Dutch hail tradition of Black Pete clowns
Print Edition
A Facebook page seeking to preserve the clowns in blackface makeup known as “Black Petes” that are part of the Netherlands’ “Sinterklaas” children’s festival has become the fastest-growing Dutch language page ever, receiving a million “likes” in a single day.
The mushrooming popularity of the “Pete-ition” page reflects the depth of emotional attachment most Dutch people feel to a tradition that seems suddenly under threat, and their annoyance at outsiders who call it racist without understanding it.
“Don’t let the Netherlands’ most beautiful tradition disappear,” the page says.
On Tuesday the chairwoman of a UN Human Rights Comission panel investigating whether the festival has racist elements condemned it flatly.
“The working group does not understand why it is that people in the Netherlands cannot see that this is a throwback to slavery, and that in the 21st century this practice should stop,” Verene Shepherd told television program EenVandaag.
Positive figure of fun
In the festival’s story as it is told to children, Sinterklaas, also known as St Nicholas, arrives by steamboat in mid-November accompanied by a horde of helpers: “Zwarte Pieten,” or Black Petes, who have black faces, red lips and curly hair.
Opponents of the tradition say Pete, referred to in song as a “servant” to the elderly saint, is an offensive caricature of black people. Supporters say Pete is a positive figure of fun whose appearance is harmless. Children are usually told he has become black from going down chimneys.
A public broadcaster produces a daily fictional news program about the doings of Sinterklaas and the Petes that is shown in public elementary schools for several weeks.
Children put out shoes at night to receive small presents or sweets. On the evening of December 5, families read poems and exchange presents. The Dutch-Belgian festival is one of the main sources of the Santa Claus traditions widely celebrated on Christmas.
Asked about the issue, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it isn’t his place to judge a folk tradition, adding “Black Pete just is black, I can’t change that.”
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