by zerodix » January 11th, 2018, 1:21 pm
I am dutch. lemme explain why black petes ARENT racist.
Black petes are the helpers of Saint Nicolas (sint nikolaas or sinterklaas in dutch)
Back in the day, when slavery was common, this bearded dude decided to free the child slaves.
He took these kids under his care and let them work for him and provided them with a home, care and food.
(providing payed work for kids was a good thing in those days, nowaydays we would discuss child labour)
So, with these freeed kids he took care of, his name grew into holyness.
And the festivities celebrated every december the 5th yearly contains singing, giving presents and having certain treats called "pepernoten" (pepper nuts if you literally translate it)
The story we tell our children for over generations is this: Sint Nicolas and his Black Petes (that represent FREE-d slaves) come with a steam boat from Spain to Holland every year, to celebrate St Nicolas birthday. By giving all children presents and joy.
So this bearded guy has NO black slaves (that would be incredibly racist and sexually harassing) but he FREE'd them from slavery.
missing the old deviantart...