America AJ Ferzo

Hello Dutch friends.

My name is AJ Ferzo, I am from a small time town in Michigan called Corunna. I am an Engineering student at The University of Michigan, and I plan on going into Biomedical Engineering. My hobbies include woodworking , playing video games and listening to hip hop. My favorite video game is Portal 2 and my favorite artist is Kanye West. Also here is picture from Prom my Senior year of High School with my group of friends

I am second from the right, next to the red jacket.

My perspective on Zwarte Piet tradition is under embarrassment that in a modern tolerant country there is the display of white people in black face and absurd red lipstick to portray "helpers" of Saint Nicolas. Despite the tradition behind it, it is blatant racism and is highly offensive. The fact that it is still "for the children" makes it that much worse as racism taught/learned not a genetic trait, so when you portray the "helpers" as stupid, highly stereotypical looking black people, you are innately teaching them that all black people are stupid and that they are all slaves. A solution to this would be to follow one of the ways to tell the story that the helpers are simply dirty from the chimney and to do that you would not fully paint the face but make it look like the blackness came from chimney ash.

Here is an article I found about Zwarte Piet, do you support the attempt to stop Zwarte Piet or to keep the tradition?

My question is what is your perception of America and what type of music do you like?