10/31/2013 06:49kruijs predicted Yes

Amsterdam will next month stage the traditional arrival of Saint Nicholas and his helper "Black Pete", despite objections that the jolly sidekick is a racist symbol.

   10/31/2013 06:48kruijs

"Black Pete" is welcome in Amsterdam, despite opponents who say the helper of the Dutch version of Santa Claus is a racist caricature.

Amsterdam municipality said Wednesday the traditional arrival of Sinterklaas and his helper Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, can go ahead Nov. 17, despite official complaints filed by 21 citizens alleging the event is racist.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/amsterdam-black-pete-visit-city-20728536

   10/31/2013 06:48kruijs

The Dutch tradition of Santa Claus and his blacked-up servant, Black Pete, is safe from United Nations interference, a Unesco official has assured Holland.

Marc Jacobs, a Belgian Unesco representative, the UN's cultural organisation, has denied that the Jamaican who signed the letter, was authorised to do so.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/10402662/UN-drops-Black-Pete-racism-charge-against-the-Dutch.html

   10/31/2013 06:47kruijs

It emerged last week that a UN working group is investigating the Dutch custom of white people dressing up as ‘Zwarte Piet’ (Black Pete) as part of their traditional Christmas festivities. The leader of the UN group, the Jamaican academic Verene Shepherd, has spoken out against the practice on Dutch national television, condemning it as ‘a throw-back to slavery’.

The figure of ‘Zwarte Piet’ is an integral part of the Dutch Christmas tradition. In the Netherlands, children receive gifts on the fifth of December from ‘Sinterklaas’, a version of Saint Nicholas, along with his black slave helpers. These were originally portrayed as scary figures that would beat naughty children with a bunch of twigs and take them away in a sack to Saint Nicholas’ fictional home in Spain. Today they are mainly characterised as the clown, acrobat, joker and entertainer. Although the custom is clearly linked to slavery and colonial times, most children are currently told that Black Pete gets his colour from the soot in the chimneys when he delivers their presents.

A few weeks before the culmination of festivities on the fifth, Sinterklaas and his ‘helpers’ arrive by boat and are greeted by the local children in large-scale events that are staged across the country. The largest event takes place in Amsterdam and is broadcast on national television. Both professional ‘Pieten’ and many volunteers paint their faces black, their lips red and don curly black wigs and gold earrings. It is also customary for the children watching the event to do the same. They greet the procession of Sinterklaas and the Pieten by singing traditional songs, lyrics of which include: ‘Even though I’m black as soot, I mean well’.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/tensions-mount-in-the-netherlands-as-un-questions-black-pete-christmas-tradition-8909531.html