Black Pete

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Little known fact about me: I lived in The Netherlands for four months in college.  It was awesome.  I backpacked around Europe.  I studied art.  I smoked pot.  Drank a lot.  Had a great time.

OK back to the present.  At Not-My-Real-Mom’s (NMRM) Ugly Sweater party on Saturday, there were two Dutchmen in town on business and at the party.  I was excited because: Dutch people are my peeps.  Of course, I struck up a conversation with them about my time in their homeland and how much I adore the Dutch.  No idea how the conversation got to this, but we started talking about Christmas over there.  Here are the facts that my Dutchman told us:

- Santa is actually called Sinterklaas.  Many believe the Dutch version of Santa was actually the original and inspiration for our (much fatter) version.

- “Package Day”, or their version of Christmas, is actually December 5.

- Instead of a sleigh, Sinterklaas arrives via steamship. (editors note: I thought that was hilarious.)

- Instead of reindeer or elves, Sinterklaas has black people that help him. (editors note: …)

- Christmas tradition is that people paint their faces black to represent Sinterklaas’ helpers. (editors note: …!)

…

How is it that I lived there for four months and knew nothing about this?  Seriously, NMRM and I were in shock.

Dutchman: Yes, growing up my father would always be Sinterklaas and my uncle would always paint his face black and be his helper.

Beth & NMRM: ::slack jawed disbelief::

Dutchman: I know, I know, it sounds racist but the Dutch never had slaves so it’s really not.  If you tried to do that in America you would get shot. (editors note: I acknowledge this is an equally racist statement)

The Dutchman then retrieves the bag of Dutch cookies he brought to the party and shows us the cartoons on the package.  Sure enough, there is a woman with a painted black face on the front and several black cartoon little helpers.

Now, I have to admit I was not comfortable writing about this without doing at least a small bit of Googling.  I found a really interesting article that confirms this here.

Summarized:

- In Europe, often times the “Santa” figure is accompinied or assisted by a “bad helper” that will torture or abuse the naughty children while Santa rewards the good ones (I know, a far cry from our “naughty coal in the stocking” situation, right??).

- In The Netherlands, Sinterklaas first came over with his slave “Zwarte Piet” or… “Black Pete” (OK, I have to admit that while I was horrified at this tale, the name Black Pete made me laugh, JUST A LITTLE THOUGH).

- Black Pete would torture the naughty children.

- When people started realized OH GOD THIS IS TERRIBLE AND RACIST around the 1950’s they changed it to be several Black Petes that apparently get covered in soot while scrambling around in the chimneys.  Mmm hmmm.  Good cover up.

Not entirely convinced that “this isn’t racist because the Dutch never had slaves”, I did a little research and, according to historians (and by historians, I mean Google), the Dutch often misunderstand the significance of slavery because very few slaves actually lived in the country but the Dutch did actively participate in the slave trade and made quite a profit off it.  You can read more about the history of slavery in The Netherlands here. (editors note: I just googled this stuff and found these links, I have not confirmed the accuracy of their facts so be warned).

OK, so now that we all know and love Black Pete… how do we feel?  I mean, here is what I think… is this racist?  Yes, I’m pretty sure it is.  I’m pretty sure painting your face to be a color of another person’s skin color is considered racist.  But you know what, it is a tradition and it is all in good fun, right?

What really concerns me is that the Dutch seem to not really understand the history of why they do this and their country’s role in slavery (or the slave trade in general?).  Maybe they do, I don’t really know, but saying “it’s not racist because the Dutch never had slaves” isn’t quite accurate and I think that is what needs to be addressed.

Either way, Black Pete is an excellent conversation starter and certainly made for some interesting drunken party talk.  I hope I didn’t greatly misrepresent the Dutch or accidently offend anyone by writing this, I was just taken aback and I had to share what happened.

Black Pete… discuss.

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Tags: Black Pete, christmas in the netherlands, dutch people are my peeps, I'm glad I only got coal for being naughty and not a whipping, is this racist?