#3 - A Survival Guide to Sinterklaas & Zwart Piet 

Fact: Santa Claus is a ripoff of Sinterklaas.

I didn't realize Zwarte Piet could be racist until I saw it in a newspaper, when I was 16. Racism isn't something you are born with, it's something we create.

As a Dutch, I was scared of Sinterklaas, but Zwarte Piet was cool because he gave me pepernoten. Also, I thought when you went; "one main difference" is that Sinterklaas is from Spain and Santa is from the north pole lol.

I have never seen Zwarte Piet as a "black guy". He never looked like someone with original roots from an African country. And even if they do, what is the problem. They are the most celebrated characters in the whole feast! Sinterklaas is just a nice old man, but the Zwarte Pieten make the whole thing fun!

"It's Muslims they're supposed to fear" wtf?!

In the mean time you can hear 24/7 rap music with the 'N' word in it and thats fine?

actualy, Sinterklaas is a old happend story. sinterklaas is a holy person who gave poor children gifts to cheer them up, zwartepiet is a later added to the story for fun, so that's not actualy happend.

Pfft.. i hate this discussion 😬

when i was younger i always thought zwarte piet was awesome, in my eyes they could do everything and where kind to everyone even the "bad people" they could climb buildings so quickly that you couldnt even see them bring the presents at nights and they where just so mysterious and fun. Now some racists want to make it about race and ruin the fun holiday.

Lmao "it's Muslims they're supposed to fear"

''While some children plan on continuing to not give a shit.''

Dutch child: is bad

The original story is about a rich kid, Nikolaas, helping the poor people by giving them food. These poor people then started helping him to give food to even more people. Because Nikolaas was so generous, he was named a Saint after his death and he became this cultural thing.

As an American just moving to the Netherlands, this was a shock, but I quickly learned I'm in a new country and I need to adapt. It's not my place to say anything. It was fun seeing everyone dressed up and kids having fun.

pretty accurat but the nethelands have goten rid of the beating stick and the sack a long time ago, now it is more like christmas but with the ntherlands spin on it

The last line cracked me up!!

But if Zwarte Piet is racist? Why aren't the little elves of Santa discriminating for small people?!

Recently the government stated It will do nothing about the Zwarte Piet controversy. It says it's a matter of which the people themselves should care about. That means the United Nations are put on the sideline.

"When some kids are pretending to not give a shit"

The Zwarte Piet character did not originate from colonial times, but from the late Middle Ages. He represents the (forcefully) converted Spanish Arabs (= "Morish", hence the medieval dress) who were "so thankful for their religious salvation" that they happily run Sint Nicholas' multi-million child pleasing business for him until the end of time.