Seba Damani
  • Blog
  • Distorted Truths
    • About the Book
    • Excerpts
    • Buy Book
  • Watch Videos
  • Seba's Bio
    • The Way Here
    • Biography
  • Black Papers
    • Rethinking Kemet: A Cosmological Perspective
    • Through Ethiopian Eyes: Evolution of Rastafari
    • A History of Hip Hop in Perspective

Is Zwarte Piet Racist?

12/21/2013

0 Comments

 
A debate on a holiday tradition exposes racial attitudes Nov 2nd 2013 | AMSTERDAM | From the print edition
PictureJust a quaint tradition?


EVERY year on December 5th and 6th, tens of thousands of Dutch people paint their faces black, don Renaissance-style jerkins and pantaloons, and assume the persona of Zwarte Piet ("Black Pete"). The comical character plays a vital part in the celebration of the feast day of St Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas, which overshadows Christmas as the most important children’s holiday. According to a custom standardised in the late 1800s, Sinterklaas arrives on a steamboat from Spain, accompanied by a team of his black-faced servants, who distribute presents and ginger biscuits to good children while threatening to scoop up naughty ones in a sack and carry them back to Spain to pick oranges.

With his fantastical role and antique costume, Zwarte Piet seems disconnected from modern racial stereotypes. He made it through the Netherlands’ politically correct 1990s without raising many eyebrows. Yet in recent years Dutch citizens of Caribbean ancestry have begun protesting the portrayal of St Nicholas’s sidekick as a racist caricature. In the increasingly polarised political climate in the Netherlands, the custom was a tinderbox waiting for a match. In October the debate exploded, polarising cultural life and dragging in celebrities, politicians, and even the UN.

In this sectionThe man who lit the tinderbox is Quinsy Gario, a Curaçao-born Dutch performance artist, who began protesting in 2011 when he attended a Sinterklaas parade wearing a T-shirt reading “Zwarte Piet is racism” and was arrested. In early October Mr Gario appeared on the Netherlands’ most popular television talk-show to make his case again. The following week, the mayor of Amsterdam met with dozens of residents who had submitted a complaint asking that Zwarte Piet be removed from the city’s Sinterklaas parade.

Most white Dutch reacted angrily to accusations that the tradition is racist. On social media, many repeated a long-standing claim that Zwarte Piet just appears black because of soot from the chimneys he climbs down to deliver presents. The right-leaning Telegraaf, the country’s largest newspaper, ran articles claiming anti-Piet voices were troublemakers who did not represent black people in the Netherlands. A “Pietition” page on Facebook backing Zwarte Piet gathered over 2m likes within days, a staggering response in a country of 17m.

Many Dutch who have come out against Zwarte Piet have been hounded by the traditionalists. One group in the country’s north who had planned to paint themselves as multicoloured “rainbow-Piets” had to give up after receiving death threats. Anouk, the Dutch representative at this year’s Eurovision contest, was attacked with racial epithets for her opposition to the custom. When a Jamaican researcher for a UN cultural panel said she thought Zwarte Piet was racist, she was overwhelmed with racially offensive e-mails. Geert Wilders, the anti-immigrant populist whose Party for Freedom is currently on top of the Dutch polls, tweeted that he would rather eliminate the UN than Zwarte Piet. A pro-Piet protest in The Hague turned sour when a dark-skinned woman was surrounded by an angry mob and had to be rescued by police.

Mark Rutte, the prime minister from the centre-right Liberal Party, commented simply that “Black Pete is black”. The head of his centre-left coalition partners, Diederik Samsom, belittled the argument as an affair for people with too much time on their hands. But while the symbolism of a children’s holiday may be of limited consequence, the contemptible racial attitudes it has exposed are not. This month’s conflict has changed Zwarte Piet. For many, even if a year ago he was not a symbol of Dutch racism, he is now.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All
    Anthropology | Archaeology
    Beauty | Self Image
    Beauty | Self Image
    Biography
    Continent
    Diaspora
    Economics
    Education
    Entertainment
    Entertainment | Sports
    Health | Diet
    Health | Diet
    History
    Holidays
    Politics | Power
    Popular Culture
    Racism | White Supremacy
    Racism | White Supremacy
    Religion | Spirituality
    Science
    Sexuality
    Worldview
    Worldview And Culture
    Worldview | Culture
    Worldview | Culture

    RSS Feed

Events
Where to Buy
Contact
About
✕