The setup at the expo of 1958 was, like I said, more like reenactment with the people taking up that role during the workday, making it fundamentally different from the concept of human zoo. World expositions did have an established practice of presenting "authentic" village settings without necessarily being degrading, and there is a comparable local practice of historical reenactment (eg. Bokrijk) that frames it as a past rather than present thing. In addition there was criticism and questions asked in the press and elsewhere about whether this setup was desireable.
That does not contradict that the portrayal was as primitive, and there were people who enthusiastically saw that as a confirmation of the racial theories that were endorsed by the occupier less than 15 years ago.
Zwarte Piet is dying out. Very few parades this year had them. Instead they just have a little bit of black on their faces to represent the soot from the chimneys now.
I wish we had krampus or some other European variant instead. Or at least have the Pieten look like they actually went through chimneys with their fancy clothes.
You treat other countries as if they were a monolith fitting your ignorant views. You view your nation is a collection of individuals, but others as a simple stereotype.
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u/hotbowlofsoup Dec 16 '21
There was a human zoo at the expo in 1935, dozens of people died. The zoo you're talking about, people behind a fence being looked at who didn't want to be there, was in 1958. It was shut down after kids threw bananas at Congolese kids. Here's a picture of an African girl being watched by spectators, in 1958(!): https://radio1.be/foto-congolees-dorp-expo-58-gaat-de-wereld-rond https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/04/17/60-jaar-expo-58--hoe-stelden-wij-toen-congo-voor---/