In this town named after Saint Nicholas, Yuletide cheer is being clouded by controversy over the good saint’s helpers.
Across the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrations in which Saint Nicholas rolls into town surrounded by a host of “Black Petes” have come under increasing pressure yearly from complaints about racism. Black Pete, known locally as Zwarte Piet, is usually played by a white person who paints their face pitch black, dons a frizzy wig and sports bright red lips — stereotyped caricatures that disappeared from most nations decades ago.
Sint-Niklaas, Belgium — with a church and statue honoring the saint — has long been one of the focal points of the celebrations. A grand entrance yesterday was expected to bring tens of thousands of children flocking to the “home of the saint.”
Yet even in this bastion of tradition, questions are starting to be asked about Black Pete.
Wouter Van Bellingen remembered how, as a black child growing up in mostly white Sint-Niklaas, he used to be taunted with chants of: “Look, there goes Black Pete.”
“Kids can be hard when it comes to that,” said the former Sint-Niklaas alderman and current director of the region’s Minorities Forum. “I retorted with: ‘there goes White Pete.’ I always had my answer.”
Around this time of year, people dressed as Saint Nicholas visit hundreds of villages in Belgium and Holland, arriving by steamer or on his white horse to the delight of shrieking children across the two nations. The Black Petes do everything from carrying presents to throwing sweets at the crowds and generally prancing about until Saint Nicholas Day on Dec. 6.
Black Pete has evolved over the years. A quarter-century ago, Black Pete was a scary character, carrying a big bag to hold naughty kids and a whip to punish the disobedient. Promoting him in recent years as a happy-go-lucky sidekick full of quirky madness has helped him to compete in popularity with Saint Nicholas himself.
“The past few years, Pete is at least as popular. Kids cling to him, ask him questions, hold his hand,” Flanders Saint Nicholas Guild secretary Raf Rumes said.
In another new touch, almost half of the Petes greeting crowds in this town’s Saint Nicholas “mansion” — a yearly holiday attraction — are played by women. At the fun house, which reopened last week for a month-long run, children squealed as female Petes showed them Saint Nicholas’ dining room and sleeping quarters for all of the Petes.
However, efforts at softening Pete’s image have failed to subdue disagreements between the pro- and anti-Black Pete camps in the Netherlands, where resentment over immigration has simmered for years. Liberals want to abolish the tradition, while the right-wing firebrand Dutch Party for Freedom founder Geert Wilders and his anti-immigration party have proposed legislation that would keep Pete black — by law.
“There is a war under way against Black Pete,” party culture spokesman Martin Bosma said. “Ministers and mayors are working to give this loyal helper another color. That must not happen. Our culture should not be damaged from on high. This law must protect Black Pete.”
Last year, more than 2 million people endorsed a Facebook petition to keep Black Pete’s image unchanged. That’s about one-eighth of the entire Dutch population, indicating the depth of emotion over the issue.
However, Van Bellingen insists that democracy is not about numbers alone.
“It is about the will of the majority and the rights of the minority,” he said. “As a majority, you have to be sensitive and show empathy for things that are hurtful to a minority.”
Van Bellingen agrees with Rumes that children should take center stage in the festivities — just without Black Pete.
“Saint Nicolas is a great celebration in itself,” he said. “Only, I think you need to get rid of Black Pete to turn it into a party for everyone.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese