CW: racism
We have this Dutch tradition called Sinterklaas which is basically our version of Santa Claus. Traditionally he is accompanied by Black Pete, a black person who is usually played by a white person in blackface. He looks like this:
Show
Needless to say that a white man controlling a group of black people who resemble slaves is controversial. In the last 10 years protests against black pete have really increased and as a result the vast majority of the country has banned Black Pete. They are now subsituted by Soot Face Pete as one of the origins of Black Pete is that he climbs through the chimney, hence the black face. Why the bright right lips, gold earrings and total black face were a part of it, is never answered of course.
Childrens party saved, right? No. A handful of racists keeps haning on to Black Pete and some towns in The Netherlands (and Belgium) keep Black Pete during the parade of Sinterklaas. Action groups keep protesting Black Pete at parades and in recent years these protests have turned violent with mobs of racists attacking the protesters.
This was the case yesterday in Yerseke, The Netherlands where protesters were intimidated, attacked, targeted with eggs and whatnot. Police did very little to stop the 'concerned' mob of racists.
Bonus thing: some of the racist mob threw the sieg heil hand gesture but, in contrast with events in Amsterdam, no politican yet has cried antisemitism.
But don't you get it? It's just a childrens party! We need racist figures to represent it!
"bUt It'S tRaDiTiOn!!"
So is slavery, blood-letting, the Inquisition, corporal punishment and dysentery. I don't see anyone fighting to keep those.
Disagree, the people OP mentioned probably want slavery and corporal punishment back
What even is the origin story of black pete? This sounds like something out of a sketch.
CW: more racism
The modern story has a few attributions, as DankZedong says, but the version I heard was that Zwarte Piet is an ex-slave that Sint Nicolaas bought the freedom of, and Zwarte Piet was so thankful he started working for Sinterklaas. For free. Yeah.
It's likely a combination of different origins: some say African person, some say chimney sweeper, some say they devil. If you look at other places that have the holiday of Saint Nicolas you'd see these combinations too. In some German region his helpers are dressed like devils for example.
In The Netherlands people keep saying chimney sweeper but it doesn't make sense to give him a full blackface, afro hair, golden earrings and bright red lips then.
yeah, we had krampus (devil/demon dude) growing up. black peter was a card game (but somehow obviously related to the dutch black peter custom).
I used to have a few Dutch friends. It was jarring how cavalier they were about Black Pete and how in denial they were about the racism associated with the tradition. A very similar mindset to white Americans who think it's okay to dress up like Pocohantas as a costume.
We have a variant of Black Pete here that doesn't have the black face, but has a whip to beat up all the naughty kids. I loved that guy when I was little.
Special year 2024, in addition to yearly racist traditions during the holidays, the Dutch have gotten their own special racial violence in Amsterdam early!
