I’m actually not of any extreme opinion (yet) when it comes to the Zwarte Piet issue, but I am extremely triggered when people use the “but it’s a tradition!” phrase as a justification for some point.
Hm… So: is there a set point, that can be calculated, in order to know when some form of conduct is a tradition? When does it start, which changes are okay in order to still keep it being ‘traditional’ and when does a tradition officially end? If everything is in flux all the time, why hold on to anything?
Frankly: humans have been on this 4,5 billion earth way too short to actually have any right to claim a tradition.
Cockroaches, elephant shrews, coelacanths, turtoises and ginkgo trees are way more entitled to do silly things, just because they’ve always done ’em that way.
So stop being clingy, you puny humans.
More Sinterklaas here.