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the last twenty years or so there is a different battle going on between team “Dutch tradition” and team “kick out zwarte Piet”. Both of these last two teams are obnoxious, and would choose confrontation over dialogue every day of the week. This has resulted in a conflict with no end,

Social conflicts like this are never about solutions but about performance, for the sake of getting attention. Ending the conflict would end the attention.

where it would have been easy to phase out the blackface character with no fuss in a short time.

Hmm, by removing Piet and thus hiding the traditional representation of black people, or by whitewashing him?

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tomi000@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Would this be considered whitewashing though? From my understanding whitewashing is a practice that “hides” diversity, while in this case the goal would be to get rid of the racist background. Also, the goal would be to change the tradition itself, not simply leaving Zwarte Piet as a black man represented by white people, right?

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partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Hmm, by removing Piet and thus hiding the traditional racist representation of black people, or by whitewashing him?

“because he has to climb through Chimneys to deliver gifts for Sinterklaas”. “Has to”?! Is Piet a slave to Sinterklaas? /s /ragebait

Ending the conflict would end the attention.

I recently learned that Mikey Mouse’s classic look was derived from racist Vaudeville blackface dress:

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Disney successfully evolved/hid/whitewashed Mickey away from his racist image roots, and few today would say Mickey is a reference to the racist past.

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