my perception: black people used to be oppressed, black people see white people wearing black paint as costumes as being tribal because it may have been 100 yrs ago. imo is something outdated and stupid to be angry about
We're actually talking European history here, and the Zwarte Piet tradition actually ridicules North African Moors, who weren't enslaved by Europeans, but have a long history of being demonised in European art and literature on account of the medieval invasions of Spain by the Moors from North Africa.
There's no doubt a connection/parallel to the racism surrounding the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the fact that a blackface tradition centered around North Africans began at the same time as blackface regarding Western Africans/African Americans isn't just mere coincidence.
But the fact that it focusses on Moors makes it part of a divide/animosty between races and religions that is several hundred years older than the Atlantic Slave Trade.
