Black Pete: Dutch Norm of Equality Conceals Practice of Inequality

Why do most Dutch people do not see a problem in the traditional figure of Black Pete? Surely, there is a lot of racism in my country. Stereotyping, overgeneralizing, fearing the foreign, job discrimination, verbal insults, physical attacks and support to extremely rightwing politicians are all over.

But also the sensible, broad-minded, decent people keep defending the blackness of Pete, the servant of a white master. How can they do that? The answer may be found in the accepted gap between norm and reality. In Holland we have the opinion that, disregarding inequal positions, we should feel equal and behave acccordingly. The expression goes that you should not stick your head above ground level and ‘be normal.’

If you have a high position or much wealth it should not go to your head. That the prime minister comes biking to his office, contributes to his popularity.

If you have a low position or no money, you should not feel inferieur. You have to stand up for yourself and be frank. 'If your skin is dark, don’t mind. Be assertive!' With the accessibility and safety of social media, the assertiveness now even turns into widespread rudeness.

But frankness or not, our biking ministers take measures that increase inequality in society. And many feel, justified or not, superior or inferior. In reality and like elsewhere, Dutch society has many inequalities.

Perhaps there is the fear that if we acknowledge those inequalities as they are, we will accept them, give up opposing to them and bury our frankness. In order to avoid that risk, it can be tempting to keep seeing the ideal as the reality:

‘Don’t see the heads that stick up high above ground level. Don’t see the people pushed underground. Don’t see the blackness of Pete as a sign of inferiority. We are all equal. We love Black Pete. We wish him the very best.’

In reality the blackness of Pete contributes to inequality. Small children, black and white, see the white bishop Saint Nicholas high on his horse with black servants walking at the pavement and doing the menial jobs. In this way, children receive and store the image that white people are superior and colored people are inferior. As they they take that skewed image with them later in life and into wider world, it generates racism. 

And don’t be mistaken, also in Holland racism brings expressed and unexpressed suffering. But whereas in reality a black skin can create pain, the norm is to ignore that blackness. In this way, racism becomes a black spot in Dutch perception. The emperor is quite naked.

Saint Nicholas and two Black Petes

Prime Minister Mark Rutte