This notorious Christmas character is dividing a country

To celebrate December 5, the Dutch St.
Nicholas holiday, Netherlanders gather for parades in which the
saint (in Dutch, Sinterklass) arrives in town to hand out candy and
gifts. But these parades have taken on an increasingly
political—and violent—tone this year because of Santa’s traditional
blackface sidekick.

In Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas has a
“helper” named Zwarte Piet, or “Black Pete,” who usually appears as
a blackface character with large gold earrings and exaggerated
lips. In the weeks leading up to the saint’s name day, cities and
towns host parades featuring hundreds of white people dressed as
Piet. Stores stock up with Zwarte Piet costumes, merchandise, and
baked goods^[1] while adults visit
children’s homes and schools dressed as Sinterklaas and
Piet.

The growing number of Netherlanders who are protesting the
tradition of St. Nicholas’ notorious assistant, however, have faced
increasing pushback. This year, white supremacists raised Nazi
salutes^[2] at the Sinterklass
parade in Hoorn and flew
neo-Nazi flags^[3]
at the one in Zaandijk. In Eindhoven, an estimated 250 white
extremists chanted racist slogans and threw
eggs^[4] and beer cans at people
peacefully protesting the parade. The attacks received national
attention, as did Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s statement blaming
“extremists on both sides”^[5]
for the violence.

European St. Nicks have long had menacing companions like
Krampus^[6]
or Belsnickle^[7] who punish wicked
children with much more than a lump of coal. In the Netherlands,
the idea that St. Nicholas has a sinister helper goes back
centuries. However, the modern Zwarte Piet as he is portrayed today
is a more recent invention.

The character was popularized in a mid-19th century children’s
book written by a man who was very interested in the Dutch royal
family members, “one of whom bought a slave in a slave market in
Cairo in the mid-19th century,” says Joke
Hermes^[8], a professor of media,
culture, and citizenship at Inholland University. This slave,
Hermes suggests, may have helped inspire the character of Zwarte
Piet.

Before the Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863, the country
was deeply involved in the transatlantic slave trade. It grew
prosperous by selling enslaved people to the United States or
sending them to work in Dutch colonies, and some nobles “gifted”
each other with enslaved black children, who are shown in paintings
wearing colorful, Moorish clothing similar
to Zwarte Piet’s^[9].

The exaggerated appearance of Dutch Zwarte Piet costumes may
have also been influenced by American blackface minstrel shows^[10], which toured
throughout Europe in the mid-19th century. “The Dutch tend to argue
that Black Pete is a Dutch thing, and other people outside the
Netherlands don’t understand our culture,” says Mitchell Esajas^[11], co-founder of New Urban
Collective^[12] and Kick Out Zwarte
Piet^[13]. “But it is part of an
international tradition of racial stereotyping.”

Usually, organizations that ban Zwarte Piet change the
character’s image instead of getting rid of him completely. In
Amsterdam’s Sinterklaas parade, Zwarte Piet has become Schoorsteen Piet^[14], or “Chimney Pete,” who
has soot on his face and a different outfit^[15]. This “solution” isn’t
satisfying to all anti-Piet activists, but some are just happy to
get rid of the more offensive blackface paint and wigs that still
appear in most parades.

These bans on Zwarte Piet have not come easily. As the movement
against the character has grown, so too has organized white
supremacy in favor of him. Journalists have received death threats
for writing about Zwarte Piet and anti-blackface activists have
survived violent attacks. This November, an article in the Dutch
newspaper De Telegraaf accused Esajas of being
funded by George Soros^[16]—a common anti-Semitic
smear that often pops up in white supremacist conspiracy
theories.

These attacks are troubling, but Esajas says he hopes they’ll
force people who’ve supported Piet in the past to reflect that “if
neo-Nazis are on [their] side, maybe then it’s time to really think
about this tradition.”