Black Face Is Still a Part of Dutch Christmas Celebrations
This is the time of year in the Netherlands and Belgium where Christmas merchandise begins to appear in stores. Items include candy, pepernoten, and chocolate letters. The Zwarte Piet also emerges every Christmas. This Piet serves the same purpose as the elves that work for Santa in the United States, except that Piet is black face. That seems shocking, right? It should. Traditionally speaking, “Black Pete” has a black painted face, red lips, golden hoop earrings, and a colorful renaissance era outfit.
The tradition of dressing up like the Zwarte Piet began in the 1930s and has continued all the way up until this day. It originated from a story written in 1850 by Jan Schenkman. The story was about the adventures of Saint Nicholas, and the illustrations featured a moor from Spain who completed all of Saint Nicholas’ laborious work. This tradition serves as a remnant of the Dutch colonial past, and is a tool of oppression at its core. It manages to dehumanize black people in The Netherlands, and serves a similar purpose as the Civil War era statues in the United States.
According to Mieke Bal, a graduate from the University of Amsterdam, the reason that this tradition has been difficult to phase out is because the people that celebrated it are in denial. Older generations find it disturbing that they enjoyed such a racist tradition as a child, and want to normalize the barbaric tradition. In other words, they do not want to have someone “mess with their memories,” according to Mieke.
Contrary to arguments from Dutch political leaders, the tradition has a powerful effect on children. Thus far, my family and I have lived most of our life in the Netherlands. My younger sister, who is only five years old, came down the stairs one night in her pink pajamas crying. She went on about how she wanted to sleep in our parents’ bedroom because she was afraid that Piet would come through the window and kidnap her. Not fully understanding what she meant by that, we asked who Piet was and why he would come down. She simply responded, “If I’m a bad girl the small black man will take me far away.” This tradition without a doubt provokes fear in children, which is a powerful emotion, and sets a model for how children perceive black people, essentially setting the foundation for initialized racism at a young age.
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, commented on the tradition. He had the audacity to say that the tradition was more annoying for white people because they had to spend several days trying to properly wash off the black face paint. He also said there is nothing that can be done to stop the practice, because it is tradition.
Thankfully, there have been movements trying to kill this tradition. In 2011, there were violent outbreaks in the Gouda protest, as the group called “Zwarte Pete is Racist” took to the streets. In 2014, the protests caught international attention. In 2016, the major network channel in the region, RTL, announced that it would only stream “Chimney Piets” or “Rainbow Piets” on their channel. They would not tolerate any black face characters.
This tradition is not born out of innocence, it was designed to oppress the black population in the Netherlands. If we continue to think like the Prime Minister, there will be no change. We need to increase international attention on the issue, and disassociate ourselves with those that promote this racist tradition. Saint Nicholas should be for everyone.
