Sugar and spice, and all things nice

As an adult, I don’t do much regarding Sinterklaas. Other than eating way too many chocolate covered pepernoten, that is. As a little girl, I loved it though. For me, Sinterklaas meant getting up at the break of dawn and sneaking down the stairs with my little brother to see what we got in our shoes. It meant a cosy evening with my grandmother, parents, brother and a whole lot of presents. These are some of my sweetest and loveliest memories growing up. It also meant getting to eat a bunch of sugary, chocolaty deliciousness. None of this, not for one second, had anything to do with the way Sinterklaas’ helper looked like. For me it was a time of the year when I felt loved the most and that was in no way whatsoever dependent on the looks of Zwarte Piet.

When I was little, I believed that Zwarte Piet was black because he climbed down chimneys for a living. Later (although I’m afraid it took me way longer than I care to admit) it dawned on me that chimneys don’t make you look that black. Sure, I haven’t spent much, if any, time hanging out in them myself, so my realisation isn’t based on any empirical research… it’s just common sense. I’m pretty sure chimneys aren’t able to make hair curly, add gold earrings and apply red lipstick either. When I looked at Zwarte Piet objectively, I realized how weird he looked. Not to mention all the connections to slavery, blackface and plain old racism (just listen to some of the old Sinterklaas-songs). It made me feel uncomfortable.

What makes me feel even more uncomfortable is how this little country of mine has acted in responds to people simply addressing the fact that Zwarte Piet’s looks offends and hurts them. These feelings are valid. And one group of people can’t tell another group of people that they shouldn’t feel the way they feel.

I’d like to think, as many people I imagine, that I’m not ordinary. However, I’m pretty sure my childhood memories of our Sinterklaas celebrations are quite ordinary. For children Sinterklaas is about time with family, presents, hot chocolate and all sorts of candy. It isn’t about the way Zwarte Piet does or doesn’t look. So why not change his looks? Who will this hurt? The way I see it, the only people this will affect negatively are those selling black facial paint and red lipstick.