Nice quote from the article. The whole article is a good read, but that quote really highlighted an issue many might not see here.
Not a very good comparison. For one, Zwarte Pieten is a helper/servant character for the local Santa character in the holiday. For most black people, there is a strong issue with being confused with a character who is a helper/servant/lower classed vs the character in charge.
Yeah in the US that would hold true I guess, but that is far less the case here in The Netherlands... There isn't as much a culture and racial divide between white Dutch and black Dutch.