The Zwarte Piet: How I learned to stop being culturally insensitive
As a resident of the The Netherlands for 6 years, and a citizen for 7, around the beginning of December I always make a little joke about a children's holiday the Dutch have called 'Sinterklaas'. The tradition is as such:
An old Saint from Spain named Sinterklaas arrives in The Netherlands around the middle of November.
After arrival, he has helpers make candy for all the kids while he appears on TV.
On the night of December the 4th, he sends his helpers to give out this children's candy... by breaking into their houses and having them put the candy in the children's' shoes.
Doesn't sound like a bad holiday. Sure, what intelligent person is going to eat food that put in their shoe. But you have to remember that these are kids, and kids can be down right gross. But what is it about this holiday that recently had 90 people in the city of Gouda getting arrested for causing a public disturbance at a Sinterklaas arrival festival?
Ummm, yeah. Zwarte Piet literally translates as 'black Pete'. Now, everyone outside The Netherlands looks at this and says "Holy shit! That's fuckin' racist!". As an outsider looking in, this is nothing more than 'blackface', a make-up style used to make black Americans seem like idiots and less human during the late 19th to the early 20th century. If I was to list how "progressive" the Netherlands is, this sorta thing might shock you even more. A short list of progressive things the Dutch have done include:
Inventions such as the microscope, telescope, pendulum clock, mercury thermometer, audio(cassette)/video tape, the CD, and CD-ROM(the last two being both Dutch and Japanese).
Contributions of Liberal Theory from Dutch individuals like Desiderius Erasmus, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Johan Rudolf Thorbecke.
"Progressive" laws such as same-sex marriage being legal since 2001, Legal Abortion since 1984 (and taking the 'Morality Acts' into account, abortion to save the life of the mother was allowed since 1911), decriminalization of marijuana possession since 1976, had our first openly gay Member of Parliament in 1977 with Coos Huijsen (Almost had first gay Prime Minister in 2002 with Pim Fortuyn, but animal rights activist, Volkert van der Graaf, assassinated him the 6th of May 2002).
With such a list of how "progressive" the Dutch are, you'd wonder why the hell they would practice such an obviously racist holiday. Even the UN chairperson of Working Group on people of African descent, Verene Shepherd, stated that this holiday was racist back in 2013, and sent a letter to the Dutch government saying they would be investigated by the UN. As an outsider looking in, you can't help but cringe at this obvious display of racial inequality. However, that's the big issue I see. You're an outsider looking in. You see, no culture is perfect. For example, North Korea has some of the most liberal laws pertaining to marijuana use and it's possession. It's not uncommon to find people smoking it in the streets out there. However, it's also not uncommon for people to go missing because the government as deemed them "untrustworthy". Singapore may be one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world along with being one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, but it's also ranked at 150th out of 175 nations as countries with proper freedom of the press by the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, and has the world's highest execution rates per capita. We can talk all the shit we want about Hamas-controlled territories in Palestine, but in the West Bank territories, you may not be protected from discrimination and aren't allowed to marry, but being gay has been legally protected since 1951. While you might might think "but that's an Islamic country", secular Turkey, PRofChina and even South Korea have the similar legal stances as West Bank Palestine in regards to LGBT rights. Don't even get me started on how certain foreigners are denied services and other Ethnic issues in Japan.
The point I'm trying to make, is that no matter what culture you look into, there's always something weird or offensive about them to outsiders. Sure, The Treaty of Rome in 1957 ensured equal pay for equal work in Italy, but even today machismo is still prevalent there. Even when visiting Malaysia, I was offended by being asked 'Massage, boss?' by every massage parlor I walked past. But did I voice my offense? Not at all. Just declined their offer and kept walking. And this exactly how I feel how non-Dutch people should view the Sinterklaas holiday. You don't like it, and it's fine. Just decline and keep moving.
The entire holiday is in reverence to a Greek saint named Saint Nikolaos of Myra, patron saint of Children. The archetype of a Moors helper (Zwarte Piet) dates back to as far as 1850, with some speculating that it dates back even further. If one was to stop listening to professional umbrage takers and read about the concept of 'blackface' outside of the US cultural tradition of it, the tradition of it being used by other cultures has fuck all to do with racism. Including the Dutch cutlure.
I understand why it's offensive to Americans, and those with an Americana cultural upbringing. But if I'm to be blunt with my opinion, it's American culture that made it so racist in he first place with the 'danified coon' archetype. Remember that UN person I told you about, saying that the holiday was racist and that the government would be investigated about it? Turns out, she had no right to do so. In fact, a representative of the UN's cultural organization, UNESCO, stated;
"She's just a consultant who abused the name of the UN to bring their own agenda to the media. All the hoopla that Shepherd has caused with her letter is nothing more than a bad move in the game of pressure groups in the Netherlands."
While some people and businesses have decided to give a bit of change to the tradition (e.g.: having multicolored Pieten), most Dutch people are against changing the holiday. It's not that they're trying to go out of their way to offend you like some leftist idiots, or even looking to make this a tradition outside of their own country. (Though, it is practiced in places like Belgium and France.)
The fact remains, is that the holiday has more history to it than most people care to look for. They see something at face value, and if they don't like it, they deem it as offensive and culturally insensitive, while at the same time not realizing the hypocrisy of the cultural insensitivity they're showing by judging something outside of their culture at face value with no real knowledge of the history of the people's cultural or traditions. You can't claim to be someone who's globally-minded and culturally sensitive, while at the same time believing that your own cultural ideas of what is morally and socio-politically right or wrong, should be accepted as canon everywhere you go.
As The Economist put it in 2013;
"For many, even if a year ago he (Zwarte Piet) was not a symbol for Dutch racism, he is now."
Zwarte Piet was never racist. You made him racist.
