Karen Attiah: How a group of Dutch editors decided to publish an attempt to examine race and racism in the United States, using the English n-word and blackface in a major newspaper is beyond comprehension at the least, and rage-inducing at worst. Indeed, the Twitter reactions were swift and angry. Michel Krielaars, editor of the Book supplement for NRC, said that the paper had taken down the illustrations online, in order not to “offend non-Dutch speakers who only read Twitter.” The illustration still appears on their online reader, however. […] While this whole episode is mind-boggling to many outside of the Netherlands, it’s important to keep the country’s history and demographics in perspective. The Netherlands, a former slave-trading power, is a small country of 16 million, with an 80 percent white population. Immigration, whether from Turkey and Morocco or from former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The country has its fair share of offensive struggles over race and discrimination. After all, this is the country where a good portion of the population is actively fighting to keep the right to dress up as blackface character Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) every year for the holidays, despite increasing pressure from anti-racism activists and even the United Nations. More here.