You may ask yourself why this blackfacing phenomenon still exists in the Netherlands- to people from elsewhere it's a blatantly obviously racist caricature. It's because children are taught to view it as fun. If you're one of the only brown-skinned people in a classroom full of, mainly white, children who enjoy laughing at Zwarte Piet- and even your teacher joins in, or introduces this into the classroom- it's very difficult as a very young child to voice dissent. For anyone who's ever seen the black doll white doll experiment, you've seen how black children also internalise anti-black prejudice. Dutch children become Dutch adults, and many Dutch people continue to suspend their critical faculties on this issue. Just as people in South Africa once defended apartheid vehemently, the vast majority of Dutch people defend blackfacing. It will take pressure from the international community to change the status quo.