Black History : Belgian festival draws criticism over blackface 'Savage' character

Clyde C Coger Jr

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:facepalm: a kiss, sumpt'n bout that dont sound right



Belgian festival draws criticism over blackface 'Savage' character

"It is rather a character that the inhabitants of Ath adore... when one get a kiss from 'the Savage', we have good luck all the year ahead," said Lefebvre, who has been mayor of the town of 30,000 people since last year.


By Farah Salhi
Reuters
 
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a kiss, sumpt'n bout that dont sound right



Belgian festival draws criticism over blackface 'Savage' character

"It is rather a character that the inhabitants of Ath adore... when one get a kiss from 'the Savage', we have good luck all the year ahead," said Lefebvre, who has been mayor of the town of 30,000 people since last year.

By Farah Salhi
Reuters
Traditionally it's not unusual in Western-Europe that blacks are 'sexualized' because of the often fuller lips. For example there's a chocolate treat with a soft inside have a name that translates to 'black man's kiss'. I don't condone it, I don't know this folklore but I understand it predates Belgian colonialism, it seems unfitting in a society that is partly black now and quite backward alltogether, but these people are not white Americans and don't have the hate. There's also another festival in this part of Belgium where the people have an annual parade with 'blacks' in what they percieve as traditional Congo outfit. It's quite awkward, but it actually started as a celebration of Congo's independence.

But despite the fact that criticism is just, it's a typical example of American media projecting American history on others and abusing American's ignorance about the rest of the world to get away with nonsense that fits their agenda.
Belgian festival draws criticism over blackface 'Savage' character
It can't be a blackface character because blackface is American and this a traditional Belgium festival. Blackface is an American phenomenon, it doesn't exist in continental Europe. There is no Belgian word for it, not in French, not in Dutch, not in German, Spanish, French, Italian. They paint faces, when there's a nativity scene played for example the three wise men from the East have to be painted to show that they came from far and all three from different places in the world. But there are other occasions too, some are questionable, others is absolutely nothing wrong with.

The controversy over the festival character highlights a wider debate in Belgium about racism and how the country comes to terms with its colonial past.
The wider debate is mainly about muslim immigrants who have nothing to do with Belgium's colonial past, from which quite a large part is a pain in the ***.
There are similar accusations of racism every December as "Black Pete" characters in blackface help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children in Belgium, as well as in the Netherlands.
It's not Santa Claus, it's not Christmas and it's not blackface. Actually the Americans appropriated the Dutch Sinterklaas, changed his name, changed him from a bishop into something Coca Cola and couldn't stand the idea of black men entering houses at night, not even to leave presents.

Many Belgians remain ignorant of the country's harsh colonial rule in central Africa, including what is now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Millions of people perished under a brutal rule that used slave labour to harvest goods including rubber.
That's nonsense. It's always the same, American media claiming colonial history is ignored without ever having been to a Belgian school or follow public discourse.

There's a lot of attention in Belgium for it's colonial past, the problem is that it's only partly really their past. Belgium, traditionally the battlefield of Europe, was kind of created as a buffer state between Britain, France and Germany, and got appointed a German noble family as royal family. A few decades later those same countries divided Africa and Belgium didn't get anything, 'their' king Leopold II got Congo as private property and treated it extremely harsh and cruel. When that regime turned out to be too cruel for even the British, French and Germans, the state of Belgium had to take over in 1908. In an attempt to compensate for Leopold II's cruelty, they tried to make it the model colony with them as the good colonists. This is how they saw themselves, but of course they were greedy and practised the more friendly but condascending racism of the early 20th century.

Nontheless, they did build a lot of schools, hospitals and infrastructure, they indeed did better than other colonizers of Africa. They were also genuinely happy with independence after WWII, in the sense of 'we've prepared them well, they are ready now'. And they probably were, it's leader Patrice Lumumba was very competent and honest. But they messed it up because Lumumba was a lefty, and they helped the CIA getting him killed. Obviously the USA urged/forced the European countries to decolonize, because the USA wanted to be the neocolonial power, not true independence. So yes, they have difficulty dealing with their past, because it's a complicated past, not because there's no effort. They can't attack the royal family, descendants of Leopold II, because together with the national football team it's the only thing keeping the country from falling apart into the French speaking part and the Dutch speaking part, while the Dutch speaking part has a history of beeing exploited by the French part too.

Anyway it's Americans telling Europeans they should stop their folklore because it reminds Americans of American racism. It's also Americans using Europe to tell Americans their racism is not that bad because in Europe it's even worse because they still have blackface. Nonsense, yes there's racism almost everywhere but in America it's exceptionally bad, much, much worse than in Western-Europe. Of course everybody should speak up against racism, and many of these traditions are insensitive at best, but American media should stop making it about themselves and shut up if they have no idea what they're talking about.
 

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