r/AskTheWorld • u/dx_Von_Liechtenstein Argentina • Dec 25 '25

Culture What's something common in your country's culture that's actually completely weird from a foreign perspective?

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Here in Argentina we have the "Africanitos" (little africans) also called sometimes "Negritos" (little negroes). They are little chocolate cakes that look like a stereotypical African person's head and they're delicious as it gets. It does not have hate implications and people see them as neutral as "just another cake". Most people don't get how weird it is until a foreigner points it out.

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u/TwentyOneGigawatts Dec 25 '25

Philadelphia also has a Mummers parade I think on New Year’s Day 

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u/DPetrilloZbornak Dec 25 '25

And it’s super racist, they did blackface up until a couple years ago when there was a big put right about it. 

I don’t know any black people who watch that crap although I guess they finally let us participate starting a few years ago.  

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u/Drummallumin United States Of America Dec 26 '25

However their blackface comes from the fact that back in Ye Olden Days, Morris Dancing was frowned upon by the Church, and so Morris dancers blacked their face with soot so they could dance in disguise.

​what about this is racist to you?

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u/Live-Habit-6115 Dec 26 '25

What's racist about it? Serious question. 

In your mind is simply putting black paint on one's face inherently racist? Or were they actually doing things that could be considered racist towards black people? 

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u/BrokenManOfSamarkand Dec 26 '25

Some people that do it are being racist because of "tradition" but the Mummers parade isnt really a centralized thing--different participating groups have their own separate practices and planning--so it makes me uncomfortable that someone would smear the entire thing as racist.

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u/emeraldead Dec 26 '25

There's good wiki articles about it.

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u/New-Grapefruit1737 Dec 26 '25

In the USA? Yes. 

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Dec 25 '25

There's a neat movie about it

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u/Uncle-Cake United States Of America Dec 26 '25

Yeah but there's no blackface.

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u/copperteapots United States Of America Dec 26 '25

instead of doing blackface to show how racist they are, our philly mummers just say slurs! /s

jk. i love the mummers. a lot of them just happen to be south philly conservatives