http://www.bloomberg.com - By Elco van Groningen and Maud van Gaal Nov 15, 2014 7:05 PM GMT
Dutch St. Nick Met by Anti-Blackface Protest; 90 Arrested
Photographer: Peter Dejong/AP Photo
St. Nicholas brought fewer helpers in blackface to the Netherlands this year, though that wasn’t enough to appease anti-racism activists who clashed with supporters of the Dutch tradition.
Police arrested 90 people at the nationally televised St. Nicholas parade today in Gouda, Wouter Bos, the public prosecutor in The Hague, said by phone. Some 60 people were arrested for protesting outside designated areas, while 30 others, both supporters of the “Zwarte Piet” tradition as well as opponents, got into a shoving match that threatened public order, Bos said. All arrested will be released today, he added.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte criticized the protesters for their actions at the annual event, which marks the start of a three-week holiday season. For generations, St. Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas in Dutch, has arrived on a boat in the company of legions of “Black Petes” -- helpers typically portrayed by white people in blackface paint, red lips and curly wigs, wearing 17th century costumes.
“I’m here to show that we as descendants of slaves, who in any case have been abused by the Netherlands, no longer tolerate that 300 or something black look-alike slaves accompany the Saint,” one protester said on NOS television while being escorted away from the parade route by police.
Photographer: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo
Some Dutch people are fighting to protect the tradition, saying there’s nothing negative about Black Pete being black, while opponents have sued the city of Amsterdam to prevent a parade with any blackfaced Petes.
Paintless Petes
Filmmaker Sunny Bergmann this month releases “Our Colonial Hangover,” a video where Black Petes visit Britain and encounter hostility from outraged Londoners, including comedian Russell Brand. Bergmann was arrested today as she filmed the protests, the ANP news wire said.
“Everybody is allowed to discuss, we can endlessly measure each other up in the Netherlands about the color of Black Pete, but you shouldn’t disrupt children’s festivities in such a way,” Rutte said today at a political event in Den Bosch, calling the situation “intensely sad.”
Sinterklaas arrives on his boat every year on the Saturday three weeks before the fifth of December, when the Dutch traditionally exchange gifts rather than on Christmas. Dec. 6 is St. Nicholas Day.
For the first time ever, not all of the helpers awaiting the white-bearded Sinterklaas were in blackface. Some were only partly covered in paint, to make it look like soot. There were also Petes without any paint on their faces, and others made up to look more like clowns.
Broadcast Importance
In a nightly “Saint Nick News” show aired in the lead-up to today’s Gouda event, public broadcaster NTR had introduced a story line where the Black Petes had gone missing from the boat and Dutch citizens offered to dress up in Pete outfits and practice jumping through chimneys to deliver gifts.
“The daily news show and the broadcast of the arrival are the two defining public manifestations of the event, and therefore they set the tone,” said Peter Jan Margry, a professor of European ethnology at the University of Amsterdam, in a Nov. 14 interview. “In that respect, it’s an important step,” he said of the demographic changes to Black Pete.
The tradition was modified a year after a panel advising the United Nations questioned whether Black Petes were racist, drawing international scrutiny and stoking a national debate.
Rutte’s Support
The Prime Minister backs Black Pete as he is, as did 82 percent of 27,000 participants in a poll by Dutch TV program EenVandaag last month. Just 13 percent favored changes to the character’s appearance.
“I’ve said it more often: A Black Pete is black, that’s a given,” Rutte said at a press conference yesterday. “That’s not a political statement, that’s a statement of fact. Personally, I think he can continue to be black.” He said it was up to society to decide whether to change the tradition.
It’s unclear when the Dutch Saint Nicholas, by legend a bishop who spends most of the year in Spain, acquired black helpers. Many trace the modern version of the tale to an 1850 book called “Saint Nicholas and His Servant,” in which an African boy accompanied St. Nick.
St. Nick himself sought to play down the controversy today.
“The Netherlands doesn’t have to worry about the Petes, there has been some hassle, but in the end everything always turns out alright by itself,” Sinterklaas, responding to a reporter’s questions about the missing Petes, said as he stepped ashore.
To contact the reporters on this story: Maud van Gaal in Amsterdam at mvangaal@bloomberg.net; Elco van Groningen in Amsterdam at vangroningen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net Keith Campbell, Nancy Moran"
who cares..they been doing it for years..moors,look it up....tons of yummy cookies and candy 
