UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations committee has called upon the Dutch government to reform the country’s longstanding winter-time black face tradition of Zwarte Piet (or “Black Pete”) on grounds that it was offensive and reflected “negative stereotypes.”

The ruling by the Geneva-based committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is not enforceable, but is bound to stir an already heated debate surrounding a custom that is both beloved and reviled.

Ahead of Christmas, many people in the Netherlands celebrates the folkloric arrival of Zwarte Piet, a trickster figure who accompanies Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus.

They do so by donning frizzy wigs, applying red paint on their lips and blackening their faces.

Most outsiders readily perceive this to be racist — like minstrel shows, Zwarte Piet in part emerged from a history of subjugation and oppression where aping blackness carried very specific connotations.

Many Dutch, though, are fiercely defensive about the practice, and offer a slew of arguments as to why no one should take offense to their winter-time habits.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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