It’s that time of the year again… November in the Netherlands means Sinterklaas hysteria; all children, and many adults, can think of nothing else but the preparations for the biggest event of the year, the Saint Nicholas celebration on December 5th. For children, it is more important than Christmas itself: it is when they receive most of their presents, and lots of special parties and festive events take place.
So far so good, but there is (literally) a dark side to the tradition: in his endeavors of distributing presents to all children, Sinterklaas is assisted by Black Pete (Zwarte Piet), or more often by a team of Black Petes. Black Petes are typically incarnated by (white) adults, who dress in old-fashioned typical clothes and, most importantly, paint their faces black, their lips thick with red and wear curly hair wigs (just google 'Zwarte Piet' to see pictures if you are curious).
Until World War II, Black Pete was overtly referred to as Sinterklaas’ slave. Moreover, parents used to tell children that Black Pete would put them in his bag and bring them to Spain (as that is where Sinterklaas and Black Pete live according to the tradition) if they misbehaved. However, if they were ‘good kids’, the honor of rewarding them with presents was of course bestowed on Sint, the very white, gentle-looking old man. After the war, the tradition has been changing, and Black Pete has been promoted to Sinterklaas’ assistant rather than his slave; now kids are not afraid of him anymore. He no longer puts naughty children in his bag, and instead hands out cookies and sweets. Nevertheless, he is still black, and he is still the assistant of the white bishop. Ultimately, he is still portrayed as a little stupid and clumsy; one who talks strangely and doesn't speak proper Dutch.
As a foreigner living in the Netherlands, the Black Pete tradition has been making me increasingly uncomfortable and annoyed over the years. I come from a country where slavery was abolished only in 1888, and we know all too well that the scars left by this period are still everywhere to be found. A tradition like the Black Pete tradition, which seems to mock and belittle a disgraceful colonial past, is simply unacceptable. My irritation is fueled by the fact that my own children are now exposed to it, and there is little that I can do about it. They are Dutch children, and it would not be fair to deprive them from the full Sinterklaas experience that their friends are entirely submerged in. The little that I can do is to try to give a bit more dignity to the role of Black Pete. For example, children typically make drawings for Sinterklaas and leave them by the fireplace to receive presents in return (not only on December 5th itself, but as soon as Sinterklaas ‘arrives from Spain by steamboat’ mid-November). A carrot or apple is also left for the horse of Sinterklaas. For Black Pete? Nothing at all, of course! Why bother about a mere (black!) assistant? So at least I make my children make drawings for both Sint and Black Pete.
Most Dutch people find the suggestion that the Black Pete tradition is deeply racist preposterous. Some even say that, while this may have been true in the past, it is no longer the case (as if promoting Black Pete from slave to assistant would be enough). There have been some anti-Black Pete movements, often organized by or around the large community of black Dutch citizens whose parents or grand-parents came from one of the (former or present) Dutch colonies (Suriname, Netherlands Antilles etc.). But the wide majority is just happy to indulge in this form of institutionalized racism. What I find particularly worrisome is of the effects of the Black Pete character in fostering implicit biases in children; as we now know from widely documented empirical data, there is nothing ‘harmless’ about such stereotypical figures.
Anyway, to sum it up, November is by all accounts possibly the worst month of the year for me: it’s cold, viruses are being widely shared, and I watch powerlessly as my children get exposed to this disturbing racist feast. Let me add that I am not at all against the general idea of the Sinterklaas celebrations; I actually think that for the most part they are very cute. But there must be a way to reformulate them so as to exclude the racist component. One suggestion that has been put forward, and which strikes me as very sensible: let Sinterklaas' assistants be Smurfs, who are already popular figures among children in the Netherlands, and who are not reminiscent from a painful colonial past.
(For more on this tradition and how it has also been criticized, see this very insightful Spiegel article, in English.)
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