TRIGGER WARNING: Racism, slavery, and black face ahead! If any of this bothers you, please skip over this post!
Hello my fellow non-Europeans! Do you know who this person is?
Not ringing any bells? Well, what about this picture where he’s hanging out with his chum Saint Nicholas?
Or what about this one, where’s he’s riding with good old Saint Nick in a Dutch Sinterklaas parade in The Netherlands?
Nope? Nothing? Anything at all?
Good.
Because if you couldn’t tell by the previous pictures this character is racist as fuck and the fact that not only does he exist, but that he also still manages to appear uncontested in the public even todaymakes me furious beyond belief, and here is why:
His name is Zwarte Piet— Black Pete in English — and supposedly in the Netherlands and Belgium he is supposed to be Sinterklaas’ (Saint Nicholas’) helper, in the same way Santa Clause has a bunch of enslaved black elves to help him give out toys to little children (oh wait, Santa Claus doesn’t do that — because he is not a white supremacist like Sinterklaas is!).
Anyway, in the original story Zwarte Piet was actually a devil that Saint Nicholas shackled to himself and made his slave, but nowadays he is known as the rather unintelligent, mischievous prankster who delivers toys to well-behaved kids with Sinterklaas and whose smiling face that still peers out from Dutch parade floats during the Christmas season is blackened because of all of the soot that gathers from climbing down all those chimneys.
Because, like Humon pointed out in her new Scandinavian and the World comic, Zwarte Piet is not actually of African origin.
Because dirt automatically attaches itself to a person’s face, while leaving their clothes conspicuously clean, right?
Because the fact that not only is he unintelligent, but that his lips are also really big and red are just coincidences, am I right?
And those gold hoop-earrings — everybody wears those, am I right???
WRONG.
Zwarte Piet is racist as fuck, and the fact that the Dutch say that the only reason why they are committing black face year after year is because of some asinine made-up lie that they obviously told just to get away with what they are doing and actually believe that this excuse supposedly proves that they are not being oppressive, racist fucking assholes by continuing to show his character in public is fucking 100% certified abuse logic.
They are apologizing for their oppressive and abusive behavior with lies and they know it because they have arrested people before for protesting against him, and this stuff needs. to. stop. now.
This past year in 2011, for the first time since its inception in 1985, they have canceled the Sinterklaas celebration in New Westminster, British Columbia — they ultimately canceled it instead of just logically having the celebration but without the racist character because the Dutch community claimed that you can’t have a Sinterklaas parade without Zwarte Piet, since “the two go together.” What we need to tell people is that this type of thinking is harmful and literally gets people killed, and that Zwarte Piet needs to just quietly disappear from the public eye forever unless he gets a serious character make-over.
No, I do not give a single gram of fuck about how much white Dutch children will be upset that he is gone.
No, Dutch people, just because you have been told all your life that this kind of behavior is ok because of some old tradition and that you wouldn’t have supported it if you’d known about all of the damage its done to POC doesn’t automatically make you an ally, or excuse your racism.
No, you are still being racist The Netherlands and Belgium for keeping him around, and you attributing his black face to the asinine chimney thing IS an excuse for your blatant racism because it has been proven that he has in fact originated from a Dutch pro-colonialism and pro-African slavery narrative.
No, you are not fucking entitled to keep doing this, and arresting people for trying to tell other people how fucking wrong it is.
So please, all of you people out there who actually give a shit about the well-being of POC, if you see a person dressing up and/or supporting Zwarte Piet, you need to call that person out, and seriously educate them in all of the fuckery and abuse that they are enacting by keeping this character alive.
Because this?
Is most definitely not ok and needs to disappear off the face of the Earth forever, and the fact that Europe has proven time and time again that they just love to hide all of the insidious racism going on in their own countries, and claim to be “open-minded” and point the finger at America for doing what they themselves have done for years and years and years all while continuing to spit in the faces of black and brown people, is some old fucking bullshit.
Welp… I guess that explains why the Dutch gingerbread man I got for Christmas had little black face characters all over the outside of the box. Ugh.
This Shit Is All Racist: The Creation of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete & Why The Netherlands and Belgium Are Racist Fucks for Still Keeping Him Around:...:
