‘Black Pete’: Netherlands under pressure over allegedly ‘racist’ Zwarte Piet tradition

By Tariq Shadid – Towards the end of every year, the Netherlands as well as the Flemish communities in Belgium celebrate Santa Claus with their own version, which is seen as separate from Christmas celebrations. Their version of Saint Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas, comes with the white-bearded elderly man dressed up as a bishop in red clothing, and accompanied by a large number of helpers, who are responsible for making sure that children receive their Holiday gifts.

So far, this should sound fine to anyone, but the fact that these servants are known as Zwarte Piet, which means ‘Black Pete’, and exclusively have a black or dark brown color of skin, is what is currently causing a huge controversy over the topic in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The debate first reached national dimensions when in 2011 performance artist Quinsy Gario was arrested for public disturbance, when he and a number of other protesters wore t-shirts with the inscription ‘Black Pete is racism’ to a traditional annual Sinterklaas festival, which was being celebrated in the streets. Quinsy, who himself is dark-skinned and born in the Caribbean Dutch colonies known as the Netherlands Antilles, was manhandled quite roughly by police officers, which sparked an outrage when footage of this violent arrest was published on Youtube. Ever since, voices of protest calling for a modification of the ‘Black Pete’ tradition have been on the increase.

United Nations criticism

This year, the topic has taken the proportions of a national debate, enhanced by the fact that the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights has recently issued an investigation into ‘racist stereotype’ claims concerning the Zwarte Piet phenomenon. UN representatives wrote a letter to the Dutch government, stating that according to information they have received, the ‘character and image of Black Pete perpetuate a stereotyped image of African people as second class citizens, fostering an underlying sense of inferiority in Dutch society.’ According to UN working party chief Verene Shepherd, Zwarte Piet is a ‘throwback to slavery’.

Criticism over Zwarte Piet has increased considerably in the past two years, especially among young people from immigrant communities. It appeared that Quinsy Gario and his team of protesters represented an opinion that was highly prevalent among these communities. Many immigrants from regions with dark-skin populations and their descendants apparently were experiencing the festival as an annual ritual of humiliation and insult to people of darker complexion.

Mass mobilization for Zwarte Piet

Feeling that their ‘centuries-old tradition’ is being threatened, the indigenous Dutch population responded with an almost unprecedentedly fierce popular response in defense of the phenomenon. A Facebook page for this topic became the fastest-growing Dutch Facebook page in history, crossing the one million member milestone in less than 24 hours. Defenders of Zwarte Piet forcefully deny that there is any association whatsoever with racism.

They firmly uphold that the thousands who dress up as ‘Black Pete’ every year by painting their faces black, wearing curly wigs, and drawing large red lips in the middle of their faces, does not in any way constitute a reference to any specific race. Their alternative explanations vary from the dark color being caused by soot from his passing through chimneys to deliver the gifts, to a random choice of color chosen to hide their true identities of those dressed up from the children.

According to them, the playful charade that Sinterklaas has come all the way from Spain with his large troupe of black ‘helpers’, must remain as believable as possible to young children, if this tradition is to be celebrated in the proper way. It would be spoiled if the children spotted ‘Black Pete’ as being their own gym teacher, so he must paint his face black to prevent this. This, they postulate, is not a reference to race; black is simply the most effective color for this disguise.

In a survey done among 10,000 Dutch by the Telegraaf newspaper,  a staggering 96% of those questioned said they wanted the debate about Zwarte Piet to stop. This illustrates the massive support that exists in the Netherlands for this highly questionable phenomenon.

Although to outsiders it is pretty obvious that the ‘Black Pete’ disguise is meant to resemble the caricature of an African, much in the same way as the ‘Blackface’ which was especially popular in the 19th and 20th century in Northern America, among the majority of the population of the Netherlands any link to negative stereotypes of dark-skinned people is vehemently denied. Nevertheless, the countless discussions on social media have seen a massive outpouring of racist remarks towards critics of Zwarte Piet and dark-skinned immigrants in general, casting doubt on how much credibility can be given to this apparent mass cognitive dissonance.

Historical context

To most historians, there is barely any question whether Zwarte Piet refers to African slaves or not. To them, it obviously does, and they present rather convincing historical evidence for this. While defenders of the ‘Black Pete’ phenomenon express their protest against any modification of a tradition they have been celebrating for ‘many hundreds of years’, historians make it clear that Saint Nicholas only received a black helper in the 19th century in Dutch tradition. According to art historian Elmer Kolfin, who was interviewed for Dutch daily newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’, one of the founders of this tradition was Jan Schenkman, a school teacher from Amsterdam. In a reprint of his book ‘Saint Nicholas and his servant’ from 1880, the typical clothes worn by Zwarte Piet, which is still how he is represented until today, provide strong evidence that the origins of ‘Black Pete’ can be traced back to the popular practice of having black child slaves, which was prevalent among the elite of the previous centuries.

In the 2011 Christmas movie ‘Becoming Santa’, some opinions about ‘Black Pete’ are also presented by Dr. Pilgrim, again leading rationale away from the currently popular concept among Dutch populations in defense of Zwarte Piet that the dark skin color is caused by ‘chimney soot’. Those who adhere to these concepts fail to provide an explanation for the black curly hair, the large painted red lips and the frequent ‘Tarzan speech impediment’ that those dressing up as Zwarte Piet often put on display, accompanied by clownish and ‘dumb’ behavior. In stark contrast, the white-skinned white bearded Saint usually maintains a wise, intelligent and composed attitude.

Outrage and empathy

Dark-skinned children who have grown up in the Netherlands, are now becoming more vocal about their Zwarte Piet experiences. They describe how they are often insulted or made uncomfortable by an increase in racist remarks thrown at them by other children around the Holiday Season, or being denied the right to play the role of Sinterklaas during dress-up games at school or other public events due to the dark color of their skin. Responses to the expression of this dismay in social media outlets are often characterized by a blatant lack of empathy in the least malignant versions, and outright racist name-calling in the more aggressive responses from the Dutch indigenous population.

Despite the massive outrage, some among the indigenous Dutch are showing empathy for their dark-skinned compatriots concerning this topic. Eric van Muiswinkel, who has been dressing up as the ‘Chief Black Pete’ on television in the annual show for 14 years, stated that future versions of Zwarte Piet could do with a little less emphasized ‘blackness’. Peter R. de Vries, another prominent figure on Dutch television who has played a major role as a crime journalist in investigating the murder of Natalee Holloway and other high-profile cases,  stated on Twitter: “Children’s books and children’s songs have been adapted over the past decennia, so why not a children’s festival? Black Pete ‘out’. Multicolor Pete ‘in’.”

However, those who dare criticize Zwarte Piet, whether they are from immigrant communities or from the indigenous population, had better brace themselves for a wave of verbal aggression against them. To the vast majority of the Dutch population, ‘Black Pete’ should be left exactly the way he is.

Cognitive dissonance: ‘Holland knows no racism’

When the UN commission finishes their investigation, the controversy undoubtedly will reach its peak. Its outcome is highly predictable: it is extremely unlikely that ‘Black Pete’ will be found to be unrelated to the Netherlands’ colonial history and to its past as a slave-trading nation. The system known worldwide by the Dutch name of ‘Apartheid’, which plagued South Africa for many decades, does not have a name originating in the Netherlands by sheer coincidence.

Racism in the Netherlands and Belgium is also quite prevalent, in fact enjoying new peaks, in present times. The Council of Europe warned in its report published on October 15th that the Netherlands should do more to stop racism. In this report, there was some sharp criticism of how some politicians and the media describe Muslims and other immigrant communities as a threat to Dutch society. A recent poll showed that notorious far-right politician Geert Wilders and his PVV (Party For Freedom), known for his rabid anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stances, would be the largest political party in the country if elections were held at this time.

It is clear that cognitive dissonance on this subject is widespread in the Netherlands. Despite these criticisms of racism by outsiders, it is common – if not standard – practice among the indigenous Dutch to outright deny the existence of racism in their society. It is ironic that this denial is often accompanied by vehement lash-outs directed at immigrants and other foreigners who make these accusations. Seen to the backdrop of this already existent controversy, and considering the massive support that exists among the Dutch indigenous population for the Zwarte Piet phenomenon, the debate is unlikely to be over soon. It is to be hoped – and expected, if given enough time – that the debate on ‘Black Pete’ will at least result in a gradual modification of this archaic tradition that takes it away from its racial connotations. Considering the massive waves  of support for Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands, it seems that the international community should get more involved in criticizing the phenomenon, in order for this to happen.