It’s 2:32 A.M. on a Thursday and I’m still awake. A lot has happened this week and I’ve been collecting great images from across the interwebs again, so this is as good a time as any to dump them all in one big pile. Of course the shock loss of England versus Germany and loads of Football related images are included because of the World Cup.
Incidentally I’d like to thank 4chan, Reddit and Fark for filling my RSS feeds with loads of interesting stuff yet again! You guys amaze and astound me each and every time. We’ll start off with a bit of WTF though…
Tonight across Holland people will be filling their shoes with carrots and sugar lumps for St. Nicolas and his white horse. Across Europe many people will be doing the same, but in Holland there’s a catch: it comes with an unhealthy dose of racism.
For those who aren’t familiar with St. Nicolas let me explain a bit: St. Nicolas was a Turkish Bishop in the 4th century known for his generosity and forms the basis of the Santa Clause myth. He is the patron saint of Liverpool and Amsterdam and his birthday is celebrated on the 6th of December all over Europe by giving presents to children.
In the Netherlands, however, there’ve been some ‘additions’ to the December tradition. Namely, Zwarte Piet. Zwarte Piet is the *ahem* helper of St. Nicolas, and is represented by white people using black face. He’s either represented as a dumb negro who follows his slave-driver around or as a man who gets blackened by the soot in the chimneys he climbs down to deliver presents.
Since this is the 21st century, some minorities – surprisingly – have a problem with this. The tradition started in 1845 when a Dutch author named Jan Schenkeman wrote a book titled ‘Saint Nicolas and his Servant’. Until 1945 Sinterklaas, as St. Nicolas is known, only had one helper but with the assistance of Canadian soldiers after the second world war Zwarte Piet became an epidemic.
Wikipedia explains the ongoing controversy:
During recent years the role of Zwarte Piet has become part of a recurring debate in the Netherlands. Present-day observations in the Netherlands under controversy include holiday revellers blackening their faces, wearing afro wigs, gold jewelery and bright red lipstick, and walking the streets throwing candy to passers-by.
Accepted in the past without controversy in a once largely ethnically homogeneous nation, today Zwarte Piet is somewhat controversial and greeted with mixed reactions. Many White Dutch see him as a cherished tradition and look forward to his annual appearance. Other Dutch people detest him, seeing the character as an expression of racism. Opponents point to the fact that Zwarte Piet was created in an era (1850) when the practice of slavery, including by Dutch slavers, was extan. Observers outside the Netherlands also tend to see Zwarte Piet in terms of the history of slavery and blackface.
Foreign tourists, particularly Americans, often experience culture shock upon encountering the character.
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Also in 2008, Petra Bauer and Annette Krauss, two artists working in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, proposed a critical exhibition on Zwarte Piet, in which the racist and colonial overtones would be explored. The museum was forced to cancel the exhibit under threat of violence from native Dutch who had threatened to burn the museum down and bring physical harm to the two artists.
The prickly question is of course if this tradition can keep existing as it does in the modern world where slavery and inferiority is frowned upon. Here’s a video where a few Zwarte Pieten rhyme about their plight…
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