I want to tell you about Sinterklaas and his helpers Black Pete. A tradition in the Netherlands, a holiday for the children.
I’m gonna try to keep it short and simple.
On December 5th in the Netherlands, children are visited by Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). According to legend, Sinterklaas is very rich and lives in Spain. In mid-November, he travels by steamship to the Netherlands with all of his helpers, the Black Petes, and the gifts for the children. When he arrives, he travels through the country on Amerigo, his white horse and all of the Black Petes accompany him by foot.
St. Nicholas wears a long red cape, a white bishop’s dress and a red bishop’s hat. He also holds a long gold-colored staff with a curled top. Sinterklaas carries a big book that tells whether each individual child has been good or naughty in the past year.
And here is where it gets interesting..
Black Pete is usually a white man made black because he enters the house through the chimney. Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Piets usually carry a bag with candy and gifts for nice children, and the naught children are taken back to Spain in the bags.
As you can see from the pictures above Black Pete doesn’t just get black from going through the chimney. He also finds some golden earrings on the way down, a great afro wig and some red lipstick to go with it..
The black pete always acts foolish.
The hundreds of Black Petes are shipped to the Netherlands by ship.. The ship of this white Good Holy Man.
The (white) Dutch people, generally spoken, do not understand why this is racist. They Don’t understand why it hurts the PoC in the Netherlands. And when they do understand, they don’t care. Because it’s their tradition. And we should not try to touch or change their tradition.
We’ve been fighting to get the image of Black Pete altered, but so far the only compromise they were willing to make is the absence of the golden earrings.
I just needed to get this of my chest..
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