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Black Pete Signals the Start of Christmas

November 19, 2014 | WTF | Lex Jurgen | 0 Comments

The real mark against racists is their lack of ingenuity. Their signs lack creativity, their speeches a poor excuse for inspiration, and their lynching pranks just completely tired in a world where there are ten thousand prank shows on YouTube. You must hand it to the people of the Netherlands who invented the minstrel character of Black Pete, the Moor servant to Santa celebrated every November with the arrival of Saint Nicholas at a ceremony in Gouda. Yes, the fucking cheese place.

When St. Nick arrives to ring in the Christmas season, so do dozens of actors in black face playing the role of Black Pete along with the town’s children whose parents painted their faces black so they too can seal their fate. Protestors shook up this year’s event, labeling the annual tradition as racist and even mocking the pretty crappy aroma of Gouda. The Dutch police acted swiftly and arrested the protestors so the black-faced community could continue to pretend it was 1812 and Holland still mattered. Local authorities who ran the event maintained the tradition is merely harmless fun, which they later conceded might be a tad racist, but that those two factors were not mutually exclusive.

There’s something to be said for the open manner in which Europe produces it’s racist public theater. We’d never have a Black Pete Christmas celebration in a city in the U.S. We use the Yuletide to not hire any black head coaches to major college of pro programs. You could probably get a coaching gig in the Netherlands, but don’t complain to me when you learn the team mascot is Sambo.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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