spiegel.de — Few European Christmas traditions elicit as many diverse and divergent opinions as Black Pete of the Netherlands. Santa's former slave may have been whitewashed in recent years, but many still view him as a racist caricature from the country's colonial past.
Dec 7, 2008 View in Crawl 4
cxt70Dec 7, 2008
oh jeez
leadstripesDec 7, 2008
What are you talking about? The Netherlands have a reputation of being one of the most tolerant nations in the world!
irishjaysDec 9, 2008
If it was racism it would read, "Black Jamal"
kdx200riderDec 9, 2008
How do think Black Pete would be received in Compton? I'm guessing not well.
nasgathDec 9, 2008
Gotta love how one-sided that article is. There's more stories around about "Black Pete", aside from the chimney sweeper one. There's one story, for example, about how Saint Nicholas "bought" a slave's freedom, who then stayed with him out of gratitude(And presumably because he had nowhere else to go).Either way, even though it may have more colonial roots and everything and maybe he used to be portrayed all clumsy and talking gibberish, these days it's absolutely not the case. If anything, he's generally portrayed as a kind young man helping a scatterbrain old man(ie. Saint Nicholas).However, I admit that this doesn't justify what Americans would call "Blackface" and I'm sure we won't be seeing those much longer if this goes on.
charlietunaDec 9, 2008
Maybe, but really a silly argument to even take up, no? I am sure you are not the first person to use the "white mans burden" argument.
dimblebyDec 12, 2008
Scarwars......what?? Idiot.