The Netherlands: Should the Dutch ‘Black Pete’ tradition be abolished?

Many children in the Netherlands have grown up with the image of Black Pete, a helper for St Nicholas, an equivalent of Santa Claus.

The character is highly controversial, as the figure is usually portrayed by a white person wearing blackface makeup with exaggerated lips and an afro wig

Note EU-Digest: Indeed quite controversial. This has been a centuries old tradional Childrens celebration, before it became a racial issue. Amazing that the people promoting this as a racial issue have no qualms with the flagrant human rights violations of Saudi Arabia and many other countries around the world?

Read more at: Should the Dutch ‘Black Pete’ tradition be abolished? | Netherlands | Al Jazeera

The Netherlands: Is the Netherlands' Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) Racist ? - John McWhorter

Sinterklaas and Black Pete

They’ve been on my living room shelf for a year now — wrapped chocolate candy figurines from the Netherlands of Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete. A friend who lived there for a while gave them to me in irony. Black Pete is a wooly-headed little “Negro” caricature, and in the Netherlands he is as cherished a part of the holiday scenery as elves are here in the U.S.

In fact, Zwarte Piets are depicted as elves, helping out Santa.

There is a growing movement over there to ban Black Pete. Predictably, there are those who think a mountain is made out of a molehill by people who just need to get a sense of humor. Judging the matter from over here in the U.S. is tricky, though. There are practices on race that most would consider repulsive in this country which, when done elsewhere, I am inclined to give a pass.

For example, Finnish friends have told me of attending parties in the ’90s where everybody dressed up as “black,” right down to blackface and wigs. Many will be reminded of stories of college fraternities here condemned for having “ghetto” parties, blacking up and lampooning life among black people in the inner city.

With America’s history as well as its messy present when it comes to race, clowning around in blackface at a party is obviously callous and ignorant.

Black Pete, then, is not the Dutch’s version of a Finnish teen bouncing to Jay-Z in an Afro wig. Black Pete in 2013 is a lame, thoughtless thing, carrying an implication that all of that slavery and servitude and imperialism was some kind of cartoon. Black Hollanders often feel the same way, in a country where blacks from former colonies are overrepresented in housing projects.

Who are we to judge, some might ask. I would say that a country with our colonialist history is no less responsible for judging such matters than other ones. We’ll never eradicate racism entirely. But surely we can do something about white men made up as “Negroes” dancing down the street at Christmastime — which would never happen even in our non-post-racial country.

Read more: John McWhorter: Is the Netherlands' Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) Racist? | TIME.com