Sweet Creams

Your awesome Tagline

3 notes

The more I think about It, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.
Vincent Van Gogh

4 notes

Black Peter & Sinterklaas

Dennis de Groot and some of his colleagues are working on a project about Sinterklaas,which means Saint Nicolas in French. He’s asked that a few people spread awareness about the winter holiday that’s currently celebrated in Holland every year.
The above photos are just some things I’ve found on the web. I had never heard of such a thing until 2 days ago. It’s kind of shocking but then again, I’ve never been to Holland.

I’ve copied and pasted the open letter taken from his facebook page. Feel free to re-blog and pass this on.

::

It’s the time of the year again where, as has been the case for the past couple of years, discussions about the political correctness of the Sinterklaas holiday start up again. I’m not very fond of holidays myself, and Sinterklaas is one of many holidays I don’t celebrate. However it’s also the only holiday I will end up in heated discussions over nearly every single year.

Yes, I am one of the people who has a major issue with ‘Zwarte Piet’ (or “Black Peter’ in English). I myself am the offspring of an interracial relationship and grew up in a small city that during that time was mostly white. Growing up my parents have always made me aware of the existence of racism and discrimination, and I’ve encountered countless situations where I experienced it in practice.

I’m also married to a Jamaican American woman, who first encountered Black Peter as Sambo-esque characters in the shopping windows all over the city. Quite literally a culture shock, as it’s imagery that has an emotional and important history in the United States.

As of recently I’ve been researching the history of the Black Peter phenomenon for a project I’ve been planning with several friends, who are expats questioning the existence of this character. To me, the problem is not the holiday or it’s celebration in 2011, the problem lies solely with the depiction of Black Peter.

The fact is that the images of Black Peter are downright racist. This is not an opinion made up by people who are oversensitive, these are the type of images that the rest of the world has banned last century. Big red lips, Creole earrings and a pitch black color are all characteristics of the Western world’s racist stereotypes of the past.

Peter himself comes from several different sources. Originally, the Saint went from door to door on his own. Throughout the centuries it evolved and he was later joined by the Devil (or a demon), a character you can still find in the Alpine countries under the name Krampus. However where in other countries this Devil evolved into a scary (and quite sketchy looking) man character such as France’s Le Père Fouettard (The Whipping Father), in the Netherlands he somehow turned into a black servant. In 1850 finally, Peter in it’s current form was officially introduced by Jan Schenkman in the children’s book “St. Nicholas and his Servant.”

A defense often used by those who are pro-Black Peter is that he’s originally a white man, who’s black from the soot from going down the chimney all the time. Not only is this argument flawed because it doesn’t explain where his red lips, creoles and curly hair come from. It also doesn’t explain why Peter is already black upon arrival in the Netherlands, before entering any potential chimneys.

On page 11 of Jan Schenkman’s book you can find the sentence “But no … It’s his helper, who is black in color”, from which you can conclude that Peter is actually originally “black”. It is quite clear that the chimney soot argument was conceived once more black people came to live in the Netherlands and possibly questioned the custom. Incidentally, it is quite ironic that the image of Peter in the book is quite normal. He’s not a goofy clown, doesn’t have big Creoles and also doesn’t have big red lips or eyes.

The protests against Zwarte Piet began as early as the late 70’s, but to date have never been taken seriously. This includes signed petitions sent directly to the ‘Tweede Kamer’ that ended up being ignored. Nobody has also ever bothered to do research on the effects of the depiction of Black Peter, a topic which you would think would at least have been explored for a society so outspoken to defend this character as a ‘tradition’.

Most importantly, the pro-Black Peter groups claim that touching Peter will deprive children of their childhood memories and joys. Another flawed argument as the kids do not need to be deprived of joy at all. For these children it doesn’t matter if Peter is portrayed as he has been for years or not, what counts for them is that they eventually receive gifts. Yes the mysterious story adds on to the experience, and again nothing has to be changed about that, apart from references such as ‘as black as soot’.

Interestingly enough, Dutch department store HEMA, brought the Sinterklaas holiday to their 2010 pop up store in London, leaving out Black Peter as a whole. If there was absolutely nothing wrong with Peter, why feel the need to leave him out?

In conclusion… it is 2011 and the fact that a whole country is still in denial about clear racist characteristics associated with a character like Black Peter is really worrying. However I must say that it is also worrying that the people who are against Black Peter can’t properly articulate and defend, let alone organize themselves 9 times out of 10.