{"id":143149,"date":"2013-12-14T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=143149"},"modified":"2013-12-09T11:28:24","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T16:28:24","slug":"europes-racist-christmas-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/14\/europes-racist-christmas-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe&#8217;s Most Racist Christmas Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/sinterklaas.jpg\" alt=\"Sinterklaas\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/sinterklaas.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/sinterklaas-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Article:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newrepublic.com\/article\/115855\/sinterklaas-netherlands-blackface-holiday\">Europe&#8217;s Most Racist Christmas Tradition<\/a> by Sophie McBain in The New Republic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Text:<\/strong> y mother is from Holland and so, like every Dutch child, I celebratedSinterklaas every year. According to Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas, arrives in the Netherlands from Spain each November for a visit that culminates in him delivering sweets and presents to well-behaved children on the night of 5 December. This year, Sinterklaas has sparked a debate so fierce that even the UN has become involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the root of the controversy are Sinterklaas\u2019s helpers, called the Zwarte Pieten, or Black Petes. \u201cAnd do you know why Zwarte Piet is black?\u201d I remember my grandma asking me. \u201cIt\u2019s because he comes down the chimney to bring you your presents.\u201d This is the story told to most children in Holland, but Zwarte Piet isn\u2019t smeared with soot like Dick Van Dyke after a long day on set. His whole face is painted black and he has thick, painted-on lips, a black curly wig and thick gold hoop earrings.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a wonder the tradition has survived so long. The Zwarte Piet debate has flared up annually for the past few years, but this year, the UN High Commission on Human Rights wrote to the Dutch government suggesting that the Sinterklaas celebrations could be racist.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Within days, a Facebook \u201cPietitie\u201d in support of Zwarte Piet had attracted more than two million likes\u2014in a country of 17 million. The leader of the Dutch far-right Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, tweeted that he would rather the UN were abolished than Zwarte Piet. Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued a statement saying: \u201cZwarte Piet just is black. I can\u2019t change that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the biggest Sinterklaas parade, held in Amsterdam on 17 November, small concessions were made on both sides to keep the peace. City authorities decreed that none of the Zwarte Pieten could wear earrings, because these are symbols of slavery. The several hundred protesters were asked to hold a silent protest, so as not to upset children. Journalists reported they weren\u2019t able to interview any of the participating Piets, as they seemed to be acting under the instruction of a \u201cPR-Piet\u201d. At a parade in Groningen on the same day, armed policemen went undercover as Zwarte Pieten in case demonstrations turned violent.<\/p>\n<p>No one likes their festive traditions tampered with \u2013 imagine trying to implement a countrywide ban on Christmas trees in the UK \u2013 but emotions over Sinterklaas run deeper. Most Dutch people identify themselves as inherently liberal, yet attacks on Zwarte Piet have been construed as an attack on Dutch identity \u2013 which is political dynamite, given the rapid growth of the far-right in recent years. The deputy prime minister Lodewijk Asscher\u2019s insistence that \u201cYou can\u2019t say the whole of Holland is racist\u201d has struck a chord with many who feel aggrieved that a beloved childhood tradition has attracted such condemnation.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that even if a practice isn\u2019t intended to be racist, it can still be hurtful, discriminatory and, yes, racist. Underneath the popular insistence that Sinterklaas is just a cosy children\u2019s event, some worrying and ugly sentiments have come to light. Organisers hoping to hold the first ever \u201cRainbow Piet\u201d parade, featuring multicoloured Piets, had to cancel their event in October after receiving death threats.<\/p>\n<p>Viewed from outside, the Zwarte Piet debate seems baffling and surreal by turns. Yet the emotions it has exposed are very serious indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Article: Europe&#8217;s Most Racist Christmas Tradition by Sophie McBain in The New Republic. The Text: y mother is from Holland and so, like every Dutch child, I celebratedSinterklaas every year. According to Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas, arrives in the Netherlands from Spain each November for a visit that culminates in him delivering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Europe&#039;s Most Racist Christmas Tradition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dutch Christmas celebrators have been donning black face as &quot;tradition&quot; for centuries -- worried about racism, the UN has intervened.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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