Saint Nicolas tries to get Nuclear weapons out of Belgium

[An archist]

... but the holy man is quickly arrested by soldiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkNXQqc6co

[Honggweilo]

hahaha awesome bombspotting action!

[the last donut of the night]

Who are the people in blackface? :confused:

[Tyrlop]

Who are the people in blackface? :confused:

elves

[Pirate Utopian]

Who are the people in blackface? :confused:
Zwarte Pieten or in English "Black Peters".

The clumsy, dumb and lazy but loyal servants of Sinterklaas who come to Holland on a boat to do work for no pay.

Dont be so culturally insensitive.

[Comrade Gwydion]

Nice action, very nice. Sinterklaas should have resisted.... Imagine the horror if people saw soldiers beating up Sinterklaas? It would be crazy!

[Dr Mindbender]

1. WTF is this racist shit?

2. Since when the fuck did belgium have nukes?

[Panda Tse Tung]

1. Those are black petes, kinda like the elves of Santa Clause (which iirc is based on Saint Nicolas).
2. American Nukes.

[Sasha]

^ this.

sinterklaas and zwarte piet is our yearly lets celebrate slavery national minstrell show.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

and yes, belgium has american nukes, and so does the netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkel_Air_Base#Nuclear_weapons

[the last donut of the night]

but blackface? really?

[Pirate Utopian]

Dont insult our culture plz.

[the last donut of the night]

Dont insult our culture plz.

i may be wrong. but its that here in the us, its been generally a bad thing

[Tower of Bebel]

but blackface? really?
Yes. The tradition is at least 400 years old (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus). The black men (black peters) have uniforms resembling Spanish clothing of the 16th century. Old songs about Saint Nicholas reffer to him as someone who comes from Spain.

http://www.fabrics.net/colpics/102/10spain16th.jpg

That's no coincidence since the 16th century saw the integration of the Low Countries into the Spanish empire which had access to the finest materials and foods like mandarines, oranges, pepper, spices, coffee, gold, etc. That's why the tradition claims that Saint Nicholas (whether as Santa or the bisshop) brings gifts to the children. There are also Germanic roots, and the legend existed well before the 16th century, but the expressions (clothing, songs, kinds of gifts) have Spanish roots in the Low Countries.

The black men obviously reffer to (Spanish?) colonialism. But because of their costumes, physical differences with real black men (its obvious that black peters are always white men (or women) with colored faces, red lips and black gloves), and the fact that they are not openly discriminated against, the tradition still lives without much controversy.

[Weezer]

i may be wrong. but its that here in the us, its been generally a bad thing

Aren't you from Brazil?