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In Holland this evening, families and friends happen to be sharing presents in party of the event of the Feast of St . Nicholas. Small children may meet up with Saint Nick Sinterklaas, who have visits various towns in the lead up to this celebration, and many will be leaving their shoes to him and his helper, in the hopes that they will become filled with sweets and different goodies as a reward for behaving well this coming year. If you’re impatiently waiting for Christmas, the idea of this early celebration may appeal to you. But this kind of Dutch custom has a very much darker component to this. There is a servant figure whom accompanies Heureux Nicholas in the rounds, generally known as Zwarte Piet Black Pete. In cities across the Netherlands, today and recent weeks, white men have donned blackface, complete with the caricatural afro wig, strichgesicht exaggerated lips and platinum earrings, and joined portrayals of Heureux Nicholas in community get-togethers.
Early stories of St . Nicholas’ present-giving suggest that he was with a devil who was forced to assist him. At some time in the time of slavery, this morphed right into a depiction of the enslaved dark-colored man a scary bogeyman figure who had been cruel and whipped children who did not know their very own prayers, unfortunately he docile towards Santa and happy to support him. This depiction was first printed within a children’s book in 1850, 13 years before the dérogation of slavery by the Netherlands. The character’s role should be to encourage values in kids, but this kind of character features instead helped to preserve deeply inbedded racism in Dutch world by overloaded encouraging this from soldires.
The blatantly questionable and oppressive nature of those portrayals is viewed clearly by many, but not a majority of Dutch persons. In 2013, Dutch pollster Maurice Sobre Hond found that 91 percent of Dutch people feel that they must not change the tradition to match “the taste” of a minority and 81 percent compared with changing Pete’s skin color. In 2014, Primary Minister Draw Rutter said, “[the tradition is] certainly not green Pete or brown Pete it is Black Pete, so I are unable to change that”. A popular defense of this traditions is that Pete is not black as a result of his race, but because he goes through chimneys to deliver shows and gets covered in soot. Through the history of Black Pete’s personality, this is evidently false.
Opinions could possibly be changing, as an international market becomes more aware and outraged by portrayal of Black Pete. Some improvement is also being created, which could indicate change from the opinions displayed by the 2013 statistics mentioned earlier. Lately, efforts have already been made to remove the minstrel-like features from Pete and turn him into ‘Chimney Pete’, who is coal protected but not decorated black. It appears progress was performed this year since Chimney Pete replaced blackface makeup in Amsterdam’s festivities this year. Nevertheless , the black-streaked character whom submits to the benevolent white colored man is still deeply troublesome, this ‘solution’ simply gives a reincarnate version of Dark Pete and refuses to understand the flaws of the original character.
