Queen Nikkolah’s reign
Revealing racial denial in Flanders through a rhetorical listening analysis of the Queen Nikkolah debate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12918368 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Amber De Clerck (0000-0001-6110-9411, Ghent University, corresponding author), Kris Rutten (0000-0002-8630-4464, HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 353-361 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communication Culture and Critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1753-9137 • E-ISSN: 1753-9129 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ccc/tcaf035 |
| OpenAlex | W4416780465 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
On December 6, 2023, Ghent City Hall hosted a Saint Nicholas celebration featuring “Queen Nikkolah,” a Black female reinterpretation of the figure by artivist Laura Nsengiyumva. Positioned as an alternative to the controversial Black Pete, a blackface tradition in Flanders and the Netherlands, Queen Nikkolah became the subject of heated debate, showing that such alternatives do not escape racial tensions. Through a rhetorical listening analysis of mainstream Flemish media sources, this article traces both continuity and change in the rhetorical strategies used to contest racialized traditions. The analysis demonstrates how familiar claims are repurposed in the Queen Nikkolah debate, while also pointing to recent rhetorical shifts. In doing so, it exposes the persistence of racial denial in evolving forms and the enduring unease around Blackness in Belgium today
Denial · Exposition (narrative · Mainstream · Queen (butterfly · Reinterpretation · Rhetorical question · Subject (documents · Critical Race Theory in Education · Music History and Culture · Sound Studies and Aurality
Right-Wing Populism in Europe
"Everyday Racism," "White Innocence," and Postcolonial Society
Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe
Racism and Media
Selected Writings on Race and Difference
Never Having Been Racist
Confronting blackface
The Mainstreaming of Extreme Right-Wing Populism in the Low Countries
The neo-fascist discourse and its normalisation through mediation
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Retracing the racial semiotics of the other-lingual ( anderstalige ) in Dutch and Afrikaans
The mediated circulation of the United Kingdom’s YouthStrike4Climate movement’s discourses and actions
Discursive shifts and the normalisation of racism
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Problematic Proximities
The abnormalisation of social justice
Defending Black Pete
Unpacking Cultural Logics
Geopoetic Praxis in European Diversity/Decoloniality
Race and the Pitfalls of Emotional Democracy
Right-wing populism in Europe & USA
Racial Europeanization
Racialized modernity
How the Flemings Became White
Black Pete, "Smug Ignorance," and the Value of the Black Body in Postcolonial Netherlands
Europe and the Silence about Race
A Black Perspective on the Language of Race in Dutch
Who wants to feel white?' Race, Dutch culture and contested identities
Race and racial denial in Switzerland
Performing whiteness
Racism in public or public racism
What does race do
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |