Zwarte Piet Ban?

From Yahoo:
"Criticism of Dutch "Black Pete" tradition grows"

Foreigners visiting the Netherlands in winter are often surprised to see that the Dutch version of St. Nicholas' helpers have their faces painted black, wear Afro wigs and have thick red lips — in short, a racist caricature of a black person. The overwhelming majority of Dutch are fiercely devoted to the holiday tradition of "Zwarte Piet" — whose name means "Black Pete" — and insist he's a harmless fictional figure who doesn't represent any race. But a growing number are questioning whether "Zwarte Piet" should be given a makeover or banished from the holiday scene, seeing him as a blight on the nation's image as a bulwark of tolerance. "There is more opposition to Zwarte Piet than you might think," says Jessica Silversmith, director of the regional Anti-Discrimination Bureau for Amsterdam. She said that historically her office received only one or two complaints per year, but the number jumped to more than 100 last year, and will escalate much further this year. "It's not only Antilleans or Surinamers who are complaining," she said, referring to people descended from the former Dutch colonies that once traded in slavery. "It's all kinds of Dutch people." There are various versions of the history of St. Nicholas — "Sinterklaas" in Dutch — and of Zwarte Piet, who made his debut as an African servant in an 1850 book. Despite the growing anti-Pete movement, the tradition finds a strong bedrock of support in mainstream Dutch society, meaning it's unlikely to disappear any time soon. In 2008, a Museum in Eindhoven called off an anti-Pete exhibition after protests. The foreign artists received death threats. And when Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes said on national television in 2009 that Zwarte Piet is the one thing that has ever made her feel ashamed of being Dutch, the studio audience laughed at her.

^ This is just another stupid attempt to make a politically-correct Christmas. Rather than simply enjoying the holiday and its traditions people seem to need to fight for stupid things to make themselves feel better. Zwarte Piet doesn't call on any violence against any race and is only Saint Nicholas' gift-giver helper. I am glad that the majority of regular Dutchmen and women feel a traditional tie to him and are fighting to keep him a part of their holiday celebration. It are the foreigners and a few ultra-Dutch self-proclaimed liberal wannabes who want to turn Christmas and its traditions into a farce. It starts with getting rid of Zwarte Piet and ends with Christmas being cancelled. I like most Christmas traditions and won't let anyone tell me how to celebrate. If you like something and it doesn't call for violence of any kind then I don't see a problem.  ^

http://news.yahoo.com/criticism-dutch-black-pete-tradition-grows-142256651.html