What the Fuck is Zwarte Piet?

Zwarte Piet, directly translated from Dutch means “Black Pete”.  Although his exact function and portrayal is highly and tensely debated, he accompanies Sinterklass (Dutch Santa, sort of. Their Santa is actually called Kertsman, or Christmas-man) during a Christmas-like tradition in the Netherlands and gives out gifts to kids.  So why all the tension?  Well, Black Pete is, how do we put this?…Black (at least visually).  Every year, in early December, Sinterklass is rumored to roll in from Spain on a steamship (watch out P. Diddy)  with his sidekick Black Pete, a white guy done up in black face paint, bright red lipstick, wearing gold bling and minstrel helper clothing.

One reason celebrators give for Black Pete’s existence is that Sinter is too old to deliver gifts so he got a side kick, Black Pete, to do it for him.  Pete tends to go through the chimney to deliver unsecured loans these gifts, gets covered in soot and that’s why he’s black.   Strange that American Santa does the same thing but still pops out white as hell.

At the other end of the spectrum, Black Pete is black because he is a Moorish slave, not just an innocent, dirty-faced helper.  This perspective comes from the imposition of cross-cultural values on something that superficially resembles a similar form of discrimination.  This end of the debate is most intensely argued by Americans. For Americans, Black Pete hits a nerve that brings back the days of Black Face Minstrels where white actors would perform the black character roles in black face paint, exaggerated pink lips and raggedy clothing.  The actors would further proliferate racist stereotypes by portraying the black characters as dumb, funny slaves or ex-slaves.  This went on for 100 years in America! Zwarte Piet is a reminder of days white Americans would rather forget.  Although many celebrators cherish Pete as a traditional character of the holidays, Americans are appalled by the seemingly blatant racism that Pete represents.

Some proposed solutions to the problem:

• Felix De Rooy of NRC Handelsblad suggested replacing Black Pete with a smurf-like character (yeah Felix, get all the blue people fired up).
• Get rid of Zwarte Piet altogether and let Sinterkalss lug the presents around all by himself.  This creates another issue as the Dutch feel getting rid of Zwarte Piet puts Sinterklass on the chopping block for elimination.
• What about replacing Sinterklass with Santa and Zwarte Piet with elves? Sounds great right?  If everyone could just celebrate Christmas the way Americans do the world would be a better place.  Oh wait, aren’t elves midgets?  Why hasn’t the little people community had a shit fit about this yet?

So is Pete a children’s tale or a racist figure?  We promise no definitive answer exists. We’re not saying this tradition is not objectifying black people in a racist way and it is understandable that Americans have the strongest feelings on the topic because Zwarte Piet is visually too close to what our racist roots look like.  But Americans must also realize that our own history drives bad credit loans us to apply what we know about our own racist past on traditions that may not have anything in common but black face paint.  Although it may be racist in some way, we cannot just superimpose our own racist history atop another country’s tradition and say it’s the same. Either way, we hope a happy medium exists that doesn’t involve smurfs, midgets or complete Americanization of world traditions.