Every year around Christmas, Belgium and the Netherlands enter a discussion about the controversial tradition of Zwarte Piet. The "celebration" involves adults and children painting themselves black, ...

It’s not only in America that the nationalist, populist debate is raging onward — as exemplified in this year’s U.S. presidential elections. There’s plenty of a similar nature going on in the rest of ...

A Dutch man appears as Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, in a parade on December 3, 2016. (Reuters / Yves Herman) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional ...

In an update to its community standards, Facebook just announced it will no longer allow depictions of Zwarte Piet (or Black Pete) on Facebook and Instagram. This racialized character is part of a ...

HOLLAND, MI – The Holland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau touts an annual Sinterklaas Eve Procession as a "Dutch folk tradition." But it's not exactly that. While the custom in The Netherlands to ...

Young children are more likely to identify Zwarte Piet with a clown than a person of African descent, according to preliminary research carried out by Leiden University. Children’s image of Zwarte ...

As Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands, kicking off the start of the festive season, the organisation Kick Out Zwarte Piet is marking 10 years of campaigning against racism. Jerry Afriyie, one of ...

While many Europeans will wait until the end of December for their Christmas celebrations, the Dutch have already got going. This evening (5 December) signifies the Sinterklaas evening with the ...

THE Dutch festival of Sinterklaas on December 5th, the country’s most important children’s holiday, is turning into an annual slugfest of racial politics. The problem is the figure of Zwarte Piet, an ...

EVERY year on December 5th and 6th, tens of thousands of Dutch people paint their faces black, don Renaissance-style jerkins and pantaloons, and assume the persona of Zwarte Piet ("Black Pete"). The ...

When my son was 5, I took him to see the World Press Photo exhibit. I’d taken him every year since he was a baby, but that year — 2015 — he was noticeably more cognizant of what he was seeing and had ...