“Neo-Nazis responded violently” to these protests, according to Nat Geo. In 2018, National Geographic reported on protests in the Netherlands over the character, with many Dutch people calling for Black Peter’s removal from traditional holiday celebrations in the country. The Black Peter tradition has been the subject of re-examination in real-life, too. This leads to a scene where we see Nate walking through the Dunder Mifflin parking lot in blackface and dressed in renaissance attire before turning back. In the episode, Dwight has his assistant Nate (Mark Porksch) dress up as Black Peter before calling off the stunt when he realizes the stunt is racist.

We also learn in the episode that Belsnickel has a helper named Zwarte Piet (the English translation is “Black Peter”), a clearly racist folkloric character that is traditionally played by a white person in blackface and red lipstick. This makes him much “cooler” in Dwight’s opinion. As Dwight says in the episode, Belsnickel was created to inspire the fear that Santa doesn’t. Enter Dwight as Belsnickel, a character from Dutch folklore presented in the episode as a more hardcore “gift-bringer” than that jolly old Santa. In the episode, Jim convinces everyone to celebrate a traditional “Schrute Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas,” ditching the traditional holiday cheer for a more…rustic approach. According to Variety, NBC and Netflix have removed a scene featuring a character in blackface from its season nine holiday episode, “Dwight Christmas.” The scene will no longer appear on Netflix, NBC’s Peacock (when the show hits the service in 2021), or syndication.

The Office is also returning to the cutting room due to a controversial scene from its final season, which aired in 2012-2013. Community isn’t the only NBC show being re-examined for racially insensitive material.

The office season 8 deleted scenes