Mike Black-America

Howdy y'all! My name is Mike Black and I am 18 years old, I like the rest of my classmates am a freshman (first year student) at the University of Michigan. I am from Long Island, New York (about an hour and a half east of New York City). My interests revolve around athletics. I have played soccer all of my life and was on the academy team for the New York Cosmos, so needless to say soccer is my first love (so feel free to talk soccer to me!). In high school, I also ran cross country and track and raced in High School National Championships for the steeplechase. I have also begun competing in triathlons, probably my favorite of which was the World Triathlon Series Race in Hamburg two summers ago.

When I first learned about the Zwarte Piet tradition, which is a big part of the Dutch holiday tradition, I was taken aback, because to me this is racist, and I think that it is clear by the rest of these posts that most Americans harbor similar feelings. Living in a country with such a deep history of division between blacks and whites, something like this a "zwarte Piet" I think would never be accepted. But, clearly it is just holiday tradition in the Netherlands, which began right around the same time that the Dutch pulled out of the slave trade (middle of the 19th century). To me, and I may be completely wrong, a country like the Netherlands without such a history of strife and oppression of Blacks, as that exists in America, can have such a tradition of blackface, without a huge political backlash (although there is definitely some now). I was happy to find out that in Amsterdam there is a 5-year step-down plan in place to stop the painting of the zwarte Piets black. I hope that doesn't anger anyone too much. I can't wait to hear back from y'all!

In researching the zwarte Piet tradition I found this article http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21588960-debate-holiday-tradition-exposes-racial-attitudes-zwarte-piet-racism

This is my prom date and I

This is my teammates and me after winning the 4x800m relay at the New York State Indoor Track&Field Championships

Also if you get the chance check out this youtube clip (yea thats me number 13 in white, not my best work but its still pretty sick!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeO9-vpcCJ8