SPONTANEOUS CHIT CHAT: April 2010

In the folklore and legends of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch speaking Belgium), Zwarte Piet (meaning Black Pete) is a companion of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sinterklaas) whose yearly feast is usually celebrated on the evening of the 5th of December in the Netherlands (Sinterklaas-avond (English: St. Nicolas Eve), and the 6th of December in Flanders (Belgium), when they distribute sweets and presents to all good children.

The character of Zwarte Piet appears only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, allegedly travelling from Spain), and is mainly targeted at children, who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools etc. He is sometimes associated with Knecht Ruprecht (English: Farmhand Rupert or Servant Rupert), but in the Low Countries the tradition has not merged with Christmas. - Wikipedia

There is a lot of controversy surrounding this practice and the depiction of Zwarte Piet but I will not go into too much detail, instead I’ll leave you - the reader - with pictures and excerpts from other discussions online, as well as links so you can do your own research and make up your own mind. However, as a man of colour I find the concept of Zwarte Piet very offensive and derogatory.

Biased? Perhaps. But you need to stand in my shoes and under my skin before you cry foul. I’ve had the sad (and probably unrelated) experience on two different occasions and in two different countries; the Netherlands and Belgium respectively, where, in public (a dance café with predominantly white clients), and in full view of onlookers a woman (on both occasions the perpetrators of the act were women) walked up to me, reached out her hand and swiped my face. She then proceeded to inspect her hand, looked up at me in mock bewilderment, walked back to her friends, and showed them the evidence while gesturing as if to say "look, no stain! He’s not Zwarte Piet, he really IS black!" Words cannot describe the way I felt… This happened to me again a few years later, this time in Hasselt, belgium. The exact same thing, like déjà vu... anyways...

Here is an excerpt I pulled from a like-minded fellow on the internet… Zwarte Piet debate

“Zwarte Piet characters are typically performed by white people dressed in a renaissance minstrel’s outfit complete with blackface, painted red lips, and an ‘afro’-wig i.e. classic darkie iconography.

The characters usually speak in a ‘stupid’ or Surinamese accent, and are portrayed as childlike and mischievous when performing in public or on television programs. There is further evidence that such characters are subjected to racist ridicule, as evidenced by the following ‘satire’ which was released onto public television as late as 2007 and is available on the following URL with almost 450,000 views: Zwarte Piet satire on YouTube "

Quoting yet someone else whom I happen to agree with...

"In fact, the Zwarte Piet aspect is probably the most racist public celebration I can think of, its almost satirical, e.g. like having the 'Running of the Jew' celebration in Borat or a Ching Chong Chinaman celebration where everyone wears buck teeth and tapes their eyes slanty. The problem is that this is real, this is a modern, rich, and educated Western society (the Netherlands and Flanders) and it's the 21st century. Wake up! Zwarte Piet is a racist caricature and damaging to children. The only reason you don't think the same is because the psychological pressure caused by conforming to Dutch-speaking society is warping your view of reality"

- see Conformity experiments.

Like I said, do your research, and make up your own mind about this. I only ask that you be impartial in your final judgement.

I’ll end this touchy-for-me subject on a light-hearted note…

The other day I was in a small village in Westerlo, Belgium. I had an appointment to come take a look at an apartment that I had found on the internet that week, and as I had arrived much earlier than agreed on I decided to take a little walk to kill some time and get to know my potential new area of residence at the same time. It was nice and sunny. I made my way along the street and just as I was walking past a tobacco shop a man and his maybe 4 or 5 year old son walked out and the following happened in slow motion....

The little boy looked up at me, candy in hand, and his eyes lit up with joy. He turned to his dad, tugged at his arm, pointed excitedly at me and said… “Papa, look! Zwarte Piet!”

You could see the horror in the father’s eyes as he instinctively pulled his son back to him and covered him up protectively before I or anyhing else for that matter could harm his beloved son!

The cry of joy, the tugging papa’s hand, the pointing at me whilst saying that oh-so-very-wrong-in-the-adult-world words, and the instant look of fear in the man’s eyes at his son’s innocently horrid and potentially fatal error, hahaha.

As for me, I just walked on whilst chuckling to myself, poor man! All in all I found the little boy’s charming innocence heartwarming...