AMSTERDAM – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his attitude towards “Black Pete”, a figure from pre-Christmas celebrations that has been criticized as a racist caricature, had undergone “great changes” in recent years.
Rutte said his view had changed since 2013 when he said “Black Pete is just black and I can’t do much about that.”
Now he expects the tradition to disappear.
He was speaking on Thursday in a parliamentary debate about anti-racism protests in the Netherlands held in solidarity with US demonstrations after the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis.
In the Dutch tradition, St. Nicholas brings gifts to kids accompanied by numerous “Petes,” clownish servants usually portrayed by white people in blackface paint wearing frizzy wigs and red lipstick.
Rutte said that since 2013 he had met many people, including “small children, who said ‘I feel terribly discriminated (against) because Pete is black.’”
“And I thought, that’s the last thing that we want” in a holiday intended for children.
“I expect in a few years there will be no more Black Petes,” Rutte said.
While critics say Black Pete is offensive, a shrinking majority of white Dutch people argue Pete is a magical fantasy figure not portraying any race.
Linda Nooitmeer, who chairs the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy, said Rutte’s comments were important in a country that had difficulty in acknowledging racism.