Comments on: The story of Zwarte Piet

By: Hanny

Hanny — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:10:52 +0000

Haha, dad said yesterday: if we had had only white Petes from the start, someone would have said by now we’re discriminating by not letting black people participate. I thought it was funny and to be honest, probably true. It emphasises that, if you want, you can always find something to be offended by, I guess. Let’s not.

By: Hanny

Hanny — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:30:54 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Leonie and Jose. Jose, I agree, there shouldn’t be a need to defend the tradition. With this piece I wanted to explain rather, ’cause I understood recently that lots of my English friends even didn’t know what Zwarte Piet was about. And it is indeed not about ‘apartheid’, so I’ll not go into that any further. Cheers.

By: Jose

Jose — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:23:10 +0000

seriously… do we need to discuss and defend our tradition like this?! it’s a festivity for kids?! its a joyfull evening with presents…. And the zwarte pieten are doing nice things, and are not being pictured as evil, dumb black people…. but whatever, I am not a racist, and you say that we cannot see it from the other side of it, but why, is there always such discussion about these things?! It’s a fun fest, and people who are offended by it… well, you choose to make yourselfs miserable, not us! My son will learn that Zwarte Piet is a nice guy, who is black because he climbed through the chimneys! nothing else! and if my government should ever listen to your stupid protests, I myself will protest!

By: Leonie

Leonie — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:35:40 +0000

I would like to respond to the accusation that the Dutch are the worst racists in the world since I feel like I should be able to defend myself and my country for at least a little against your points. I don’t see how we are worse then other people. First to your accusation that we did the slave trade. Sure ‘we’ had a big part in it and it certainly is a blemish on our history but we by no means invented the slave trade nor did we do it alone. We certainly did not introduce it to Africa. Once again I’m not saying the Dutch back then held no blame, they accepted the slaves that were offered them all too greedily, saw them as a real good profit, but I don’t see why we were so much more racist then others.
Also appartheid was something introduced by Afrikaners, by the time they did that they had lived in a different country for so long they had nothing to do with the Dutch anymore (political, social or cultural).

By: Hanny

Hanny — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:13:39 +0000

You say you understand my piece, but I already addressed ‘the origin’ in there too. And with that I’m not saying you/the group you feel you belong too has never been treated badly by the group you think I belong too, but that has nothing to do with how I *celebrate* Sinterklaas today and for the rest of my life. I use ‘the group you feel you belong too’ by the way, because I refrain from using terms like ‘us’ and ‘them’; we’re all citizens of this planet. We just have different customs and I think I’ve made it clear enough that my customs are not racist.

By: Veurdgel Walter

Veurdgel Walter — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:38:11 +0000

My Dear I have read and understood your explanation, but as Long as you are not in the other shoe you will never see the Symbol Sinterklaas And Zwarte piet have. And it is easy to say that zwartepiet is not a discriminatory icon, but the fact of the matter is that if you go find out the part of zwartepiet was added in the late 19th century when the feest of sinterklaas reappeared. ( was prohibited by the Calvinists for a while) and zwartepiet moved from being devils to Black slaves.

So if you know the real story behind this and the real History you would see that it is Discriminatory. second I do not feel but belong to the Dutch Antilles I was born and raced in Curacao I have Lived in the Netherlands and I Do see what I’m explaining on a daily base. The fact of the mater is that it has not been us that traded in slaves and it hasn’t been us that created apartheid . History does show that the Dutch Where the most refined country in enslaving other races and still are. I was Just stating a fact because i do not discriminate i do feel though that the Dutch Need to treat their Colony as equal Partners and not Colony’s. as long as the History you Learn is written from Your prospective you will never see these points I am making.

By: Hanny

Hanny — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:28:09 +0000

Thanks for your comment Veurdgel Walter. I don’t think you properly read or understood my article though, as I answer your statements in there. For instance, I already explained it’s not a case of ‘smart white man vs. dumb black men’ and I’d like to emphasise that by calling ‘the Dutch’ racist, you in fact are discriminating Dutch people, who do not say anything bad about you or the group you feel you belong to, by celebrating Sinterklaas. I’m sorry you feel this way though.

By: Veurdgel Walter

Veurdgel Walter — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:52:44 +0000

Well I grew up with this custom being from Curacao a Dutch Colony.

But I definitely have a problem with this. why you would ask? well simple:

The idea of A smart wealthy man with black dumb and aggressive servants is discriminatory.

Further more if we take a look at the whole story there are holes in it.

First of All the Real Sinterklaas was not a white man but was Turkish. and he did not came from Spain obviously.

Second he never had any black servants.

Sinterklas how it is celebrated I was used as a form to indoctrinate my people to love the Dutch and believe that they are our Savior.

The Dutch were the biggest racists and still are. Sinterklas was Only one way they devised to indoctrinate their slaves and their descendants( my People) If we look at History we will find that the Dutch were very refined in Indoctrinating and concurring the Blacks they had more success than any other European Country in doing so, and they should be ashamed. But it would not be convenient to them to admit this.

By: Henny van Arkel (Dad

Henny van Arkel (Dad — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:30:24 +0000

Proud dad! very good explanation what’s it all about! I’m as white as milk (hihi) and some of my best friends are black as black (hihi), and they are also participating in the Sint Nicolaas and Zwarte Piet traditions! and we will do so over 100 years!

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:25:05 +0000

I couldn’t agree more… Simple as that!