Saint Nicholas;

A Racist Tradition?

Does racism still fit in our society

and why is it still present?
 Content

- Statement of hypothesis and goals of the project

- Methodology (how you went about researching your topic and where your information came
from)

- Results (presentation of raw data)

- Analysis and discussion of result in relation to your hypothesis

- Conclusion(s) drawn from your research

- Appendix (any information that doesn’t fit in other category)

- Bibliography and other reference sources

 Sub-Questions

- What is racism?

- Has racism changed over time, and if so, how?

- Is Saint Nicholas racist?

- Is Saint Nicholas still racist when we change Black Pete’s skin-colour?

- Is frustration with Saint Nicholas about slavery, guilt, or something else?

 Hypothesis

From what I understand, racism is the idea of superiority of one race over another.

I think racism has, despite its definition being the same, changed over time. I think the way this has
happened is that lots of it is censored and everyone always tries to be politically correct.

Personally, I think Saint Nicholas is not “really” racist. In my mind, Saint Nicholas is a Dutch tradition
that celebrates the good deeds of saint Nicholas helping “Black Pete” learn to not beat children. I
think this is not racist as the focus is on saint Nicholas, and Pete gives presents to the children.

According to me, the struggle with people recently turning Saint Nicholas into such a big deal has
mostly to with the general frustration amongst the population surrounding the economic situation. It
is very human to need to rid frustration, which in this case is towards Saint Nicholas.
There has lately been a major ongoing influx of (northern-)African immigrants who likely
misunderstand the Dutch tradition. Understandably, it looks to these immigrants like the tradition is
based around making fun of dark-skinned people.
 Methodology

The way in which I would like to conduct my research for this project is to first of all look up lots of
background information on the subjects. Next, I would like to figure out what the frustration of not
only darker-skinned immigrants is, but also that of some traditionally Dutch people who oppose the
celebration of Saint Nicholas.
After having gathered this information and figured out whether Saint Nicholas is racist, I plan to join
up with Stefan (as we both conduct similar research) and together ask people in presumably Utrecht
what their opinion is on the question at hands, and why.

Possibly useful sources may be:

https://kunst-en-cultuur.infonu.nl/feestdagen/164618-traditie-met-sinterklaas.html

https://www.mamaplaats.nl/blog/alles-over-de-sinterklaastraditie

https://www.scientias.nl/schuilt-achter-vrolijke-piet-groot-verdriet/

http://www.dagelijksestandaard.nl/2016/11/pech-voor-sylvana-historisch-onderzoek-toont-aan-
sinterklaasfeest-heeft-niets-met-slavernij-of-racisme-te-maken/
 Results

What is racism?
Plainly said, racism is treating a group less equally due to racial reasons or saying humiliating things
about such a group. [1]

What is the problem?

Since the 2010s, a big, fiery online debate has emerged all over the Dutch internet revolving around
the Dutch celebration of Saint Nicholas. Most, if not all of the debate is due to the supposedly racist
image created of Black Pete. Part of the cause is due to United Nations expert Verene Shepherd
mingling in. [2] This problem began arising when (in particular) Moroccan immigration greatly
increased. Most moroccans have a dark skin colour and thus feel offended by the celebration. [3]

What is Saint Nicholas?

Saint Nicholas is the birthday celebration of a turkish saint named Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was born
on the 6th of september, which is why on the 5th of september, the Dutch celebrate “pakjesavond”
or in english “packet evening”. On the 5th of september, Nicholas, together with Black Pete, goed
door to door to deliver presents for everyone through the chimney. Saint Nicholas came from Myra,
Turkey who was loved and did good for many people. Saint Nicholas has a big book in which he keeps
track of which children were good this year and which were bad. According to the story, badly
behaved children have to travel back to Spain with Nicholas, as this is where the saint lives. [4]

Change Black Pete’s skin colour

Change of Black Pete’s skin colour is already occuring a lot in the Netherlands, and particularly in the
densely populated areas. The changing of Black Pete has already started ten years ago and “Black”
Pete is expected to have completely disappeared in ten years. [5]

A small inquery
My good friend Stefan and I together created a questionnaire to give to people. The first question of
this questionnaire went as follows: “Do you find Black Pete racist? Out of a total of 44 answers, 6
(13.64%) said yes, 31 (70.45%) said no, and 7 (15.91%) were neutral. The second question these
people were asked was: “Why do you (not) find Black Pete racist? Very few people who argued that
Black Pete is racist, gave actually feasable answers. For example: “Black Pete is stupid”, “It just is
racist”. A good argument came from someone who said: “I think Black Pete is racist because there is
one white boss who rules over lots of black people. I know there are many coloured people who do
not feel comfortable in december and I find it only a small effort to make Black Pete have lots of
different colours. However, the people who think Black Pete is not racist seemed to all give really
good arguments. These people would, for example, argue that Black Pete is somebody who children
adore and not despise,that Black Pete is black because he climbs through chimneys, or that racism is
taken out of context and that nobody is being disadvantaged in a racist way.
 Analysis & Discussion

The question whether Saint Nicholas, and Black Pete in particular, is racist, depends on who you ask.
If you ask a “normal” dutch citizen, they will probably argue that it is not. However, racism is in the
eye of the beholder, meaning that only somebody who is discriminated can truly decide whether
something is racist or not. This means that if we want to figure out if Saint Nicholas is a racist
tradition, we need to ask black people. Most black people will say that they do think it is racist.

When we change Black Pete’s skin colour, this would change the way one sees Black Pete. Of course
it would also be important to change Black Pete’s name into, for example, just “Pete”.

The frustration of Saint Nihcolas has been going on for quite some time now but only since quite
short has become so obvious. Looking for other reasons for the frustration other than racism appears
to be a bit far-fetched as the only real reason does seem to be racism and discrimination.

Changing Black Pete’s skin colour could be a solution for many people. Black Pete has already lost his
traditional big red lips and his golden earrings. A problem that may arise when changing Black Pete’s
skin tone is that the person who is dressed up as Black Pete becomes recognisable for little kids. This
would ruin the enire magic for them. Of course, you could give Black Pete wild colours like red or
blue, but that does not look realistic and you can then not argue that he is black from climbing
through all the chimneys.

It appears that the small inquiry shows that most people do not think Black Pete is racist, but these
people were probably predominantly white, which is not exactly a fair comparisson. This means that
a further investigation would be necessary to figure out what black people think about Black Pete.
 Conclusion

Ultimately, it appears that the hot-topic debate of Black Pete and the (argued) racism surrounding it,
is long not yet finished. Both sides have strong arguments and rarely give in to the opposing side. As
Black Pete is changing and will keep doing so, the debate will probably soon be obsolete as the racist
aspect of Black Pete will have no survival chance. Looking at it all from a distance, maybe everyone
should think for themselves, figure out whether you are racist or not and how you respond to it and
what you will do about it.
Appendix
 Bibliography

[1] https://www.amnesty.nl/encyclopedie/racisme-en-rassendiscriminatie

[2] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367549415603381

[3] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13527258.2016.1193039

[4] https://www.wat-betekent.nl/sinterklaas/

[5] https://www.nu.nl/weekend/5000396/waarom-er-zoveel-weerstand-veranderen-van-
zwarte-piet-.html