Submitted by Matthew on 3 December, 2014 - 11:21
Ninety demonstrators were arrested in Gouda, in the Netherlands, on 15 November, when they peacefully protested against a “Black Pete” show.
The Netherlands celebrates a Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) day on 5 December, and since the middle of the 19th century the figure dressed up as Santa Claus is often accompanied by another, “Black Pete”, who is “blacked up” to represent a Santa Claus’s servant or slave.
Campaigners have leafleted and protested, saying that “White people painting their faces black and behaving according to colonial stereotypes of ‘niggers’ is condemned and seen as racism almost everywhere”.
They are asking for support from other countries on 5 December.
