It's Christmas time, and here in America, we're setting up our Christmas Trees and laying out milk and cookies for Santa Claus, in preparation for his trip down our chimneys on Christmas Eve.

But in The Netherlands, the Christmas season sees the welcoming of Sinterklaas, and his helper, Zwarte Piet. Zwarte Piet is typically seen accompanying Saint Nick, handing out candy to children.

Oh yeah, and he's typically portrayed by a white person, in astonishing blackface.

National Geographic says that in recent years, Dutch citizens have been pushing back;

Thanks to the work of activists like Quinsy Gario, who started the project Zwarte Piet is Racisme (“Black Pete is racism”), some cities and schools have begun phasing blackface out of their celebrations. So far this has involved changing Pete’s image rather than getting rid of him completely, a “solution” that Gario doesn’t necessarily think is adequate.

On the 95.3 WBCK Morning Show on Thursday, December 14, Tim Collins and Nico Berrios will be joined by Sherii Sherban to discuss Christmas traditions from around the world, and take your phone calls.

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