Many Three Kings parade participants across Spain planned to continue a tradition of wearing blackface Friday (Jan. 6) despite growing criticism that the tradition is “dehumanizing” and fuels prejudice against immigrants of color.

CNN reports that opponents of the blackface tradition have urged organizers to choose a Black person to portray Balthazar, one of the three wise men who travel to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus Christ, for their end of Christmas celebrations. Artists in the Western Christian tradition have long painted Balthazar as a Black man.

“It doesn’t matter what you think you’re trying to represent. It doesn’t matter that you think that’s how you make children happy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a tradition. If you paint yourself a color that is not yours, it is racist,” a statement in Italian from Elvira Swartch Lorenzo, a member of the anti-racism group Afrofeminas, read, according to CNN.

“The parade helps to normalize slavery as something harmless and inconsequential in the collective imagination, which is completely untrue,” Lorenzo continued, adding that the old traditions are “dehumanizing stereotypes” that stoke prejudice against migrant populations.

The controversy is not unique to Spain. In The Netherlands, people have protested a Christmas character named “Zwarte Piet” or “Black Pete” for years as derogatory to Black people. The character is portrayed as a helper to “Sinterklass” and people portraying him typically appear in blackface with afro wigs, large gold hoop earrings and exaggeratedly large lips.

But the Dutch Black community has long pushed back against the stereotype and in the early 2010s launched demonstrations against Black Pete.

"We have every right to be seen as fully Dutch people — just like every other child born in this country. We deserve the same respect, the same opportunities, the same space to be able to be heard," says Jerry Afriyie, an Afro-Dutch activist told DW.com in December.

Meanwhile in Spain, protests against blackface revelers have fallen on deaf ears in several cities and towns, with some defending the tradition.

“For those that dress up it’s an honor, it’s not a degrading thing,” Jordi Martinez, deputy mayor of Alcoy, told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, according to CNN. But he recognized that “in time steps will have to be taken” to change the tradition.

Change has already arrived in Barcelona where blackface isn’t used. Local station TV3 told CNN that it will only broadcast the parade from there.

“TV3 has rejected proposals to broadcast some cavalcades live precisely because blackface was performed,” a TV3 spokesperson told CNN.