Stops Along The Way

On this long road through the rocky, sometimes scary, and mostly funny thing we call life, we often find ourselves stopping to smell the fresh air, try something we've never had, break rules we didn't know existed, and redraw our map completely. These are the pit stops on my journey through life, snap shots of the adventure, video of the roller coaster ride, and writings of tales untold.
November 22
ryannicolecollins: Around this time of year, we have something that makes me ashamed to be from the Netherlands: Zwarte Piet. Blackface as a fucking cultural institution. Zwarte Piet/Black Peter is the helper/slave of Saint Nicholas, a wealthy old white man. Zwarte Piet is usually played by white men or women in blackface, with curly black wigs, bright red lips and golden earrings. They usually display silly, clownish behavior. And people over here actually think it’s okay.We were all raised with the Saint Nick’s holiday, but if you are of age and have even half a brain you should see how wrong this is. It perpetuates a harmful stereotype.And there’s so much outrage if even the tiniest opinion is formed about getting rid of Zwarte Piet: IT’S A TRADITION IT’S CULTURAL YOU CAN’T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM US! Yes, because it is OUR SACRED RIGHT as white people to laugh at harmful stereotypes and dress up in blackface.Black people have no right to get offended by this, because, hey, it’s only their skin color! It’s only them being vilified and made ridiculous! Not as if that isn’t happening all the time!Because us Dutchies could not possibly enjoy Sinterklaas if it didn’t have people dressing up in blackface and Magical Negro images everywhere. We can’t have a party without it! That would be ludicrous! So let’s just keep insulting black people for our own amusement! I can’t believe I never saw how awful and harmful this was. (for the Dutchies: there is now a Zwarte Piet is racisme Tumblr. I’m thinking about getting/making a t-shirt) -_-

ryannicolecollins:

Around this time of year, we have something that makes me ashamed to be from the Netherlands: Zwarte Piet. Blackface as a fucking cultural institution.

Zwarte Piet/Black Peter is the helper/slave of Saint Nicholas, a wealthy old white man. Zwarte Piet is usually played by white men or women in blackface, with curly black wigs, bright red lips and golden earrings. They usually display silly, clownish behavior.

And people over here actually think it’s okay.
We were all raised with the Saint Nick’s holiday, but if you are of age and have even half a brain you should see how wrong this is. It perpetuates a harmful stereotype.
And there’s so much outrage if even the tiniest opinion is formed about getting rid of Zwarte Piet: IT’S A TRADITION IT’S CULTURAL YOU CAN’T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM US!

Yes, because it is OUR SACRED RIGHT as white people to laugh at harmful stereotypes and dress up in blackface.
Black people have no right to get offended by this, because, hey, it’s only their skin color! It’s only them being vilified and made ridiculous! Not as if that isn’t happening all the time!
Because us Dutchies could not possibly enjoy Sinterklaas if it didn’t have people dressing up in blackface and Magical Negro images everywhere. We can’t have a party without it! That would be ludicrous! So let’s just keep insulting black people for our own amusement!

I can’t believe I never saw how awful and harmful this was.

(for the Dutchies: there is now a Zwarte Piet is racisme Tumblr. I’m thinking about getting/making a t-shirt)

-_-

(Source: lunaste)