Criticism of Zwarte Piet

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

Although the majority (92% according to a 2013 survey) of the Dutch public do not perceive Zwarte Piet as racist or associate him with slavery, a vocal minority has called for the removal or adaptation of the character because of perceived racial stereotypes since the early 2010s making the character controversial among certain segments of the population in both in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Criticism

The Netherlands

According to a 2013 survey, 92% of the Dutch public don't perceive Zwarte Piet as racist or associate him with slavery, and 91% are opposed to altering the character's appearance, with many of the ethnic Dutch considering Zwarte Piet to be an integral part of their culture, childhood and holiday traditions.

In 2006, the NPS replaced the Zwarte Piet with rainbow-colored Pieten, which had accidentally shifted colour according to the storyline of the televised Sinterklaas arrival serial of that year, resulting in harsh criticism from Dutch viewers and resulting in the NPS publicly announcing that it was only a temporal story arc.

Demonstrators at an anti-Zwarte Piet protest in Amsterdam in November 2013

In 2013, the mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, became one of the first public officials to suggest alterations to the character. He suggested that the frizzy hair and red lips could be changed. He also voiced his expectation that during Sinterklaas's entry into the city in 2014, the several hundreds of Zwarte Pieten would not be wearing earrings and would not have red-painted lips. Nevertheless, on the weekend of Amsterdam's Sinterklaas celebration in November 2013, several hundred people protested against the character at demonstrations throughout the city. In the weeks that followed, several smaller public and private celebrations opted to feature alternative "colored", "rainbow" or "soot swiped" Pieten. However, a news segment on the Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting concluded the trend had not gained mainstream adoption. Celebrations during the 2014 holiday season featured the inclusion of revised versions of Zwarte Piet with less controversial characteristics, while the Sinterklaasjournaal, a seasonal television program about Sinterklaas' adventures in the Netherlands, also included similar changes.

Head Piet carrying the Book of Sinterklaas on the way from the Steamboat to the City Hall, where they will be officially welcomed by the City Mayor (Groningen 2015).

In early 2014, a coalition formed by the Dutch Folk Culture Centre began informal talks to discuss the future of Zwarte Piet and whether or not the character should be modified or phased out entirely. A court hearing in Amsterdam concerning the character was scheduled for that May. The court's verdict, rendered that July, contended that Zwarte Piet is, indeed, offensive due to the character's continued role in perpetuating negative stereotypes of black people. Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan contested the ruling and appealed to the Council of State. Although he recognized that the character of Zwarte Piet can be interpreted as racist, he believed the legal ramifications of the ruling to be too severe. The following November, the Council of State ruled that neither the mayor or the council are qualified to answer the question of whether the character qualifies as racist, but that this question might still be brought before the civil courts.

Incidents

• A national celebration in Gouda on 15 November announcing the arrival of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands, was interrupted when a fight broke out between pro-Piet attendees and anti-Piet demonstrators. 90 people were arrested.
• In 2011 four people wearing T-shirts with the words "Zwarte Piet is Racisme" were arrested at a Sinterklaas celebration in Dordrecht after failing several instructions by the police to move elsewhere.

Belgium

In Belgium, groups or people critical of Zwarte Piet tend to receive less media coverage than in the Netherlands and is hence less of a public issue. As with the Dutch, the majority of Dutch-speaking Belgians do not consider Zwarte Piet to a racist stereotype and protests surrounding the figure tend to be seen as a Dutch phenomenon. In October 2014, The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism stated that the image of Zwarte Piet is not in violation with the country's anti-discrimination and/or anti-racism laws.

Nevertheless, criticisms of the figure have been voiced occasionally. On 15 November 2014, a demonstration organised by Dyab Abou Jahjah called for Bart De Wever, mayor of Antwerp, to address the characters supposed racists connotations. Far right politicians such as Filip Dewinter and Tom Van Grieken criticised Abu Jahjah on Twitter and alledgedly led to people calling for Abou Jahjah's assassination, after which he filed a complaint with the police.

Internationally

In 2011, legislators in the former Dutch colony of Suriname stated that government-sanctioned celebrations involving Zwarte Piet were considered an insult to the "black part of Suriname's community." Efforts later began in Suriname to prevent future governmental promotions of the character.

The largest Sinterklaas celebration in Western Canada, a region with many Dutch immigrants, slated for 3 December 2011, in New Westminster, British Columbia, was cancelled for the first time since its inception following a debate over the inclusion of the character, with the organizers deciding that without Zwarte Piet the festivities would be pointless.

In 2013, in response to claims that the Zwarte Piet tradition perpetuates racist stereotypes, a number of independent and special rapporteurs working under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council wrote a letter to the Government of the Netherlands requesting an investigation into these allegations. Belgian Unesco representative Marc Jacobs later informed Dutch media that their Sinterklaas traditions were not actually being investigated for 'racism', stating that the person who had signed the letter, Jamaican Verene Shepherd, had "abused the name of the UN" and had no authorisation to do so.

American essayist David Sedaris has written about the tradition, though not negatively, and British comedian Russell Brand has spoken negatively of it, going so far as to dub Zwarte Piet "a colonial hangover."

References

This article "Criticism of Zwarte Piet" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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