Every year the fuss over Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”) gets worse in The Netherlands, and every year they come closer to complete abolition. Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan sends this report on the latest in the struggle against WAYCIST Christmas customs in The Netherlands.

Black Pete or Blackface?

by H. Numan

It’s that time of the year, and regrettably it has become necessary to explain it every year all over again. Because multicultural ‘the whities have done it!’ has also hit The Netherlands. Hard. Very hard. We’re talking about Sinterklaas. The Dutch version of Santa Claus. More correct: the original, on which your Santa is based.

Let’s look at the history first. From ancient times until today midwinter has been celebrated everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Long before Christianity appeared on the scene. The winter solstice was a time for celebrations. The Roman celebrated it as the Saturnalia. The Germanic tribes as Yule. Christianity merged those festivals into Christmas, but the wild celebrations remained. Raucous, and focused on eating, drinking and fun. Not much on praying. So the church changed it a bit, and in what much later became The Netherlands the giving of little presents was moved forward to the 5th of December, to celebrate a catholic saint, Nicolas, bishop of Myra. During the Reformation the Calvinists tried to eradicate it, but no luck. The Dutch love Sinterklaas too much. Sinterklaas remained and slowly evolved into what it has become today.

Somewhere along the road Saint Nicholas got a helper, Black Pete. Not a slave; Black Pete never was a slave. More likely, possibly, a Moorish slave freed by Saint Nicholas. Many stories exist about Saint Nicholas liberating mistreated children and slaves. Moors — Mohammedans — absolutely love slaves. Even today. Black Pete must relate to the Reconquista, because the only place in Europe with lots of black slaves and Moors was the Iberian peninsular.

Saint Nicholas was a bit of a stern figure, a proper Roman Catholic bishop, in full episcopal regalia, and always with a crook. A figure of authority, tall and rather slim (definitely no fat belly) and as dignified as one expects of a bishop. Black Pete changed a lot over the centuries. At first he was a black servant, more or less Santa’s strong man. The good kids got goodies, the bad kids got coal or a whipping. For that purpose Black Pete carries a bundle of twigs. And the really bad kids were taken away to Spain in the now empty bag of presents. Where they would toil for punishment in the marzipan groves or were forced to make toys for next year’s present. (That’s where your elves probably come from…)

Spain??? You ask. What’s that got to do with Santa? In Holland, a lot. Your Santa lives at the North Pole. Silly him. Ours lives in a palace in Spain. That probably dates back to the Dutch war of independence. Every year the saint travels to The Netherlands, and traditionally he arrives in the second week of November on a steamer. Steamboats are, of course, a later addition to the story. He is always greeted by large crowds, and ceremonially welcomed by the mayor of the city. Saint Nicholas makes his entry into town on a gray horse by the name of Amerigo. Why Amerigo? No idea. Santa doesn’t come alone; he is accompanied by lots of Black Petes on the boat and they come into town with him. They perform acrobatic tricks, clown around and hand out candy.

All the kids are really getting excited now. They can put out their shoe! In the American tradition children hang their stocking on the chimney, but only on Christmas Eve. In the Dutch tradition the children can place their shoe in front of the fireplace every evening, and hopefully they find a small present or some candy the next morning. They usually place a carrot for Amerigo inside it, or some water for him to drink. No cookies or milk. Every evening until the 5th of December Saint Nicholas mounts Amerigo and together with his Black Petes (on foot, carrying the bags with goodies) they ride over the roofs, dropping presents down chimneys.

On the 5th of December in the evening we celebrate Saint Nicholas’ birthday (which actually is on the 6th). The children are wildly excited, and eagerly await a loud knock on the door. Most often a neighbor will do that, and drop a large bag (provided by the parents) on the doormat with presents. Parents are suitably surprised: ‘Who can that be, so late in the evening?’ Daddy opens the door, and calls out, ‘Oh, look, kids, Sinterklaas was here! I see Black Pete waving. Sorry, you just missed him.’ Or Sinterklaas is invited into the house, school, company, office, and there warmly welcomed, and the children must make their appearance one by one. Sinterklaas has a big book ‘het grote boek’ with the deeds of all children in it. Naughty and nice. He talks with them for a bit, and has Black Pete give them presents.

As a funny side note, a friend of mine was once asked to play Sinterklaas. He dressed up, and got ‘het Grote Boek van Sinterklaas’, a beautifully wrapped book. In it, he was told, was the list with the names of the kids. Sinterklaas makes his entry, and asks the first child to come to Sinterklaas. Well, little Johnny, let’s see what Black Pete wrote down about you… He opens the book and nearly burst out in laughter. It wasn’t really a book. It was a picture album. With saucy naked women in highly erotic postures! He kept, with difficulty, his composure, and was very grateful for the long beard he had to wear.

When the children grow older, the festival changes. They no longer believe in Sinterklaas but the fun remains. Everybody makes presents for each other, wraps them up as originally as they can. It’s very popular to wrap it up in pork roast made with cotton wool, soaked in treacle and lots of string. Terribly messy and difficult to open! The present is presented with a poem that has to be read aloud. The poem is part of the rhetorician tradition of The Netherlands. That tradition dates back to medieval times. It must rhyme, usually at the end. Sometimes at the beginning.

Sinterklaas is a family festival. You celebrate it with all members of the family; age is not an issue. Rarely with friends; it’s really a family festival.

Now to Black Pete. The origins are unknown. He is always dressed in an early Renaissance outfit, which dates back to around 1572, the time of the 80 Years’ War. Until WW2 he was much more a bogeyman, and not so much a nice guy. Though he did carry the goodies and handed out some, so he wasn’t all that bad.

During WW2 we got another attack on Sinterklaas. The Germans didn’t like it. Sinterklaas, no problem. But Black Pete. They didn’t like blacks. So, can you Dutch forget about this Black Pete? No, we cannot. Sorry. The Dutch simply ignored the ban. And got away with it. Mass arrests or shootings because of a children’s festival: that was beyond even what the Germans could stomach. Not so for present-day left wing activists. More about that in a minute.

Until the end of WW2 Sinterklaas only had one Black Pete. What most of you don’t know is the mass starvation that happened during the winter of ’44-45’. After the war, the mayor of Amsterdam asked the Canadian and American commanders if they could celebrate Sinterklaas as usual. Perhaps the allies could help out with some candy supplies, as there wasn’t anything to celebrate with. The Americans loved it. Of course they would help. Candy, food, small gifts? How much do you need?

The allies were also pleasantly surprised to discover their Santa Claus originated in The Netherlands. But they had two objections. Or suggestions, if you like. Black Pete was not a fun guy. That had to change. And one was definitely not enough. Why not lots of Black Petes doing tricks, making the children happy, and handing out candy. That’s where the many Black Petes come from. A very recent addition to the tradition. All those Petes have specific tasks: there is a gift Pete, a mail Pete, a marzipan Pete, lots of little Petes and the Hoofdpiet, or Head Pete in charge of all the others, and the one standing next to Santa.

As you can see, this is the happiest season of them all, with good reason. To finish this short course in history: somewhere in the 19th century the Dutch Saint Nicholas together with his German and British colleagues, crossed the ocean, and the three traditions combined into what is now Santa Claus.

And now the bad part. The part where left-wing agitators prove to be MUCH worse than the Nazis. For a couple of years now they have pretended Black Pete is a blackface, and that is racism. At first they were laughed away. But they didn’t go away. They got more and more vocal and violent as well.

From peaceful protests in November alone, they now protest year round. Peaceful protesting didn’t get what they wanted, so they have become very aggressive. Last year policemen had to dress up as Black Petes and protect Sinterklaas as bodyguards, to give you an example. For left-wing extremists the end justifies anything. Creating a riot during a festival for children 2-7 years old? Why on earth not?

This year the police had to call out the riot squad, and were massively present at the official entry of Sinterklaas, with riot police in full gear. The mayor had to declare a state of emergency, and visitors — meaning parents with their children — had to pass a barrier and were searched for weapons and explosives. The protesters simply created riots in Rotterdam instead. A lot were arrested, but as you can expect, the politically correct (Moroccan) mayor send them away the same evening. No charges filed. Why file charges against the people who do your dirty work, which the politically correct elite is too cowardly to do themselves?

Yes, if you think this is far lower than the Nazis ever went, you’re absolutely correct. Churchill once said: The fascists of tomorrow are the anti-fascists of today. And right he is. The only reason why there aren’t mass executions, torture and gulags is that the left is too small to do that now. Otherwise they would. I’m absolutely certain about that.

The current leader of the anti-Black Pete group is a Suriname failure by the name of Sylvana Simons. Failure, for she left high school after three years without a diploma. She went to a community college to become a hairdresser, which was beyond her. She left without a certificate. Ran away from home when she was 15. Came out of a family of 16. Her father bred most of them, but not all. And polluted the gene pool by procreating with many different women as well. The she started a dancing career that never got off the ground. And became a somewhat popular presenter on TMF TV. Had a boyfriend and a baby. Her boyfriend committed suicide. I wonder why.

Last year she went into politics as house nigger for DENK, a branch of the Turkish AK party in The Netherlands. She is very outspoken, exceptionally racist and a singularly unpleasant person. She is leading a crusade against slavery, finds slavery and racism anywhere — when done by whities — and vowed to destroy and eradicate Black Pete.

Is Black Pete racist? Not at all, and he never ever was. His colleague in Iran Hadji Firoez, is now on the World Heritage List of Unesco. Why? Perhaps Iran are the good guys, and The Dutch are white, therefore the bad guys? The Dutch government tried to keep out of the debate at first, and now, spineless as they are, they cave in. The minister of Justice said the government perhaps should take steps to make into a fun festival without racism. And without Black Pete.

Any attempt — and this is MASSIVE — is so far resisted. You can see a big divide here. More than 90% of the population wants to keep Black Pete as he is. The less than 10% are the media, left wing extremists, some Turks (DENK) and the elites, want to destroy it, and they simply continue doing that. Many big supermarkets no longer show Black Petes on gift paper or anywhere in their store. “Het Heerlijk Avondje” (the cosy evening, this always refers to Sinterklaas evening) was changed into “de vrolijke avond” by Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket. Nitpicking, perhaps. But significant. It has the same significance as Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas on your side of the big pond. The national TV organization NPO, widely seen now as the Netherlands Propaganda Organization, tried first to change Black Petes into many differently colored Petes, and when that was rejected, into White Petes with some soot on their faces. This year they broadcasted the arrival of Sinterklaas live on TV, +1 million viewers. After the arrival they removed Black Pete altogether. Result: less than 450,000 viewers, and declining. The population simply can’t stomach it.

But … I don’t mind it one little bit. Let them do their very worst. Go on, create riots. Please! On the 15th of March 2017 we vote. I’m pretty optimistic that the PVV will score well above 40 seats now. Wilders doesn’t have to campaign at all. His — and our — enemies are doing all that for him.

— H. Numan