Zwarte Piets or Black Petes are a Christmas tradition in Holland. It’s a tradition that dates back to the time of slavery, when most of the Netherlands population was white. The basic idea is Santa Claus, who is white, has black helpers who do his bidding and give candy and presents to children. The Zwarte Piet characters are almost always white people with face paint, bright red lips, earrings — sometimes nose rings, and wigs with black curly hair.
There are many excuses why this is not racist. For example Piet is black from climbing down a chimney or whatever, or it’s just make believe and a long standing tradition. Of course none of this explains why the red lips or short curly hair are necessary. In previous years the Dutch have also shown a lot more tolerance towards traditions of other cultures, which made it a little easier to look the other way when it came to Zwarte Piet. Now much of that tolerance isn’t so present any more, and the tradition of Zwarte Piet reflects much more current, underlying and structural problems within Dutch society.
Nowadays, about 20% of the country as a whole, and more than 50% in some urban areas are non-Dutch decent. This tradition is becoming increasingly unacceptable to those people, together with some ethnic Dutch and many people from all over the world. As incredible as it seems, major cities like Amsterdam still sanction and license events with this character, and it’s really time that stops. It may be private parties continue in the years to come, but for a city to sanction public events, in public areas, is really a slap in the face to the non-Dutch people who live there. I’ve posted before about some of the institutionally racist policies of the city of Amsterdam, which thankfully have been getting less common over time. It’s time for the city to take the next big step.
The sketch/improve group Boom Chicago, based in Amsterdam, have done a nice parody:
wat een kul verhaal
Maria,
Thank you very much for your detailed and insightful comment.
It wasn’t mentioned in this post, but perhaps I can also bring up the dialogue the Dutch government had with the UN over this recently. First a working group within the UN criticized the tradition of Zwarte Piet, then higher up within the organization an apology was issued. This apology said the UN as a whole did not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of the Netherlands. A few weeks after this apology was issued, came a much stronger statement, insisting the hostility and aggression towards the members of the original working group must stop. It went on further to state the intolerance towards people who had a different opinion about Zwarte Piet was unacceptable, and advised the Dutch government to do something about it.
Your comment seems to very much support many of the ideas I presented in my original post, as well as the conclusions made by the UN. You seem to be suggesting my opinions are wrong, and I shouldn’t have published them.
I can tell you for sure, as a foreigner living in the Netherlands for 20+ years now, I’ve had enough of all the anger and aggression. I get hostility from unemployed people who think it’s my fault they don’t have a job. I get hostility from people who’s lives or the world around them aren’t going the way they want, and they think it’s my responsibility to do something about it. I get hostility from people who think I need to give them more respect, do more for them, or who disagree with my opinions and views. I have really had enough.
Since you’re the expert on Zwarte Piet, I’d like to ask your opinion on something.
I myself am completely unimpressed in all the concessions and talk surrounding Zwarte Piet. Things like getting rid of the earrings, or making the face paint a little greyer or other colors completely. Or maybe in 10 years it might stop, and it’s time to start planning for this now. I think this is all bullshit, and not worth anything. As far as I’m concerned, it just has to stop now.
I personally see three possible outcomes for this:
1. More will be done to deal with racism and other underlying problems in the Netherlands, and the issue of Zwarte Piet will become less important and get less attention, like it was 20 years ago.
2. The Dutch government and people will realize this is an urgent issue, and wind things down with Zwarte Piet as soon as possible.
3. The tradition of Zwarte Piet will remain unchanged, until the protests become so large and angry, that police and tear gas will be used to break them up. This along side the children getting their Christmas presents.
Personally, I’m voting for number 3. I don’t think there’s any desire here to deal with the issues any other way.
What do you think? 1, 2, 3 or something else?