On Facebook, I play a game called 'Family Farm'. A couple of days ago, a new Mission or Quest appeared in the game called 'Darryl's Pipe Dream'. It included mentions of Black Peter and his White Horse Amerigo. Black Peter is not a figure in our own family Yuletide traditions but I had a very good friend from Germany who remembered Black Peter and poems about him from his childhood. He had hunted down a reproduction of a very old, formerly out-of-print book in order to renew his own acquaintance with the tradition. He sent me a copy. Both he and I were rather astounded by the actions of Black Peter towards the naughty boys and girls at Yuletide. One poem involved the consumption of children's fingers!
Cannibalism is not a rare topic in folktales and fairytales. Every one is familiar with the tale of Hansel and Gretel and the Witch who fattens them in a cage in order to make a feast of them. Their ultimate revenge is to shut her inside her own oven. The whole business of cannibalism is related to ancient rites of fertility, of making grand sacrifices in order to bring fertility to the soil. 'The Golden Bough' includes an entire chapter on human sacrifice. It originally was more of a barter system that anything else. Crops and Animals were considered to be as valuable as human beings and the sacrifice to the land of the latter was the price paid to gain a good harvest and have good hunting.
Now, I find that the figure of Black Peter is causing all sorts of absurd political controversies, much like the poor innocent Golliwogs beloved in British culture until accusations of racism made them less popular.
Here is the article about the controversy in the Netherlands:
'Each November in the Netherlands, the red-and-white-clad Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat to great fanfare. In Amsterdam alone, hundreds of thousands turn out along the canals to greet the tall, bearded saint and his helpers, jolly types called 'Zwarte Pieten' or 'Black Petes.' After riding off on a white horse, Sinterklaas is said to roam the country until December 5th, when he lands on Dutch roofs and sends his Black Petes down chimneys to deliver gifts to good little girls and boys.
The Dutch Black Petes are more fun, and thus more popular, than the staid saint they serve, and in the festive weeks before Sinterklaas returns to Spain (that’s where he lives, according to tradition) they show up everywhere, from schools to shops to company parties. The fact that they do this in blackface, with curly wigs, red lips, and gold earrings, has been a subject of controversy for decades. But this year, following a bid to include the Sinterklaas festival on a UNESCO list of the country’s 'intangible cultural heritage,' the issue has exploded in the Netherlands. One Dutch ethnologist called it 'an existential revolt not seen in Dutch society since the murder of Pim Fortuyn.'
The uproar began with an interview with Verene
Shepherd, a professor of social history who, as chair of the United
Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, received
letters, spurred by the UNESCO bid, saying that the
Black Pete tradition is racist. Calling the practice a throwback to
slavery, she told a Dutch journalist that, 'As a black person, I feel
that I, if I were living in the Netherlands, as a black person, I would
object to' Black Pete, she told a Dutch journalist. Her wholly informal
suggestion that Black Pete be done away with was met with pro-Black Pete
protests, a stream of social-media vitriol, and a call from the
far-right politician Geert Wilders to do away with the U.N.
Even the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, weighed in, saying that 'Black Pete is black, and we can’t change that.' Two ad agency employees started a Facebook petition against 'the abolition of the Sinterklaas fest.' 'Pietitie,' a play on 'Piet' and the Dutch word for petition, got nearly two million 'likes' in two days. With posts that included a photoshopped Brad Pitt in blackface (and the question 'Brad Piet?'), Pietitiehas set records for online petitions in the country.
Two weeks ago, J. C. Kennedy, a professor of Dutch history at the University of Amsterdam, was invited to comment on the Black Pete debate on 'Newshour,' one of the most important news programs on Dutch television. 'Zwarte Piet, as experienced by the Dutch, is complex,' Kennedy explained to me. 'As I confessed on TV, I have a hard time, as an American, seeing this as an entirely innocent thing.' While the origins of Black Pete are unclear, the emergence of the figure as he is known today 'coincides with the rise of minstrel shows in the U.S. It’s a kind of black figure, not so intelligent, subservient—it’s the emergence of a stereotype of a black person or an African, the rise of the black ‘other,’ ' he said. 'But I know a lot of Dutch don’t see it that way.'
One contemporary interpretation is that the figure, now sometimes known simply as 'Pete,' is black because he climbed down the chimney (skeptics point out that Pete’s page-boy outfit remains suspiciously clean). Some have suggested painting Pete in rainbow colors, or scaling back to a simple soot-like smudge on the chin.
Peter Jan Margry, a professor of European ethnology at the University of Amsterdam, said Dutch defenders of the tradition have trouble seeing Black Pete as a racist figure because they like him so much, and have for so many generations. 'It’s in the genes of society,' he said, adding that the figure of Piet has changed over the years. 'He used to be a ‘boo-man,’ a scary person to scare children. Nowadays, he has developed into a children’s friend. The change that took place in the character of Piet didn’t take place in his appearance, which the Dutch didn’t notice has so-called racist semiotic elements, because they saw him already as a good figure.'
'From an insider point of view, this is a children’s festival and a family festival,' one that plays an important role in family togetherness, added Margry. When children outgrow Sinterklaas, the celebration involves something called 'surprises': 'a fake parcel, which often contains dirty things, that you have to go in with your fingers and find the poem written about you by a family member, which is usually sarcastic or ironic. With Sinterklaas, you can say things with a smile on your face that you are annoyed about to other family members. It’s a family festival. That’s why the Dutch are so stirred up at the idea that the U.N. might abolish this.'
'Looking from the outside, people say, ‘How is this? This isn’t possible! This is just a racist portrayal of black people,’ ' said Margry. 'Insiders say he is a nice figure for children. The two sides have such different perspectives. They don’t talk to each other, but next to each other.'
The poet and playwright Quinsy Gario, who grew up in the Netherlands and St. Maarten, echoed this. 'Both sides are not understanding where the other side is coming from,' he said. 'We’re still working on that.'
'For me, it started six or seven years ago,' said the twenty-nine-year-old of his engagement with this issue. 'One of my mom’s colleagues told her, in front of clients, ‘We were looking for our Black Pete, and there you are.’ My mom is the strongest person I know, and she called me, shaking. It’s such a micro-aggressive way of saying, ‘You aren’t one of us.’ I thought, I need to do something.'
Gario began inserting lines about chimneys and blackface into his poems at readings. He made a T-shirt that read “Black Pete is Racism” and wore it at a poetry slam, where he recited facts about Dutch colonialism, slavery, and the history of Black Pete to an unsympathetic crowd. Next, he created a performance piece in which he wore the shirt in public places. “A lot of people came up to me and started screaming,” he said. “They said, ‘What are you talking about, I’m not a racist! This is my childhood; you’re ruining my childhood!’ I would just present the facts, and they would simmer down.”
Two years ago, when Gario wore the shirt to a Sinterklaas parade in the Dutch town of Dordrecht, he was arrested by police and pepper sprayed. In August, he submitted an official complaint against this month’s Sinterklaas parade with the city of Amsterdam. 'After that, it’s been one death threat after another,' said Gario. 'One article said I was crazy. But there have also been a lot of articles finally realizing that this is racist.'
At a City of Amsterdam Complaints Commission hearing earlier this month, twenty strangers who had seen Gario’s complaint on the Internet lodged similar protests. 'They said things like, ‘Every year, I have to tell my kid he’s not a Black Pete,’ and that they hear, ‘You don’t need face paint, you’re already black,’ or ‘Your boat just arrived, shouldn’t you entertain us?’ ' he said. Amsterdam’s mayor, who urged respect and understanding but also called any disruption of a Sinterklaas parade 'clearly morally objectionable,' on par with shouting in public that Sinterklaas doesn’t exist, announced that the city would hold the event, as usual, on November 17th.
'For me, it’s not about saying this figure is racist,' said Gario. 'It’s about activating and empowering others. It’s a very interesting moment in the Netherlands, when we have to see that being Dutch doesn’t mean having white skin. It’s about being accepting of heterogeneity, because the Netherlands is black and white and Indonesian and Moroccan. It is Muslim and Christian and Buddhist and Taoist. We need to accept that to move on.'
Photograph by Michael Urban/AFP/Getty
To me, it seems truly arrogant for individuals to attempt to destroy a legitimate cultural tradition and to reinvent its interpretation by applying trendy contemporary labels such as 'racism' to it. The fact of the matter is that
Another more frightening manifestation of the companion of St. Nicholas is the Krampus. No one is certain of the origin of his name. It could be a derivative of 'Grampus' or 'Kralle' (Claw) or a Bavarian word, 'Krampn', signifying 'lifeless, dried-out, gone to seed, withered'. I personally would opt for the last one as ancient Yuletide traditions include a symbol of the dead, dethroned or otherwise discarded ruler of half of the year's calendar and the birth of the ruler of the other half. The death of the tiny Wren at the end of the year is a tradition in the U.K. that involves one such symbol.
The Krampus usually is seen on the 5th of December, the Krampusnacht, in Alpine villages and cities. Many residents will dress in Krampus garb, wearing thick fur and horned 'Larven', masques that feature his almost demonic countenance. They grip tall bundles of birch branches called 'Weidenruten' to discipline those who have failed to exhibit goodness throughout the year.
Another object sometimes carried by the Krampus is the 'Butte', a child-sized tub, whispered to be used to bear off wicked children to be made into sausages. In fact, 'Butte' is a word that denotes a sausage casing. A less terrifying accoutrement is the Cowbell, strapped to the bodies of the Krampus actors.
Krampus Cards have become increasingly popular throughout the Alpine areas and depict adult encounters as well as the traditional assaults upon often unwary, naughty children.
The messages on these card include:
Even the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, weighed in, saying that 'Black Pete is black, and we can’t change that.' Two ad agency employees started a Facebook petition against 'the abolition of the Sinterklaas fest.' 'Pietitie,' a play on 'Piet' and the Dutch word for petition, got nearly two million 'likes' in two days. With posts that included a photoshopped Brad Pitt in blackface (and the question 'Brad Piet?'), Pietitiehas set records for online petitions in the country.
Two weeks ago, J. C. Kennedy, a professor of Dutch history at the University of Amsterdam, was invited to comment on the Black Pete debate on 'Newshour,' one of the most important news programs on Dutch television. 'Zwarte Piet, as experienced by the Dutch, is complex,' Kennedy explained to me. 'As I confessed on TV, I have a hard time, as an American, seeing this as an entirely innocent thing.' While the origins of Black Pete are unclear, the emergence of the figure as he is known today 'coincides with the rise of minstrel shows in the U.S. It’s a kind of black figure, not so intelligent, subservient—it’s the emergence of a stereotype of a black person or an African, the rise of the black ‘other,’ ' he said. 'But I know a lot of Dutch don’t see it that way.'
One contemporary interpretation is that the figure, now sometimes known simply as 'Pete,' is black because he climbed down the chimney (skeptics point out that Pete’s page-boy outfit remains suspiciously clean). Some have suggested painting Pete in rainbow colors, or scaling back to a simple soot-like smudge on the chin.
Peter Jan Margry, a professor of European ethnology at the University of Amsterdam, said Dutch defenders of the tradition have trouble seeing Black Pete as a racist figure because they like him so much, and have for so many generations. 'It’s in the genes of society,' he said, adding that the figure of Piet has changed over the years. 'He used to be a ‘boo-man,’ a scary person to scare children. Nowadays, he has developed into a children’s friend. The change that took place in the character of Piet didn’t take place in his appearance, which the Dutch didn’t notice has so-called racist semiotic elements, because they saw him already as a good figure.'
'From an insider point of view, this is a children’s festival and a family festival,' one that plays an important role in family togetherness, added Margry. When children outgrow Sinterklaas, the celebration involves something called 'surprises': 'a fake parcel, which often contains dirty things, that you have to go in with your fingers and find the poem written about you by a family member, which is usually sarcastic or ironic. With Sinterklaas, you can say things with a smile on your face that you are annoyed about to other family members. It’s a family festival. That’s why the Dutch are so stirred up at the idea that the U.N. might abolish this.'
'Looking from the outside, people say, ‘How is this? This isn’t possible! This is just a racist portrayal of black people,’ ' said Margry. 'Insiders say he is a nice figure for children. The two sides have such different perspectives. They don’t talk to each other, but next to each other.'
The poet and playwright Quinsy Gario, who grew up in the Netherlands and St. Maarten, echoed this. 'Both sides are not understanding where the other side is coming from,' he said. 'We’re still working on that.'
'For me, it started six or seven years ago,' said the twenty-nine-year-old of his engagement with this issue. 'One of my mom’s colleagues told her, in front of clients, ‘We were looking for our Black Pete, and there you are.’ My mom is the strongest person I know, and she called me, shaking. It’s such a micro-aggressive way of saying, ‘You aren’t one of us.’ I thought, I need to do something.'
Gario began inserting lines about chimneys and blackface into his poems at readings. He made a T-shirt that read “Black Pete is Racism” and wore it at a poetry slam, where he recited facts about Dutch colonialism, slavery, and the history of Black Pete to an unsympathetic crowd. Next, he created a performance piece in which he wore the shirt in public places. “A lot of people came up to me and started screaming,” he said. “They said, ‘What are you talking about, I’m not a racist! This is my childhood; you’re ruining my childhood!’ I would just present the facts, and they would simmer down.”
Two years ago, when Gario wore the shirt to a Sinterklaas parade in the Dutch town of Dordrecht, he was arrested by police and pepper sprayed. In August, he submitted an official complaint against this month’s Sinterklaas parade with the city of Amsterdam. 'After that, it’s been one death threat after another,' said Gario. 'One article said I was crazy. But there have also been a lot of articles finally realizing that this is racist.'
At a City of Amsterdam Complaints Commission hearing earlier this month, twenty strangers who had seen Gario’s complaint on the Internet lodged similar protests. 'They said things like, ‘Every year, I have to tell my kid he’s not a Black Pete,’ and that they hear, ‘You don’t need face paint, you’re already black,’ or ‘Your boat just arrived, shouldn’t you entertain us?’ ' he said. Amsterdam’s mayor, who urged respect and understanding but also called any disruption of a Sinterklaas parade 'clearly morally objectionable,' on par with shouting in public that Sinterklaas doesn’t exist, announced that the city would hold the event, as usual, on November 17th.
'For me, it’s not about saying this figure is racist,' said Gario. 'It’s about activating and empowering others. It’s a very interesting moment in the Netherlands, when we have to see that being Dutch doesn’t mean having white skin. It’s about being accepting of heterogeneity, because the Netherlands is black and white and Indonesian and Moroccan. It is Muslim and Christian and Buddhist and Taoist. We need to accept that to move on.'
Photograph by Michael Urban/AFP/Getty
To me, it seems truly arrogant for individuals to attempt to destroy a legitimate cultural tradition and to reinvent its interpretation by applying trendy contemporary labels such as 'racism' to it. The fact of the matter is that
Another more frightening manifestation of the companion of St. Nicholas is the Krampus. No one is certain of the origin of his name. It could be a derivative of 'Grampus' or 'Kralle' (Claw) or a Bavarian word, 'Krampn', signifying 'lifeless, dried-out, gone to seed, withered'. I personally would opt for the last one as ancient Yuletide traditions include a symbol of the dead, dethroned or otherwise discarded ruler of half of the year's calendar and the birth of the ruler of the other half. The death of the tiny Wren at the end of the year is a tradition in the U.K. that involves one such symbol.
The Krampus usually is seen on the 5th of December, the Krampusnacht, in Alpine villages and cities. Many residents will dress in Krampus garb, wearing thick fur and horned 'Larven', masques that feature his almost demonic countenance. They grip tall bundles of birch branches called 'Weidenruten' to discipline those who have failed to exhibit goodness throughout the year.
Another object sometimes carried by the Krampus is the 'Butte', a child-sized tub, whispered to be used to bear off wicked children to be made into sausages. In fact, 'Butte' is a word that denotes a sausage casing. A less terrifying accoutrement is the Cowbell, strapped to the bodies of the Krampus actors.
Krampus Cards have become increasingly popular throughout the Alpine areas and depict adult encounters as well as the traditional assaults upon often unwary, naughty children.
The messages on these card include:
'Gruß vom Krampus!' (Greetings from the Krampus!)
'Seid ihr heuer brav gewesen? Sonst krieg ihr’s mit dem Krampusbesen!'
'Seid ihr heuer brav gewesen? Sonst krieg ihr’s mit dem Krampusbesen!'
(Have you been good today? If you have been naughty, you will be beaten with the Krampus Switch!'
'Geh mach dei’ Fensterl auf, der Krampus wart’ scho‘ drauf!'
(Go open the window! The Krampus is waiting!'
'Mit Bomben und Granaten soll dich der Teufel braten!'
(With Bombs and Grenades, the devil will fry you!)
As you can see, the Krampus often is equated with the 'Teufel' or 'Devil' and indeed, his appearance has much in common with medieval depictions of the Devil. He appears to be part-goat with cloven hooves and horns.
On the subject of the descriptions of 'Black' and 'White' when applied to individuals, I recently saw the film, 'Thor' and was rather perturbed by the depiction of Heimdall by a Black actor. The reason why it disturbed me was because one of Heimdall's traditional titles is 'Heimdall the White'. The misguided desire to inject 'racial diversity' into the film included an Asian in the role of one of the other gods of Asgard. This really does not make sense. The culture of the Eddas is Northern and at the time when the inhabitants of the North worshipped the gods of Asgard, Asians would not have been included in their ranks. No one expects Chinese filmmakers to use Caucasian actors in depictions of their ancestral gods or any deity associated with Buddhism for example. Why must our own native traditions be changed or diluted by multi-national concerns? Is it not sufficient to celebrate the traditions of ALL cultures???
