hi, love. can you tell me more about how amsterdam is racist/being racist during this holiday season?
okay so in the netherlands on december 5th we celebrate sinterklaas (aka saint nicholas, so santa but better). sinterklaas, is an old white man who comes on a giant steamboat from spain every year to give all the good children presents on his birthday. sinterklaas has these helpers called the (zwarte) pieten (aka ‘black’ peters) and this is where the problem lies, because it is quite literally blackface
this is the (former) leader of the zwarte pieten. he was my childhood hero, and as you can see,,,,,,,, well yeah. they’re supposed to be black because of chimney soot but it’s still hella racist.
so for the last several DECADES (this started way before i was born but intensified right after i stopped believing) there’s been an ongoing discussion in the netherlands based around whether or not we think this is okay. surprisingly, most people are okay with this. why? well, for one, blackface doesn’t necessarily have the same history in the netherlands as say, in the usa. also they’re the good guys, so is it still racist if they’re good? (spoiler alert: yes. yes it is.)
but i, and most other people my age, agree that this is still really fucking racist because 1) it’s STILL LITERALLY BLACKFACE, 2) all the pieten are black and they serve a white guy and given our history that isn’t something we should support and 3) the pieten are idiots. complete buffoons. they’re generally depicted as incapable of doing anything right, which is a bad stereotype as it is.
most people have stopped the black pieten, opting instead for pieten who only have a bit of soot on their faces, like the official newscast of sinterklaas and his shenanigans does. one year, when the official arrival of sinterklaas was in my town, we had several pieten with faces painted like syrup waffles and gouda cheese because they’re local things and they thought it would be cool (it wasn’t, we all still make fun of them)
so, every year in the netherlands, around november, we all have to sit through relentless campaigns on both sides and honestly it’s getting very tiring because this is a party meant for CHILDREN!!!!!!! i mean they believe that a man sails from spain to give them presents and rides a horse on the rooftops and gets presents into your shoes through a chimney even though most people don’t even have a chimney. i’m sure the children can deal with less racist traditions too.
