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12-19-2014, 11:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-01-2022, 01:03 AM by Fearless Community.
Edit Reason: Fixed Encoding
)
Hello everyone, i know i am a little late with this but i wanted to hear opinions about a certain topic.
In the Netherlands (and belgium) there is a "festival" at 5 december. A white male called Sinterklaas gives all the little children presents for not being naughty that year (its very similair to santa clause in a way). The good man arrives two weeks earlier, he comes all the way from spain and the whole country eats "pepernoten" (peppernuts literally translated, there is no pepper in it and it arent actually nuts) until the day he leaves at 6 december. Its mainly a children thing, because ofcourse the parents buy the actual presents and the guy dresses as sinterklaas lives 2 streets away from amsterdam harbour where he arrives on a boat.
[Image: post-51681-0-41443600-1410707721.jpg]
Like i said its mainly a children thing but the last 2 years there has been some discussion around it, because ofcourse Sinterklaas cant give every child a present on his own, he needs help with that.
He gets this help from hundreds and hundreds of "zwarte pieten" or "black pieten" in english. Like the name says those are black people who come along on his boat from spain and do the actual work. They pack all the presents and deliver them to the children trough the chimney. The last two years a lot of (mainly black people) find "zwarte piet" now a racist character, They are reminded to the times of slavery by zwarte piet and think its a inhumane and medieval thing to celebrate. In the beginning there wasnt a lot of attention for these people because they were a very small minority but their group is on the rise. This year there were already protests against zwarte piet and some actual fist fights about it.
I posted this to hear some more opinions about it, as a "foreigner" to this festival i think you'll have a less biased opinion on this. Is it actually a racist in your opinion? Should this be changed because a minority doesnt like it?
Personally i dont think it should be removed, i understand why people could see it as racist but this is something that has been celebrated for such a long time for the children.
Eager to hear some opinions!
In the Netherlands (and belgium) there is a "festival" at 5 december. A white male called Sinterklaas gives all the little children presents for not being naughty that year (its very similair to santa clause in a way). The good man arrives two weeks earlier, he comes all the way from spain and the whole country eats "pepernoten" (peppernuts literally translated, there is no pepper in it and it arent actually nuts) until the day he leaves at 6 december. Its mainly a children thing, because ofcourse the parents buy the actual presents and the guy dresses as sinterklaas lives 2 streets away from amsterdam harbour where he arrives on a boat.
[Image: post-51681-0-41443600-1410707721.jpg]
Like i said its mainly a children thing but the last 2 years there has been some discussion around it, because ofcourse Sinterklaas cant give every child a present on his own, he needs help with that.
He gets this help from hundreds and hundreds of "zwarte pieten" or "black pieten" in english. Like the name says those are black people who come along on his boat from spain and do the actual work. They pack all the presents and deliver them to the children trough the chimney. The last two years a lot of (mainly black people) find "zwarte piet" now a racist character, They are reminded to the times of slavery by zwarte piet and think its a inhumane and medieval thing to celebrate. In the beginning there wasnt a lot of attention for these people because they were a very small minority but their group is on the rise. This year there were already protests against zwarte piet and some actual fist fights about it.
I posted this to hear some more opinions about it, as a "foreigner" to this festival i think you'll have a less biased opinion on this. Is it actually a racist in your opinion? Should this be changed because a minority doesnt like it?
Personally i dont think it should be removed, i understand why people could see it as racist but this is something that has been celebrated for such a long time for the children.
Eager to hear some opinions!