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ThinkingSapien
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Facebook Hate Speech Policy Now Bans This Racist Christmas Tradition
Anti-racist groups in both the Netherlands and Belgium have long criticized ‘Black Pete’ as a racist and dehumanizing caricature.
In a Tuesday blog post, Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen announced that the platform would be updating its hate speech policy and would be banning all images and videos of blackface, including the traditional Dutch blackface Christmas character “Zwarte Piet.”Portrayed as a sidekick to Sinterklaas (the Benelux version of Santa Claus), Zwarte Piet—literally “Black Pete” in English—is traditionally played by adult white men who wear full blackface, earrings, curly-haired wigs, and exaggerated red lipstick.
The update comes in the context of a larger move by the platform to more actively combat racist and anti-semitic tropes.
Black Pete is no stranger to controversy, and every holiday season the annual return of Sinterklaas is met with mass protests both supporting and opposing the character. While supporters of the Black Pete describe him as a harmless tradition, anti-racist groups in both the Netherlands and Belgium have long criticized Black Pete as a racist and dehumanizing caricature which is reflective of the two nations’ violent colonial legacy.