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Παρασκευή, 29 Μαρτίου, 2024
ΑρχικήEnglish EditionIt is time to ban Zwarte Piet

It is time to ban Zwarte Piet


By Eirini Tassi, 

Nowadays, blackface is widely criticized by the international community for its explicitly racist and stereotypical undertones. But is that the case for Black Pete of the Netherlands?

One of the most popular Christmas festivities amongst Dutch people is Sinterklaas, a figure based on Saint Nicholas and celebrated on his name day, December 6th. He is dressed in Bishop attire with a characteristic red alb and a pointy miter hat and is commonly allocating presents to children.

Everything looks harmless up to this point. Though controversy starts when we look at Sinterklaas’ helpers: the Zwarte Piets, who hundreds of white Dutch people impersonate in the street following the Saint Nicholas festivities. Zwarte Piet is depicted as a black person with red puffy lips, black Afro hair, golden hoop earrings, and Renaissance attire. This means that such people, in order to dress up as him, paint themselves with dark make-up to appear in blackface.

Kick Out Zwarte Piet in action. On the right, there is the Black Petes in Staphorst. Credits to: Joris van Gennip / Frank Uijlenbroek. Image source: destentor.nl

When confronted about the racist potential of such dress-ups – especially towards young kids who are only now starting to make sense of racial identities – a common response amongst impersonators is that “children see no color”; they are necessarily impartial and distant from any racial biases due to their childhood innocence. Is that really the case though? Many people of color beg to differ. Afriye, one of the founders of the “Zwarte Piet is Racisme” (Black Pete is Racism) campaign, who came to the Netherlands from Ghana as a child, recalls how others his age called him “dirty like Zwarte Piet” and only “good enough” to portray a character like him. This indicates that, upon exposure to Zwarte Piet (and perhaps some personal touches by racist parents), children are likely to associate non-white racial identities with the role of servants, of followers, and of people necessarily guided by others.

But the impersonator’s argumentation does not stop there. Many supporters of Zwarte Piet insist that the figure is part of diachronic Sinterklaas festivities, and banning it and its impersonations would erase a significant aspect of Dutch traditions. But maybe tradition itself is part of the problem. Zwarte Piet, besides his physical appearance, is also traditionally portrayed as a silly, “dumb” character, who necessarily needs the guidance and discipline of wise Sinterklaas to behave appropriately. Such clown-like characteristics are meant to be entertaining.

Cover from an old Sinterklaas tale. Image source: vocativ.com

Izalina Tavares argues that this does not go far from the way European colonizers saw their non-white colonial subjects. In order to morally validate their colonization, they reduced colonized peoples into “childlike, unintelligent, and harmless savage[s], content with the colonial establishment”. This then extended, as he argues, to colonized individuals being seen in humorous lines, with colonizers making fun of their hopeless attempts to “adapt to advanced civilized culture and technology”. Dutch colonizers and other European imperialists shared such assumptions, and these seem to have explicitly informed the way Zwarte Piet’s personality is portrayed: he is a dumb, primitive individual, who necessarily needs to be tamed by the culturally superior white man (i.e. Sinterklaas).

Gloria Wekker, in her qualitative paper on pro-Black Pete discourse, reinforces that conclusion, arguing that black slaves were obligated to “dance and sing” for their Dutch colonizer’s entertainment and that thus Zwarte Piet is the explicit “temporal continuity” of that practice today. Let us not forget that Zwarte Piet’s character was created 13 years before slavery was abolished in the Netherlands, in 1863, so it is nearly impossible for elements of the Dutch colonial culture to not have influenced the shaping of Piet’s character and overall attitude.

Is there, then, any light at the end of the tunnel for removing a figure so deeply engrained in Dutch customs and historical traditions? Since the 2010s, numerous Sinterklaas festivities began being met with anti-Black Pete protests, most of them led by Afriye’s “Zwarte Piet is Racisme” campaign, as aforementioned. Though in turn, these demonstrations received heavy backlash from supporters of the figure, backed by far-right politicians like Geert Wilders, who continuously insisted on its integral position in Dutch traditions. Many even went as far as to spit on and physically attack protestors, calling them terrorists. This stagnant – and rather aggressive – response became dominant throughout most of the past decade. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte himself stated that “Zwarte Piet is just black” and there is nothing he can change about it or the festivities.

Anti-Zwarte Piete protestors hold signs saying “Black Pete should not be here” next to a group of white men impersonating Zwarte Piet with blackface. Photo credits: Mitchell Esajas. Image source: nbcnews.com

Nevertheless, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by Minneapolis police became a catalyst for racial narratives to be reframed, and for the anti-Black Pete movement to push harder for meaningful change. Afriye recalls that protests became more frequent and more widely spread throughout the country, whilst the protestors themselves began being perceived more as “mainstream” demonstrators, rather than as “terrorists”. Rutte himself admitted that there is systemic racism in the Netherlands and that he expects Black Pete to disappear in the near future. Public libraries are also now given the liberty to decide whether they wish to remove Sinterklaas books with Zwarte Piet from their collections. This is a hopeful starting point. Yet, there is sure a long way to go. Zwarte Piet is still widely portrayed in children’s books, and a substantial part of the Dutch population still impersonates the character with blackface. What is more, the far-right remains an adamant supporter of the character, with populist parties, like FVD and PVV, becoming shelters of confirmation biases for people who might doubt Zwarte Piet’s racist potential even for a second.

The situation seems unresolvable with only soft law, but then again, how willing will a center-right Prime Minister be to ban a figure that still appeals to a considerable portion of his voters? One thing is for sure: if a racist portrayal of a black person is still widely seen as an integral part of Dutch traditions, this indicates that the Dutch colonial customs are so fused with the country’s modern political culture, that not even citizens know where one begins and the other ends.


References
  • Astrid Benölken. “‘Black Pete’: Dismantling a racist tradition”. Dw.com. Available here 
  • Izalina Tavares. “Black Pete: Ana­ly­zing a Ra­ci­a­li­zed Dut­ch Tra­di­ti­on Through the His­to­ry of Wes­tern Cre­a­ti­ons of Ste­reo­ty­pes of Black Pe­o­p­les”. Humanityinaction.org. Available here 
  • Micah GarenMarie-Helene Carleton, and Justine Swaab. “Black Pete: Is time up for the Netherlands’ blackface tradition?”. AlJazeera.com. Available here 
  • Wekker, G. (2016). Chapter 5. “… For Even Though I Am Black as Soot, My Intentions Are Good” The Case of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete. In White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, 139-167. New York, USA: Duke University Press.


 

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Eirini Tassi
Eirini Tassi
She is a second-year student of BSc Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in International Relations. She is particularly interested in the sector of cybersecurity within liberal-democratic polities, as well as in environmental politics and intersectionality. Alongside her studies, she produces art for an Amsterdam-based art magazine and is interested in cinematography.