The debate had been sparked by the chair of a UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a Jamaican professor called Verene Shepherd, who dared to say that if she lived in the Netherlands she ‘would object to’ the ubiquity of Zwarte Piet. Perhaps, she suggested, it was time for the Dutch to lay the tradition to rest. To say that Shepherd’s comments struck a raw nerve would be an understatement. Pro-blackface protests were held in several locations in the Netherlands, accompanied by widespread media coverage criticising the UN’s insensitive meddling. Leading politicians rushed to
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