Black Pete Contested. An introduction to the panel discussion ‘Blackness in European Folklore – The Dutch Case: Black Pete’1 Lisanne Snelders, University of Amsterdam December 4, 2014 Welcome to this panel discussion 'Blackness in European Folklore - The Dutch Case: Black Pete' about the Dutch holiday figure zwarte piet. At today's panel, we will discuss zwarte piet, or Black Pete, and the controversies that this blackfaced helper of Saint Nicholas has raised over time.

We would like to stress that at tonight’s event we do not intend to reiterate the heated discussions we have seen in the Netherlands, deciding who is right or wrong, but rather aim to understand Black Pete in its historical complexities and address the questions that the fierce discussions raise about tradition, colonial legacies, racism and multiculturalism in the Netherlands and in Europe. What can the discussions tell us about the role of multiculturalism in understanding difference in the Netherlands and Europe? What conceptualizations of race play a role?

Before we give the word to our speakers, who will shed light on Black Pete from several perspectives, I will give a brief introduction, focusing on the ways in which Black Pete has been contested over the years.

Illustration 1. Dieuwertje Blok presenting Sinterklaasjournaal. NTR 2014.

1 This panel disucussion was held on December 4, 2014 at UC Berkeley’s Institute for European Studies and UC Berkeley’s Dutch Studies Program at the Department of German. With contributions by Dr. Kwame Nimako (UC Berkeley), Dr. Markus Balkenhol (Meertens Instituut, video) and Annelise Morris (UC Berkeley) and an interview with Quinsy Gario (artist and activist, video). Organized by Lisanne Snelders and Camilla Hawthorne. Video’s of Balkenhol’s contribution and the interview can be watched online at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLta5rbT8oNtRedzW9AdXJmgKTHieqnUXT

Black Pete in 2014 This year, I, together with 2,4 million other Dutch people2, watched the first episode of Sinterklaasjournaal, a mock news show about the adventures of Saint Nicholas’ and his Petes on their way to the Netherlands, as if it was the 8 ‘o clock news. (Sluimer) Are we that concerned that our beloved Saint will not arrive in time this year due to a sick horse, a leaking boat or missing gifts? Saint Nicholas is generally considered a hallmark of Dutch identity and is loved and celebrated by many, including myself. But no. We watched Sinterklaasjournaal because we wanted to know whether Black Pete would still be black since debates about his alleged racist character had intensified over the past years. This summer, the Saint Nicholas festivities were brought to court by protesters and the year before, a UN committee had concluded the figure was racist and urged the Dutch government to act on it. In response, a Facebookpage supporting Piet, the Pietietie3, gained two million likes in a few days and a pro Pete protest was held in The Hague. As the official broadcaster of the Saint Nicholas arrival celebrations, Sinterklaasjournaal was considered to be influential in setting the standard for this years’ appearance of Black Pete. Pete was still Black.

Illustration 2. Screenshot Sinterklaas-journaal. NTR 2014.

2The Netherlands has a population of approximately 17 million people. 3 https://www.facebook.com/pietit ie

Black Pete is the helper of Saint Nicholas and plays a central role in festivities that last from the moment the Saint arrives from Spain, so the story goes, in end-November until ‘boxing day’ on December 5th. He wears a sort of page costume, an Afro wig, has bright red lips and a blackened face4. Black Petes are playful, often athletic characters that are said to come down the chimney to deliver presents.5 Representations of Black Pete can be found on, for instance, chocolate, wrapping paper and in children’s books. Since a few years, alternatives appearances of Pete can be seen more often - Soot Pete even played a small role in the following episodes of Sinterklaasjournaal6 -, but they are not the standard.

4 Golden earrings can be part of his appearance too, but they are mostly absent in contemporary mainstream representations, as can be seen in illustration 2. 5 Markus Balkenhol’s contribution to his event focuses on the coming about of Zwarte Piet as a black figure with Moorish characteristics from 1850 onwards. (Balkenhol) See also Brienen 2014. Folkloric characters such as Krampus and Ruprecht, devilish helpers of the Saint that are sometimes black and are still part of festivities in some parts of Europe, should not too hastily be understood as direct origins of Black Pete, scholars have noted, but as a part of a tradition that has been reinvented through time. (Boer; Smith 226 – 229; Nederveen Pieterse 39 - 40) 6 In the following episodes of Sinterklaasjournaal, a Pete School is part of the narrative: Grandpa Pete trains white people who want to become a Zwarte Piet. Part of their training is going through the chimney, which gradually makes the pupils more black every time they go. Added remark: in the last episode on December 4th, Grandpa Pete (a white actor with his face painted black) receives a Saint Nicholas outfit as he had helped the Saint with a lot of his tasks - both Saints ride brotherly into the night, on a black and a white horse. This maneuver to accommodate criticism received mixed responses in social media, from appreciation for this ‘stroke of genius’ to denunciation of this ‘leftist nonsense’. See telegraaf.nl 12-04-2014 and nrc.nl 12-04-2014.

Illustration 3. Saint and Petes from the 2014 tv show Club van Sinterklaas. RTL 2014. Illustration 4. Black Pete chocolate. bonbon.nl.

The pictures below (illustration 6) were taken a few days later, when Saint Nicholas arrived in the Dutch city of Gouda end November. Approximately 40 000 people, mostly parents with children, came to see the festivities. In Gouda, some of the Petes had their faces painted as a syrup waffle or a Gouda cheese, but the majority looked like they did the years before. That day, 90 people in total were arrested for protesting outside designated protesting areas. Many of them were protesting silently, wearing T-shirts with anti Black Pete texts and holding a banner, although also a couple of pro-Pete protesters were arrested. In the media, these events were extensively covered as the 'ruining of a children's party'. (Illustration 7)

Illustration 6. Pictures of Saint Nicholas’ arrival in Gouda, November 15, 2014. A syrup waffle Pete (left) and the arrest of a protester (right). ANP/Lex van Lieshout, ANP/Remko de Waal.

Illustration 5. Alternative Soot Pete. ANP 2014.

Illustration 7. Covers of newspapers De Telegraaf (11-16-2014) and Algemeen Dagblad (12-17-2014)

Black Pete discussions over the years Although these events illustrate that the debate about Black Pete seems to have exploded this year, it is not new. For decades, people have stated that the figure of Zwarte Piet should be considered a negative stereotype of a black person through which an unequal power relation between white people and people of color is reproduced. ‘Zwarte Piet is racisme’7, Black Pete is racism, in short. Racism is here not necessarily understood as an intentional act, but as sustaining inequality through unconsciously operating social and cultural representations of the black person as 'Other'. I will give a few examples of earlier protests, some commonly used arguments by both sides of the debate and explanations that have been given for the limited effect of

7 The title of artist and activist Quinsy Gario’s anti Pete project. Gario plays an important role in current debates, since he and his was arrested at the 2011 intocht in For this event, we conducted and interview with Gario that can be watched on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLta5rbT8oNtRedzW9AdXJmgKTHieqnUXT

these debates in the past.8 In the 1930 'nigger issue' (negernumer) of the Groene Amsterdammer, a Dutch news

magazine, Melis Stoke critically questions stereotypical representations of black people. (Stoke) He ends his discussion with the suggestion that in order to reach change, one should start with the children, for instance by challenging the roles of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet (Illustration 8). In 1968, Mrs. Grünbauer launched a 'white Pete plan'; she didn't understand why the Netherlands continued to “represent the nigger as a slave”. (Helsloot, “Het Feest” 253, my translation)

In the 1980s, more people of color, mainly coming from the former Dutch colony

Suriname, started voicing their critique of the Black Pete figure. A solidarity organization for Suriname wrote: “The division of roles in the Saint Nicholas celebration is shameful because it symbolizes the feeling of superiority of white Dutch, while for black people a position is emphasized that they have had in our society for centuries: the servant who is subordinate to the white master”. (Helsloot, “Het Feest”, 257, my translation) In 1987, a Surinamese actress also expressed her discomfort with

8 This overview is partly based on the overview Helsloot 2005 gives. Illustrations 9 is taken from this article as well.

Illustration 8. ‘A Black Saint Nick’ illustration to Stoke’s article in Groene Amsterdammer 1930. Illustration 9. ‘Black Pete = Black Grief’ Protester in Amsterdam, 1998.

the fact that she and other black people were compared with the figure on the Dutch version of Sesame Street. In 1996, the action committee ‘Black Pete = Black Grief’ organized an anti Pete protest in the multicultural Amsterdam neighborhood Bijlmer. (Illustration 9) (Helsloot, “Het Feest” 262) These protests were often not taken very seriously and only raised small-scale debates. As one of the reasons for the little impact of these criticisms, Jan Nederveen Pieterse indicated that the priority of the Surinamese and Caribbean Dutch was to be accepted as Dutch and that resistance against Dutch folklore was not considered helpful. (35) It should be noted, however, that not all people from former colonies are opposed to Black Pete. (Van Dijk 232) In 2005, John Helsloot concluded that the debates were stuck in a deadlock as long as "black and white people assign different meanings to Pete" (268, my translation) Defending Black Pete That this is indeed one of the key issues, can be seen when one takes a look at the discourse defending Black Pete and negating the statement that Zwarte Piet is racist, and by extension, that racism is possible in Dutch society. (Van Dijk 233) I listed some of the most common lines in this discourse, mostly based on analyses by Teun van Dijk and John Helsoot, who studied newspaper letters and opinion polls about this issue. (Van Dijk; Helsloot, “Is Zwarte Piet Uit Te Leggen?”)

• Denial or disagreement: Black Pete is not a racist figure – Black: Pete is black, but not a representation of a black person – Fiction: Saint and Pete are fiction and are not to be taken too seriously – Intention: Black Pete is not intended as racism

• Children: Saint Nicholas is a children's celebration and children are innocent and colorblind

• Downplaying: Black Pete might be a stereotype but it goes too far to call it racist, this makes one blind of 'real' racism

• Reversal: 'the ones who blame us of being racist are racist themselves’ The underlying assumption of many of these arguments is, and that is important for our discussion today, that the Netherlands is a tolerant and colorblind nation where racism is not an issue, in contrast to the US, where racism is still in play and has a different

history.9 (Essed and Hoving, “Innocence, Smug Ignorance, Resentment: An Introduction to Dutch Racism” 11) In recent discourse, the 'tradition argument' plays an important role: Dutch tradition is seen to be endangered by Piet protesters, who are imagined as the other. This can be understood in the light of the rise of a conservative right wing discourse in the Netherlands and in Europe, with political figures such as Rita Verdonk and Geert Wilders who made Dutch identity a key issue of their politics and address multiculturalism as a threat. (Smith 231–233; Pijl and Goulordava 267) Issues of racism by white people is understood as giving up national identity, a sign of an ‘away with us’ mentality or, in the words of conservative intellectual Thierry Baudet ‘oikofobia’, a giving up of national identity out of fear for the self. (Baudet; Helsloot, “Is Zwarte Piet Uit Te Leggen?” 81)

• Tradition and national identity: this is our tradition and traditions shouldn't be changed

• Minorities and outsiders: 'they' are taking 'our' tradition away In these arguments, the Pete protesters fall outside the category of 'Dutch' citizens. In reality however, these people are mostly Dutch citizens, for instance third generation immigrants, or Dutch people from former colonies, such as Suriname. (Van Dijk 232) By way of ending this short overview of the Black Pete debates through time, I could show endless lists of tweets with #zwartepiet and newspaper opinion pages of Petes opponents and endorsers from the past month, which sometimes turn into grim racist slur now that the tension of the controversies has risen. However, we decided to show some responses we received to our own social media outings about this event.10 Leaving out responses that use personal attacks stating that Pete protesters are attention craving people, and not claiming that these comments represent the entire Dutch population, we believe the comments illustrate the sensitivity of suggesting talking about Black Pete in relation to questions of racism and colonial legacies. Especially when discussants are people who do not know their tradition from inside,

9 Essed and Hoving give an analysis of what ‘racism’ means in the Dutch context, as an introduction to the book Dutch Racism, which explores the contested phenomen from multiple perspectives. (Essed and Hoving, Dutch Racism) See also Essed 1991 (notes on the specificity of Dutch vs American contexts: 16 - 26). 10 On the public ‘event page’ on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/746464352056931/?ref_dashboard_filter=past) and on our personal Twitter accounts @lisannesnelders and @camillahawth.

and more in particular, talk from the United States context, where racism can take different forms and is such a pressing issue. Taking into account this sensitivity as a part of tonight’s topic, however, we do invite the audience to discuss Black Pete. But not after we’ve given the word to our speakers.

Illustration 9. Responses to our social media outings. Facebook and Twitter, 2014.

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