Is this racism?

[Shakermaker]

Today Sinterklaas arrived in the Netherlands. You could call him the Dutch / Belgian version of Santa Claus. There are a couple of differences with Santa though, the biggest one being his servant: Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).

A picture of Zwarte Piet

As seen in the link above, usually Zwarte Piet is played by a white person with a face that has been made black. According to the myth Piet is a chimney sweeper which explains his black likeness. Why chimney sweepers should have big red lips, isn't explained though.

My question to all of you is: do you consider Zwarte Piet to be a racist concept?

 

[Unfocused]

Nah, why would it be racist? Would it be racist towards the white people if Santa had white servants?

 

[Shakermaker]

Nah, why would it be racist? Would it be racist towards the white people if Santa had white servants?

The reason I ask is that in a couple of Dutch cities Zwarte Piet got replaced by Coloured Piet. You can take that very literally: you had purple and blue and green Piets. The reason for the change was that black people felt insulted by Zwarte Piet. They said he was a charicature of black persons.

 

[kirovman]

I think the bigger question on everyone's mind is:

Is Sinterklaas pure evil?
Is it just me, or does he look totally demonic? Think about it, his name is SINterklass! See what I'm getting at here...he's like Santas evil twin. Like Wario or something.

 

[Shakermaker]

I think the bigger question on everyone's mind is:

Is Sinterklaas pure evil?
Is it just me, or does he look totally demonic? Think about it, his name is SINterklass! See what I'm getting at here...he's like Santas evil twin. Like Wario or something.

That's a good looking Sinterklaas. Most of the times they just look like this.

 

[Tyguy]

no, not at all. stop listening to al sharpton

 

[ríomhaire]

I could go on a rant about political correctness and such but I'm tired so I'll just say: Maybe there are some racist elements in Zwarte Piet, but they are completely harmless, don't incite hatred and aren't negative in any way. It's just a guy with his face painted black. It does not negativly portray black men nor make a statement about black men in general. In fact, it's not even apparently supposed to be a black man according to the chimeny-sweep explaination. People should stop being so sensitive to things that are so harmless.

 

[theotherguy]

Yes. Its a classic instance of "black-face" used for entertainment.

But its roots are likely archaic and meaningless now. Its not explicitly intended to be racist now, but I bet you it was in the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

[Adabiviak]

No, because as you said, he's a chimney sweeper. This could be taken racially very very easily, but it sounds like the concept is not.

 

[Ennui]

Yes. Its a classic instance of "black-face" used for entertainment.

But its roots are likely archaic and meaningless now. Its not explicitly intended to be racist now, but I bet you it was in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It's not blackface, it's a chimney sweeper; there's no racist conspiracy here.

 

[Jintor]

ZoMG DA GHEY LESBIAN JEW-LIZARDS ARE PROPAGATING A ZIONIST RACIST CONSPIRACY AGAINST SANTA!11!1!!11!!oneone!

It was probably once racist, now it's just... weird. :/

 

[jerkasaur]

It's not blackface, it's a chimney sweeper; there's no racist conspiracy here.

pretty much agreed.

 

[fatchance]

What's racism? Discrimination based on race?
So all races are equal in EVERY WAY except skin color?

Isn't diffrentiating skin color a form of racism as well then?

We should be born color blind, better yet, there should be mandatory and voluntary color-recognition-elimination procedure done to our eyeballs.

Then what about the facial and physical features? Oh heck, we should be blind, period.