America: Mylaica Conner

Hallo!

Hoi, ik ben Mylaica! Mijn achternaam is Conner. Ik kom uit een klein stad in  Michigan en nu woon in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ik ben 20 jaar. Ik ben derde jaar student aan de Universiteit van Michigan, Ik studeren Biopsychology, Cognition en Neuroscience. Ik houd van te glimlachen! (: 

Ik ben Zwarte Amerikaanse, so the whole tradition of Zwarte Piet does not sit well with me. Even I were not black I don't think I'd agree with it, and being black I would not mimic white people or any other race and/or culture. I was planning to study abroad in the Netherlands this spring and I was really excited, but learning about Zwarte Piet really made me second-guess things. I look at the Netherlands as progressive and I find the celebration racist. Racism is basically prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed towards someone of a different race because they believe that their race is superior.  I feel that mimicking and stereotyping Africans as "jolly slaves" when slavery was nothing close to jolly. They are following and working for a white man, or St. Nicolas. What bothers me most is the black facing, the act of painting non-black people black and giving them what appears to be African/black features. That is not a thing that we do in America and if it is done it's done by people who are in most cases racist or behind closed doors. I realized that some people don't look at it as wrong and find it funny, fun and entertaining which could just be ignorance and not being aware. We learned about some of the justifications for the black facing and it really stuck out to me. "They got that color from going down the chimney" that'd be fine if they were not completely black and didn't have African features. I feel like once people begin justifying why something looked at as wrong is the way it is, is the moment it is no longer not being aware. If someone wasn't aware they would not have to justify it, they'd be oblivious to seeing anything wrong, hence it is not ignorance to me. I understand tradition and I understand that people want to hold on to something but many traditions that are let go are let go for a reason. Learning about the celebration made one of my goals to be to someday travel to the Netherlands during the celebration of St. Nicolas. I would love to be immersed into the tradition to get a better understanding, though I probably wouldn't be completely comfortable as a black person walking around the Netherlands not agreeing with "tradition" but it would be intriguing. I do not have a way to offer change because I am not from the Netherlands and I do not know how breaking tradition and changing things work. I do hope that people soon realize that it is not right no matter how it is put and elicit change. I still would love to study abroad in the Netherlands in the near future, as well as gather a better understanding of the way people think and behave. Exploring different cultures has always interested me and I look forward to exploring the Dutch culture, even while not agreeing with the racist celebration of St. Nicolas.

 De man achter mij in de afbeelding is niet zwarte in gezicht, Ik studeerde in China.