October has begun, and it is safe to say that the annual discussion about Black Pete and racism in the Netherlands will dominate the news. Not only the national news outlets will report on this, increasingly, we have seen the international press pick up on the story. As witnessed by this article by the BBC.
To provide some background information: the Netherlands and Flanders, celebrate a holiday in the beginning of December, which resembles Christmas in many ways, but differs on a crucial point. Namely, instead of having elves or reindeers as helpers, our Santa (or Sinterklaas, a localized form for St. Nicholas), has helpers named black Pete that wear Blackface. Now I can give you much more information on cultural tradition and history, but to be honest, the stereotypical depiction of Black Pete is what is the issue in this entire discussion.
Black Pete, you can see for yourself how this is the issue.
I haven’t always followed the discussion around Black Pete very closely over the years, but if I remember correctly, it was the internet and its outreach that really sparked this discussion and following outrage. Before, there were groups that organised action against Black Pete, however little seemed to change. With the rise of the internet (and social media in particular), the strange tradition of Black Pete caught more and more international attention, especially in the last 5 to 7 years.With international attention growing, so did the national pressure to actually change something. However, this pressure is met with great resistance. The subject has grown to a national annual drama by now.
Unknowingly, I did not give it much thought when I was younger, it was just the way it was. And although I was aware what racism was, I did not think of Black Pete as racist. When I started living abroad, the realisation grew every year, when I would try to explain this weird tradition we had. Especially since it resembles Christmas to a large extent, but than has this strange twist at the end. Honestly, now I’ve given up on trying to explain, because I can’t. However, from a personal perspective I can see how for people that have grown up with this tradition, this is completely normal (this is of course not mutually exclusive to being completely racist, for example slavery was once completely normal). It is difficult to come to terms with something that you’ve done for years is now wrong.
On the other side, it is time that the Netherlands admits that racism is still an issue. For a country with a history in colonialism and is named as one of the first to fully exploit slavery, we are surprisingly pride about the success we have made with both of these concepts. The Dutch Golden Age is taught without any embarrassment. One university professor would even admit how proud he was about the Dutch and their role in slavery. It is telling, that we need the internet to tell us that the depiction of Black Pete the implications that it has are harmful, before a nationwide discussion starts. Internationally, we look poorly, but this is something that could have, and should have been addressed years before.
However, we do have to realise, if to change a useless law in the Netherlands takes at least a year, it will take significantly longer to change a longstanding tradition and the way that people feel about it. One of the issues we are seeing, is that politicians have a hard time influencing the tradition of Black Pete, but because it is a sensitive subject, they also choose to ignore it. Local politicians, whose towns or cities organise big welcoming events for Sinterklaas and Black Pete, could use their influence, but do risk to get violently threatened if they change anything.
Maybe national politicians should take the opportunity to enlarge the discussion to the wider subject of racism. What is taught in schools about racism (and maybe the history of Sinterklaas and Black Pete). We, much like the Americans, have statues of controversial figures who owned or profited from slaves that can be moved from public spaces to the museums. We have street names that can be altered to non-racist names. There are a number of things that can be done, to give the discussion a broader meaning and normalise it. In the meantime, they can continue with altering the concept of Black Pete, until a fitting compromise has been found that pleases everyone. The last couple of years, some experimental changes have been tried, but considering the discussion is still very much alive, it seems to me, that these weren’t very successful yet.
If you search online for the debate; there are many blogs out there showing both sides of the discussion, and some of these can be very interesting to get a more in-depth glance into how the discussion is dealt with in the Netherlands.
Dutch Politics 