Zwarte Piet is Racist and He Needs to Go
Image: NL Times - https://nltimes.nl/2016/11/12/nearly-200-anti-zwarte-piet-protesters-arrested-rotterdam
Every year, November 1st marks the unofficial beginning of Christmas celebrations; as Halloween decorations are being taken down, fairy lights and Christmas trees go up. At least, such is the case in Amsterdam. For the months of November and December, the whole city is engulfed in the spirit of Christmas, or rather the Dutch version, Sinterklaas. Although it’s supposedly a jolly good time, the Dutch Christmas tradition has a dark side: overt racism.
The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (otherwise known as Saint Nicholas) as he arrives by boat from Spain in the third week of November and parades the country until December 5th, St Nicholas’ Eve. Saint Nicholas is portrayed as a man, not unlike Santa; he has white hair and a long white beard, wears a red cape, and carries a book listing the good and naughty children of the year. St. Nicholas also has a servant who goes by the name Zwarte Piet (Black Pete in English). Zwarte Piet is a Moor from Spain, so he’s traditionally depicted as a black man wearing a colourful outfit, a ruff, and a feathered cap, and he is played by white people in blackface.
Image: Brabants Dagblad - https://www.bd.nl/den-bosch-vught/ook-protest-van-voorstanders-zwarte-piet-in-den-bosch-intocht-moet-niet-escaleren~a29aaf9e/?referrer=https://www.google.com/
Every year adults and children alike put on blackface, don the Zwarte Piet outfit, and follow the parade of St. Nicholas and his Zwarte Pieten around the city. This tradition faces backlash every year (I shouldn’t have to tell you why), and yet every year it continues to happen. Dutch people are weirdly very defensive of Zwarte Piet, without even knowing or understanding his history.
The current portrayal of Zwarte Piet most likely emerged from the 1850 children’s book Sint Nikolaas en zijn Knecht ("Saint Nicholas and his Servant" in English) written by Jan Schenkman, although it draws from depictions of St. Nicholas dating back to the Middle Ages when he was presented as having tamed a demon. This particular portrayal prevails today; countries such as Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland all have a version of St. Nicholas’ servant/slave that is symbolically evil and demonic. In the Dutch version, Zwarte Piet is a slave that was bought by St Nicholas and is supposed to represent his “shadow”, i.e. his evil side. Up until recently, Zwarte Piet was used to scare children to discourage them from being naughty, with threats of kidnapping them to Spain if they misbehaved. This dichotomy supposedly represents the age-old fight between good and evil, with the former portrayed as an elderly white man and latter a black male slave.
This version of the story of Zwarte Piet eventually brings us to the imperial history of the Netherlands, specifically its role in the slave trade. Here, the issue of slavery is seen to be unique to the States, even though the Netherlands profited greatly from the slave trade. Initially, the Dutch made money from shipping slaves from Africa to the Americas, but later they came to colonize various territories in the world, including Surinam and Indonesia, most importantly setting up The Dutch East India Company. They were also one of the last countries to abolish slavery in 1863. Still, this dark chapter in Dutch history is barely recognized or seen as what it is. While slavery and its abolition directly took place on American soil, Dutch people in the Netherlands never really came in direct contact with the atrocities of slavery. They felt disconnected from the whole ordeal, so for them, slavery is more of an “American thing” than anything they actively took part in (even so, Zwarte Piet is awfully similar to Jim Crow so at least that should tip people off). Until Dutch people wake up and face their history, Zwarte Piet will remain a racist symbol, perpetuating stereotypes about black people throughout the country.
The problem is that because of this feeling of detachment from their imperial history, most Dutch people don’t really see the problem with Zwarte Piet. They are incredibly defensive of the character, seeing it as tradition and a piece of their childhood. This blatant denial of something so obviously problematic is very alarming, especially since most people defend Zwarte Piet by saying he’s only black from soot because he goes down chimneys to deliver presents. This clearly does not explain the afro, the overdrawn lips, and the spotless and soot-free clothes, but somehow many Dutch people believe it’s enough to appease critics. There is a general feeling that if it’s not intended to be racist, it’s not racist. According to a recent poll, 59% of Dutch people are in favor of keeping Zwarte Piet in blackface while 26% are in favor of changing it gradually. And gradual changes have been in place for a while thanks to campaigns like “Zwarte Piet is Racisme”; in big cities, Zwarte Piet is no longer in blackface but rather has soot marks over his face.
This is definitely an improvement from blackface but raises the question of whether or not we should get rid of Zwarte Piet altogether. Even if he’s no longer portrayed in blackface (which still continues to happen in most of the country, by the way), he still carries the history of imperialism and slavery and symbolizes it. The 15% of the Dutch population that consists of people of color cannot be too happy about either portrayals of Zwarte Piet. Just because something is tradition doesn’t mean it should never be changed or adapted to current times. After all, getting rid of Zwarte Piet doesn’t ruin Christmas, it just takes away the racism from the holiday. Isn’t that something good in the long run?
Plus, it’s not like there are no Dutch people that oppose Zwarte Piet. Like I mentioned earlier, Quinsy Gario’s 2011 “Zwarte Piet is Racisme” campaign is still going strong with protests against Zwarte Piet every year. There is also Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) who have started the hashtag #2020ZwartePietVrij (2020 Zwarte Piet Free). The point is, even if the people that want Zwarte Piet are in the minority, at least they are being loud and their voices are being heard for the most part: in 2015, the UN condemned the use of blackface for Zwarte Piet and declared it “a vestige of slavery”. This prompted the change from blackface to soot, but still, Zwarte Piet prevails. What’s left to do at this point is to raise awareness and educate. Dutch people need to confront their colonial past and understand why Zwarte Piet is problematic instead of getting defensive. This is the only way the country can finally start healing from its imperial legacy and move forward to a better, preferably much less racist age.
By Eda S.
(she/her)
Eda is a General staff writer @ PARDON! read more about her on our TEAM! page.