Once every year or so something very crazy happens and I feel compelled to write about it. This year, it was the neighborhood Christmas parade, or as it's known here in NL, the arrival of Sinterklaas.
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| Official photo from Iamsterdam |
The arrival of Sinterklaas (usually by boat, but not for us because the canals in our neighborhood are too small, boohoo) has been cancelled for the previous two years because someone ate a pangolin. At 2pm on Nov 12th, a double decker party bus rolled into our neighborhood blasting techno so loud it hurt. Then, out of the bus, came a dozen people dressed in velvet suits and blackface (yes...) throwing small bags of cookies to children, handing out flags to wave, and jumping up and down to start the street dance party. There was a 50+ year old hype man on the bus with hair gel and a silver sequin jacket yelling things into the mike like "woo!" "too the left! to the right!" "everyone dance" "hup hup hup!".
Oh yeah and maybe there was a Sinterklaas standing on the bus, I don't know. Whatever.
This pride x blackface event was definitely entertaining, but also felt like watching someone you know and respect get completely plastered and try to start a fight in a public place.
To clarify a few things, Sinterklaas is (obviously) the Dutch version of Santa. He lives in Spain, wears a red pope hat, and has a totally-not-a-slave "helper" called Black Piet.
Now, take a deep breath because the Christmas you know and love is taking a sharp left.
Black Piet (or Zwarte Piet in Dutch, link for the brave) is of no specific origin but is black(face), and assists Sinterklaas by accompanying him around the Netherlands between 12th Nov - 5th December. If children are good, Black Piet will climb down their chimney to leave candy and cookies in their shoes. If children are bad, Black Piet might leave coal, hit the kids with a stick or kidnap them and take them back to Spain. (Honestly, as an adult, not the worst sounding punishment.) Black Piet seems to be just as, if not more, important than Santa himself. It is considered normal for parents to hire Piets to show up to visit at their homes.
When I first heard about Black Piet I thought the concept was an offensive internet lie concocted to rile up the snowflakes (in this case, me). Surely this is not a thing that can exist in a Western country in 2022. However, Black Piet is ferociously (and on one occasion this year, violently) defended by many in the Netherlands as a cultural icon. According to some (#notall) white Dutch people I have spoken to on the subject, Black Piet has no impact on the perception or feelings of black people because Black Piet is viewed in a "positive way".
In 2014 the concept of "Sooty Piet" was introduced in Amsterdam. Sooty Piet is based on the premise that Piet is a white guy whose face is dirty because he climbs down chimneys. Therefore white people can put on up to 90% blackface coverage and claim it is not racist. A fair middle ground perhaps? Not really when you see local bakeries exposing the true undertones:
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| This totally-not-racist edible masterpiece was featured in a flier delivered to every house in our neighborhood last year. Could it be our local baker is waving their own flag here? Alas, it is a chain store. |
This weekend I heard that Sooty Piet is not an appropriate replacement for Black Piet, because, and prepare yourself for this reasoning as it is special, if you don't wear full blackface when handing out cookies/candy to children, the children might recognize you and it will ruin the magic of Sinterklaas 😱.
I have nothing more to say about this other than I don't like it, its absurd, and I feel very badly for children in the Netherlands who are bullied because of this tradition. It appears to be changing at a snails pace.
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