Sinterklaas, St Nicholas, comes to the Netherlands in a steam boat from Spain this weekend, is here for a few weeks, and gives lots of presents to kids on 5 december. In the US his name lives on as Santa Claus. He is very old and wears a kind of bishop's clothes (http://www.bitesandstories.com/blog/2015/12/4/the-4-dutch-de... )
He has helpers known as Zwarte Piet, black Pete. In times past they punished bad kids, but nowadays they are a lot of fun, entertain kids, hand out candy, and they are the ones who bring the presents to kids, through the chimney.
Already since the 1960s there has been a movement to abolish this, but that has always been small.
Since 2010 or so some people from minority groups have been more vocal, saying they get called Zwarte Piet on the streets, that this is a racist tradition, and that it needs to go. Apologists claim that the blackness comes from travelling through the chimney (that's what children are usually told). Some lady from the United Nations Committee against Racism or so, a black woman from the Caribbean, appears to have looked at the situation for about five minutes and declared the whole practice clearly racist.
More and more voices currently say that we should gradually change Zwarte Piet -- why not have some black streaks in his face only (from the chimney), or use lots of different non-skin colors? It's not a huge change, children will be fine with it, and these people who feel discriminated obviously have at least some point. National TV has a daily program in the Sinterklaas period ("Sinterklaasjournaal") and they are very slowly changing Piet, for instance. This movement is especially big in Amsterdam and among the highly educated.
But a large part of the country is vehemently against it along the lines of "who are these outsiders to tell us to change our Dutch traditions", "if they don't like it why don't they go back to their own countries", calling people who argue for change traitors, and so on. Feelings are especially strong in more rural areas and among the non educated.
Now people who say they'll dress up their kids as Piet using just some streaks, or in a different color, receive death threats on the Internet in huge numbers. The discussion rages for almost the entire year now, not just in november/december. That the election is in march, not long after december, is pointed out as working in favour of Geert Wilders.
The first showing of this year's Sinterklaasjournaal is tonight, and the rumour is that it will have Piets of all kinds of colours. Sinterklaas arrives this saturday. I'm going to watch live with my kids, I would like to dress them as Piet with some streaks, but I really am too afraid of being beaten up. It'll be civil war in a few years...
It's a single silly issue that runs exactly along the dividing line of all these related things.
He has helpers known as Zwarte Piet, black Pete. In times past they punished bad kids, but nowadays they are a lot of fun, entertain kids, hand out candy, and they are the ones who bring the presents to kids, through the chimney.
Unfortunately since the 1850s, Zwarte Piet looks exactly like a stereotypical black slave and is played by white people using blackface: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/11/zwarte-piet-wi... .
Already since the 1960s there has been a movement to abolish this, but that has always been small.
Since 2010 or so some people from minority groups have been more vocal, saying they get called Zwarte Piet on the streets, that this is a racist tradition, and that it needs to go. Apologists claim that the blackness comes from travelling through the chimney (that's what children are usually told). Some lady from the United Nations Committee against Racism or so, a black woman from the Caribbean, appears to have looked at the situation for about five minutes and declared the whole practice clearly racist.
More and more voices currently say that we should gradually change Zwarte Piet -- why not have some black streaks in his face only (from the chimney), or use lots of different non-skin colors? It's not a huge change, children will be fine with it, and these people who feel discriminated obviously have at least some point. National TV has a daily program in the Sinterklaas period ("Sinterklaasjournaal") and they are very slowly changing Piet, for instance. This movement is especially big in Amsterdam and among the highly educated.
But a large part of the country is vehemently against it along the lines of "who are these outsiders to tell us to change our Dutch traditions", "if they don't like it why don't they go back to their own countries", calling people who argue for change traitors, and so on. Feelings are especially strong in more rural areas and among the non educated.
Now people who say they'll dress up their kids as Piet using just some streaks, or in a different color, receive death threats on the Internet in huge numbers. The discussion rages for almost the entire year now, not just in november/december. That the election is in march, not long after december, is pointed out as working in favour of Geert Wilders.
The first showing of this year's Sinterklaasjournaal is tonight, and the rumour is that it will have Piets of all kinds of colours. Sinterklaas arrives this saturday. I'm going to watch live with my kids, I would like to dress them as Piet with some streaks, but I really am too afraid of being beaten up. It'll be civil war in a few years...
It's a single silly issue that runs exactly along the dividing line of all these related things.