no, then if we are carrying out a super racist tradition we should take the super easy steps it takes to make it not racist. And it should be easy and not fucking matter, but instead we have politicians and protesters putting all this time and effort into fighting some imagined cultural battle that at the end of the day is wholly inconsequential to the quality of life of every day citizens. It’s infuriating.

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    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Personally I think that every mistake is a teaching opportunity. In this context, rather than try to sweep the racism under the rug of history as quickly and quietly as possible, I think changes should be made but in a way that invites people (especially children) to ask questions about the background of the traditions and why those representations of persons of color are problematic and should be changed. Without this it just looks like an attempt to cover up and deny the existence of the past firms of discrimination, which especially does a disservice to people experiencing present forms of discrimination.

      And also, maybe, dealing with these things should not be fast or easy.

      Nothing about this is imaginary, because in some ways these problems haven’t changed much. There is value in spending time on it in the present.

      All of that said, I am a white guy from North America, not a POC from the Netherlands, so my input is just an opinion.

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