Here’s a roundup of the latest links around the topic I’ve been covering all week:
- UN requests The Netherlands to stop harassing and intimidating Human Rights experts researching the topic of Black Pete/ Zwarte Piet
While there may be vigorous debate on issues raised by independent experts, these individuals should not be subject to hate speech or attacks on their personal integrity or any form of harassment or intimidation in their defence of human rights, as has happened in this case.
- Here, Rita Izsák, UN Independent Expert on minority issues, explains the harassment and intimidation that the members of the working group are being subjected to.
- Those who can read Dutch (or who have infinite patience to type text into Google translate), should check the “Nederland Spreekt” Tumblr (The Netherlands is speaking), which collects reactions around the internet from people who vehemently defend the character of Zwarte Piet. Massive trigger warning, though, as the reactions range from calls to lynching anyone who opposes the character to demands of deportation for all People of Color in The Netherlands. I must say I have seen plenty of racist language in my life (more than anyone should have to, really), but the painstaking archival repository that has been created by this blog exceeds anything I have seen before (both in accumulation of hate speech and rhetoric).
- Martijn de Koning has written a great piece about the commodification of dissent in The Netherlands. He expands on the research I posted yesterday about the marketing agency behind the Zwarte Piet petition and adds new data regarding the commercial value, plus, he has some in depth analysis on the meaning of this appropriation from a political standpoint.
- And, in case you missed it, this week I wrote about “ungrievable lives” and “ungrievable racism” and the emotions centered around the Zwarte Piet uproar.
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