Dutch ''Black Petes'' and racism.

[SlayerOfLight]

Crap, where should I start... Each year it's a common tradition in The Netherlands (my country) to celebrate something familar to Christmas. However, instead of a joyful obese man yelling ''ho-ho-ho'' everywhere he goes while riding a chariot in the sky accompanied by magical fairies and a demon that apparently punishes children when they have been bad (and even take them to hell in some instances), It's about an old man riding on a horse called ''Sinterklaas'', based on the actual Saint Nicholas unlike Santa Claus, which is more likely based on the Norse god Thor. Anyway, just like Santa Claus, Sinterklaas brings presents to children. However, instead of elves and fairies, Sinterklaas' helpers are figures known as ''Black Petes'' (Zwarte Pieten). Well, believe it or not but those child friendly happy fellas aren't actually black but rather pale when they aren't helping Sinterklaas by climbing through chimneys into houses at night to bring the children their presents. And what alot of black people in and outside my country fail to understand, is the simple fact that inside a chimney there happens to be alot of soot. Black Petes are always busy, day and night alike, that they have no time to wash the soot of their face after climbing through hundreds of chimneys. Hence the reason they are called ''Black Petes''. But according to alot of black people, and even United Nations human rights professor Verene Shepherd, the Sinterklaas feast is racist simply because the Black Petes resemble African slaves working for a white man. Oh and before I forget, the Sinterklaas feast would also bring back slavery to the modern age. Well, I am no racist myself, but the only thing I can do is wonder if those black people that support this lie have been eating a spacecake or something. Because you see, Sinterklaas is a very old man and he doesn't have magical powers unlike Santa Claus, and therefore it's impossible for him to do all the work alone. Poor old Sinterklaas doesn't even have the strenght to climb through one single chimney himself. He'd probably end up lying on the bottom with several bone fractures, only to be discovered by an unfortunate child the next morning. That's why he hired the Black Petes to help him, but now it seems some fundamental anti-racist bigots can't even see the diffrence between slavery and simply helping an old man to bring joy to children. For fudge sake, Does Sinterklaas carry a whip anywhere with him? He might in the least use his staff to hit a slacking Black Pete on the bottom to keep him at work, but nowhere can any signs be seen of so-called slavery.


The Sinterklaas feast is one of the little traditions we Dutch people celebrate. We welcome all cultures into our Nation, and in exchange we get complainments and criticism against our own bloody culture. And it seems even the U.N sticks it's nose into it. They want our own tradition to be removed, while barbaric traditions that don't even belong to The Netherlands such as the festival of sacrifice, are allowed to stay. So what do you people of MLK think, is the Sinterklaas feast really racist or not?

[Regulus]

But what is the minimum wage for black petes? What kind of benefits do they get for working full time? Do they get tax returns for helping to run a charity?

This tradition is racist against white people, because it implies that we're all fat and lazy. Only black people can find jobs in this day and age, and it's because of such stereotypes and affirmative action.

I'm deeply offended by your country's tradition. Hey, I've got an idea. Let's declare war on the Netherlands for this!

[SlayerOfLight]

Well, I'd say give us your best shot.

[Woeler]

Ok so there are an estimated 200-300 people who feel 'offended' by this tradition. To them I say: This is a shengen country, so go live somewhere else. Problem solved. Dutch country, Dutch culture. Period.

[zerodix]

hey, a Dutchie! me too oh, this discussion comes up every year, now it has already popped up on Facebook and other online discussions in july (the festivities take place begin december, lol) the controversy has started since there are two groups:
the groups that still believe all cultures can mix together.
the realistic view that cultures and believes that come with the different cultures mean that people don't understand each other, and there the discussion begins.
the real issue is that the government is making the polarity between the cultural groups bigger, by beeing judgemental towards one group, and giving the credits to the other group. the people take this on each other, and there you have the base of the problem.
well, I can understand this is a bit abstract, so i take myself as an example:

I had a maroccan co worker, and we had a nice time working together. no troubles, good atmosphere. but I am female, he is male. In his culture, males are higher in rank than females, he explained. I told him that in my culture, genders are equal and have the same right, and asked him to respect that.
two weeks later the first incident happened. he tried something with me i didnt want. since I knew about his culture, and how they deal with misschief, I grabbed a piece of wood and smacked him in the face. trouble started, since I SUDDENLY WAS THE AGRESSOR in my bosses view, where HE ACTUALLY tried to grab me somewhere you dont grab a woman. result: big annoying discussions. I left there.

now last january I lost my home. I went to social work to find urgence, for a place to live. asylum seekers, refugees, they get this urgence. I didn't. I had to fence for myself. I have a boyfriend now, he took me in. The other choice was to sleep under a bridge.

now that is where the polarity starts. since I am definitely not the only one dealing with these situations. since it is not fair, i found myself growing hatred towards the other cultural groups, since they are treaten better than our cultural group.

oh, and black pete should stay, he is fun.

[SlayerOfLight]

Even these days the same bullsh#t is still going on even though it isn't even December. And now the U.N wants to banish Black Petes all because of a small complaining minority. And yea, the whole refugee stuff is insane. Our government cares more about minorities and so-called ''asylum seekers'' than it's own people.

Echt kansloos.

[Elton John]

It's an extremely touchy subject in america due to old timey minstrel shows and blackface which were done to dehumanize black people. The affects of this and slavery and all those not so wonderful things still affect us to this day. No, electing a black president did not magically eliminate racism.

In the past year there has been an unusually large amount of violence towards black people at least when compared to the first few years of the 21st century. The travyn martin/george zimmerman incident, cops straight up killing black people with little to no reprecussions... All the riots, etc.

Then there's the recent blacklivesmatter movement which is being painted as a racist movement by fox news. In the past few days three cops have been killed, one of which I have met before several times. The man was shot multiple times. The person who killed him was black (I think?)

The racial tension in america is the highest it has been since the early 90's LA riots. So just about anything involving race is an extremely touchy subject.

I don't think the dutch are racist for this tradition. However it's a lot more than americans making a mountain out of a molehill given the events of the past year and race relations.

When you see a video of a black man being choked to death by cops in broad daylight in the middle of a busy area, begging for mercy with his final moments it makes me think that scary times are ahead. This happened last year.

[FireAndSun]

Like Elton John mentioned, the United States has a very ugly history when it comes to race, and it's still a very serious and touchy subject here. Due to historical context here in the United States it's very understandable that many would view this as deeply racist, especially since the Black Petes do look a lot like the blackface that was used to mock black people in the United States. Here, such a tradition would never fly. However, since the Netherlands doesn't have the same racial tensions or history as we do, I can't say the tradition is necessarily wrong or prejudiced, as I'm sure racism is not the intention, due to American history such a tradition would indeed be viewed as prejudicial.

[SlayerOfLight]

^ There are even black people here that aren't against Black Petes. It's just a very small minority of unemployed blacks that have nothing better to do in their spare time than whine about the smallest things. The U.N can take a hike because no matter how much pressure they put on us, we'll never stop including Black Petes in our tradition.

[DGFone]

Obviously it's the Dutch flag's fault, and to solve the problem, we need to ban the dutch flag. No flag, no racism!

Spoiler: show

I hope you guys can realize that I am not being serious here