Hint: look at the third baby from the left and the second in from the right.
I know, I know lots of people have debated this tradition here. And plenty of people claim that there's nothing at all racist about putting babies in blackface. But honestly? It is about race and it's not right.
4 comments:
You are correct. Not only is it not right, but it just doesn't make sense.
I honestly don't get it- seriously- what does this do for their advertising? Does it even make any connection at all? It really makes no sense at all!
But it's not black-face, at least not the way you think. That area of Europe has a tradition of Santa's (Sinterklaas) helper being a little coal-covered imp. I really don't think anyone in Lala-land is doing it because they associate coal-covered imps with black people. I can't answer for how the tradition started, or how revoltingly derisory towards black people it was 100 years ago, but NOW, Black Pete is a coal-covered imp who gets coal-covered because he is taking presents down chimneys, and I really don't think the Lala-Landers are doing this because they think black-face is funny or acceptable. However the tradition started, and it is HUNDREDS of years old, you can't ask them to stop it just like that, and they have made huge efforts to make it cute and acceptable rather than faintly racist and distressing to all right-minded people.
We could also argue that dressing up as witches for Halloween, especially as 'sexy' witches or ugly warty witches, is disrespectful and dismissive of all the hundreds of women who were tortured and killed across medieval Europe and in 17th century USA. But we don't. Because we know the kids and their parents really, really aren't doing it to be disrespectful and dismissive.
[Disclaimer - I am mixed race myself, and have family members who would also be made very personally uneasy by that poster. Heck, it made me uneasy. I think Lala-land and other areas of Europe could do with a little more up-dating on acceptable attitudes. But I do honestly think the people who made nad showed the poster where only remembering their local tradition of Sinterklaas and his little helper, and being cute].
I hate this about the people in the land where you currently are (I almost said it, but I didn't. Aren't you proud that I managed to hold my tongue???). They are just so blase about blatant racism under the guise of tradition. Knowing their role in the proliferation of slavery world-wide, I'm appalled that the blackface is still acceptable, at all, even in the name of history.
If I throw a pile of shit at someone, but call it "fertilizer" in the name of tradition (he's not a "slave"! He's a helper, who got a little coal on his face!!!), is that okay? I don't think so. I'm sorry, but my husband, born and raised in the land of Schwartz Pete knows that claiming it's "coal face" is just a bunch of revisionist bullshit intended to assuage the rest of the world's offense at this practice. I don't care what the Lala-landers call it now-- I've been there, and I know that as a country, they're very pleased with themselves and their history, and couldn't care less that browning up a child's face is so. totally. offensive. And if we just stand idly by and let people be offensive, just because they've *always* been offensive, where would we be as humanity? If I see someone getting beaten in the street, do I just let them do it because it's been happening for HUNDREDS of years??? I hope not.
Grr. While I loved visiting that country, and I loved staying in that region for so long, that's one of the factors that makes me hesitant to want to live there full-time. It's one of the things that makes my husband deny his half-Lalalander status, and confirm instead that he is fully next-door-to-lalalander instead (the other thing being how complicated it is to explain the way borders work on that continent, that borderlanders tend to be blurred up versions of both countries...).
Anyhow, just posting to say, HEAR, HEAR!
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