Spain isn't the only society/culture to represent the 3 kings/Baltasar. Yet it's one of the few that resort to blackfacing as part of it - I was raised Catholic and black face was never part of the ceremony.
Just because there were no black people in Spain doesn't mean blackfacing had no racist origins, especially considering the history of Spain from the Moors to colonialism - which dates back to the 15th/16th century - so it's not like these figures were created with the Spanish having no exposure to black people, and it happens to be a coincidence and therefore not offensive. It was still done deliberately. If anything, the lack of black people in Spanish society probably led to the dehumanisation/alienness of black people to ordinary Spaniards, so depicting them in blackface wouldn't be an issue - that's just an assumption because blackface is rooted in black people being considered as 'other' and therefore dehumanised.
It doesn't really matter, I don't care what Spanish people were doing 400 years ago - i'm simply saying that continuing the tradition by using blackface, rather than either removing the blackface element or using actual black people - is racist, and I think that's fair because you can't claim ignorance at this point.
In my experience, if someone is racist it doesn't matter if you speak to them nicely and calmly - they're not dumb and they know what they're doing.
Someone who truly wants to understand, learn and change their behaviour is receptive and emphatic even if you call them racist, because they realise that centring their feelings above the offence they've caused isn't the right approach. So anyone who gets hung up on being called racist, rather than the actual racism still isn't the right way to approach things.
Thousands of people doing it in broad daylight doesn't make the ceremony any less racist either, it just means it's been normalised - you could go through dozens of actions that were normalised in various societies across the world despite their egregious nature - note i'm not calling the people racist. Also just because it's been normalised doesn't mean it can't be criticised.
Again, What it happens to your place, has nothing to do what it happens on another place with different historical reasons and context and different flux and condition of migrations. Again is a mater of UScentrism. Is the same discussion with Krishna. Some are blue, some are black and glittery and what you have seen in your life it doesn't mean that will be seen in another part of the earth. Is quite normal not having a blackfaced Balthazar in US as per US history, but that history is different than the rest of the world.
And just because you say: "Just because there were no black people in Spain doesn't mean blackfacing had no racist origins" is racist. I assure is not racist but just a biblical depiction that goes before the moors
Besides, the big majority of the moors are not black and way closer to the spanish ethnia than black or northern european caucasian. Specially because they spend 800 years in Spain (more than what is considered the starting of the spanish country) and lots of them stayed in the peninsula further on mingling. I do get confused with moroccan, turkish, israeli, middle eastern and never guess I am spanish and my genealogical tree goes 300 years in spain all family branches
Is impossible to be racist (you can be xenophobic) with someone that is basically the same as you. So no, black people had been a rarity till the 90s in Spain
I don't claim ignorance to justify it in any moment, I expose you the spanish facts that I know waaaay more than you and has nothing to do with you culture but mine. If the people had/have no intend to be racist and till now were no people that could feel insulted because of the lack of them, it can't have racist origins and NOW we are revising to not insult our black people fellow countryman and acting according with it and it will take a process, not only of changing it, but change the mentality specially of the old ones.
As you claim understanding of non racist people and I absolutely understand that blackfacing is racist in US and I fully support that people don't do it. And at the same time I understand that NOW, blackfacing balthazar is racist because our society changed adding another race and this practice should be vanished, I ask you as well understanding that is not the same, and to trust me it has no racist origins and to understand as well that will need a process (that you already said in the past that you understand that part) and specially don't tell that a whole society had been racist all this years. Is quite annoying when you know your context and your history and know it has no racist intends, that someone comes and tells you that you are and know nothing because in my country is like this and like that and you should know better.
And yes, I understand the normalization of what is racist, homophobic and misogynist as it can be found in our language, acts and many other behaviors every day even without noticing. I fight to strip those every day, believe me. But you are biased by your history, culture, and suffering in your country and can't see the differences that I am telling you and judging under the bar of your history and context.
I remind it. Balthazar has equally importance and rang than the other 2 white kings. Plain symmetry
