Dutch men in blackface dress up as Santa’s sidekick ‘Black Pete’

Netherlands caricature is annual tradition that causes much debate and controversy

Dec 1, 2017

Every year in the Netherlands, the racist “Black Pete” caricature debate comes up again, but this year, a group of men in blackface took the debate a step further by invading government meetings and a school in their “costumes.”

According to Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicholas, arrives in mid-November before Dec. 5’s St. Nicholas Day. But while Sinterklaas brings with him toys that go in kids’ shoes, he also brings his helper, Pete, who has traditionally been portrayed as a bumbling, Black sidekick from Spain.

Traditionally, white Dutch people would dress up as “Black Pete” by donning blackface and painting their lips red. They would also put golden hoop earrings on, which were a mark of slavery in the Dutch colonial era.

While the tradition has evolved over the years, with racial signifiers being removed in some cases and Pete becoming “Soot Pete” in other cases, whose face is dirty with soot from climbing down chimneys, others have insisted that “Black Pete” is “traditional.”

That was the case for ten men who invaded a school in Utrecht dressed in blackface, complete with wigs, in a demonstration characterized as “bizarre” by Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Police were called to deal with the “Black Pete” demonstrators, some of whom were accused of telling teachers to go back to their own countries.

Three of the men from the group also invaded a city council meeting on Thursday in Amsterdam.