On November 29th, a Dutch “friend” of mine on Facebook posted the picture above as his profile pic. The guy portrayed in the picture is well known throughout Holland as Santa’s helper “Zwarte Piet” or “Black Pete.” Here are some other pictures I found of whites dressed up as this Black Pete during past festivities throughout the country:

When I saw the first picture, I was offended and disgusted — despite the fact that this is not my first time hearing about Black Pete. A few years ago, I lived in Rotterdam for a few months and returned during the winter holidays. It was racist when I heard about him then and my feelings have never changed. Since his profile picture appeared on my wall, I replied that the entire tradition was rooted in racism and that with all that is happening in America and throughout the world regarding issues of race, that we — the hue-an race — should be at a place where racism and/or racist traditions are no longer tolerated or perpetuated (consciously or unconsciously).

He didn’t disagree with the overall message, but he disagreed in part, saying that Black Pete was harmless and that there should be no offense taken for whites dressing in blackface. He explained that the only reason why their faces were painted black was due to the fact that Pete became dirty from falling down all the chimneys to deliver presents to the children. My response to that was, then why are Pete’s clothes perfectly clean (in all of the pictures)? If that’s the excuse, be consistent and follow through so I and other people of color don’t think that you’re trying to insult our race….since we are talking about a fictional character!

Most of his Dutch friends that commented disagreed with me, but I had a few supporters. One thing I hated the most was that they tried to pretend that this was the first time they had ever hard someone say that this was racist. Since that incident five days ago, I have seen a few things that let me know that I am not alone in my views on this issue. First, I saw a video on youtube of a recent protest in Amsterdam, which actually resulted in clashes with the police and arrests.

And yesterday, Mediatakeout had a story about it, calling the entire thing an example of “extreme racism.” [http://mediatakeout.com/260940/extreme-racism-the-netherlands-is-havign-a-blackface-parade-where-all-the-white-people-paint-there-faces-black-and-dance-around-like-idiots-pics.html.] During my search for pictures for this post, I saw a recent article from November 12, 2014 [http://www.dw.de/dutch-court-rules-in-favor-of-black-pete/a-18058433] in which the Netherlands’ highest administrative court, the Council of State, reversed the decision of the lower judiciary in Amsterdam, which “agreed that the figure should be banned from the traditional festivities marking the arrival of St. Nicholas on December fifth.”

I have so many fond memories of living in Holland and one thing that always stood out to me, was the overall kindness of the Dutch people. So of course, I could never wrap my head around this. During my first trip, one of the things that I did was volunteer at a non-profit organization dealing with racism and discrimination in the Netherlands called Art.1. I never discussed this issue with them, but I wonder what their position on this issue is? I ask since the last article did not end on a good note. It concluded:

Yet many Dutch people cherish the tradition and want to keep it the way it is. A poll conducted last Christmas season found that 90 percent of Dutch citizens would not change his appearance, and a Facebook petition in support of Black Pete received 2 million “likes”.

The Council of State in the Hague did not rule on whether or not Black Pete is racist, claiming that question is out of their purview. Rather they judged that the mayor of Amsterdam was not allowed to reject permit applications for public celebrations if the plans included the caricature.

This is a true example of “reckless indifference.” Why can’t they respect other cultures, be more empathetic and understand that this is highly offensive to black people?? And while we’re at it, why do people still believe in Santa Clause? Le sigh…