While winter in Minnesota is usually pretty calm and frozen, in the Netherlands the debate has been heating up around a controversial holiday character. Saint Nicholas Day, celebrated on the 6th of December, is arguably more important than Christmas in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France. But, in recent years, there has been a great deal of controversy around saint Nicholas’ helper: Black Pete (Zwarte Piet in Flemish).

Upon the release of The Hunger Games in theaters, some people caused an uproar about Rue being played by a black female. Turning to Twitter, some of the tweets included: “I was pumped about the...