Written by | Gu Yuebing
One day in late August, Paul Dick of the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven was browsing the web on Facebook when a notice popped up on his screen that "this post violates community guidelines for hate speech."
Subsequently, Dick received hundreds of Facebook reports telling him that the reason for the deletion was that his profile had more than 200 images of Zwarte Piet on it.
Black Peter was banned on FB. Image source: News Break
Peter Black is the number one star in the Traditional Dutch festival st. Nicholas, and he is the assistant of St. Nicholas (Santa Claus of holland). Similar to Christmas, every year on the night of December 5th, St. Nicholas takes Peter Black to the children's house to distribute gifts.
Black Peter's dark appearance, curly black hair, large red lips, and gold earrings have been regarded by opponents as a symbol of racial discrimination since the 1940s.
Under the influence of this year's Black Lives Matter, which swept the world, anti-racial discrimination demonstrations also broke out in the Netherlands, in which "eliminating the image of Black Peter" became one of the demands of protesters.
Even commercial companies like Facebook are under pressure today. The black Peter photo on Dick's profile was deleted by Facebook's proactive censorship.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > blocked "race symbol"</h1>
As a big fan, Dick's black Peter picture on his Facebook page is a treasure trove of his 10 years. But that night, all the pictures related to Black Peter disappeared.
It all stemmed from Facebook's censorship. On August 11, Facebook officials said it would address the discriminatory and hurtful stereotypes on the platform, especially the "Black Peter" image. Ten days later, Facebook officials began deleting black Peter photos across the platform.
Around the world, a similar situation has occurred on multiple Black Peter pages on Facebook, and some individually initiated popular groups have also been deleted or shut down, including the Pro Zwart Piet group with 43,000 followers – none of the black Peter photos in the group, the 29,455 red Zwarte Piet and the 19,228-fan Ikben Zwarte Piet group have all been completely shut down.
Dick was angry about this, telling Dutch media outlet NRC, "Black Peter is definitely not hateful, I have never seen Black Peter bring any harm." Zuckerberg will not receive any gifts this year. Dick joined forces with other Black Peter enthusiasts to oppose Facebook's deletion, saying it "polarized Dutch culture."
Facebook wasn't the only one who wiped out Black Peter. On August 26, global e-commerce giant Amazon decided to block the word "black Peter" on the Dutch website, remove products containing "black peter" and delete product descriptions that contain the word "black peter".
Amazon has not officially explained that it may refer to the terms of the Seller Agreement, which means that you may not use products on Amazon's website to promote, incite, or glorify hatred, violence, racism, sexism, or religious discrimination.
The Benelux e-commerce platform Bol.com will remove the products on the shelves.
At the same time, the largest e-commerce platform Bol.com in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg has also withdrawn products related to "Black Peter". Bol.com official spokesman said that the website specifically changed the product of "Black Peter" to "Peter" and no longer sells completely blacked models.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "blackface image" and racial discrimination</h1>
Like Dick, many Dutch grew up on St. Nicholas' Day and listened to the stories of Black Peter, who was part of their cultural memory.
Black Peter's caricature image first appeared in the book St. Nicholas and His Servants, published in 1850 by Jan Schenckmann, an elementary school teacher in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Peter The Black in the book is a male Moorish figure, and the Romans often used moors in the early days to describe the uncivilized indigenous North African. He has a dark face, curly black hair, big red lips and gold earrings, and wears Renaissance pantyhose.
In December 2013, st. Nicholas' Day in the Netherlands, Black Peter took a boat to celebrate the festival. Image source: AFP
Later, Peter Thee gradually became one of the cultural symbols of Dutch society. Adults will say that every year on St. Nicholas' Day, Black Peter rewards children who perform well by putting small gifts in their shoes on fireplaces and window sills.
Throughout the festival, people in the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries can see Black Peter dressed as a real person on TV, at children's parties, and in the performance of brass bands in the city center. They looked a bit stupid, but friendly.
Peter Black and St. Nicholas greeted the people on the boat. Image source: AFP
However, Black Peter's development has always been inseparable from racial discrimination. In the 1850s, when the figure of Peter The Black appeared, Dutch society was still in the period of the slave trade, and it was not until 1863 that slavery was abolished. Moreover, the early Dutch used Negro, not Black, to describe Black Peter. Negro is a term associated with the slave trade and racial discrimination, and is regarded as synonymous with racial discrimination in the American civil rights movement.
In addition, every holiday, many white Dutch people will take the initiative to paint their faces black and dress up as black Peter, and children will follow suit, and the "black face" behavior has a strong racial discrimination in Western society.
The "blackface" image appeared in the 19th century, represented by an American blackface burlesque show, in which white actors would wear blackface masks and lipstick, playing exaggerated images of black slaves, interspersed with insulting lines. In the 1830s and 1840s, blackface burlesque shows reached their peak and were one of the important ways in which white Americans viewed black people.
Dutch historian Lise Koning, in his essay "Black Peter and the Tradition of BlackFace," explored the connection between Black Peter and 19th-century American blackface burlesque show performances. Corning argues that Black Peter's elaborate but satirical costumes, in which he made ridiculous scenes, were examples of opposition to black liberation. Thus, Dutch Black Peter can be called part of the global stereotype of black people.
Most Dutch and Belgians are unaware of racial discrimination, and they grow up with Black Peter's holidays and stories, and have fond memories of him.
Because she loves Black Peter, a lady is getting a tattoo of Black Peter. Image source: AFP
"I think it's just a children's holiday and has nothing to do with racism." Julien Wonterghem, a 40-year-old driver from Belgium, told Quan Now, "In Europe before 1985, there were not so many political refugees from Africa. But over the past 30 years, the number of illegal immigrants entering Europe has risen to hundreds of thousands. When they came to Europe, they were given free food, shelter, political asylum and education. Now that we're starting to rebel against our traditions and accusing us of being racists, I'd love to know what they're thinking. ”
Mark Huizingh, a post-90s from the Netherlands, told Quan now, "Black Peter is part of the Dutch cultural tradition and everyone can celebrate in their own way. I don't think it's racist because I don't think Black Peter is black. I think it's the people's personal choice to celebrate in the way they like. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Cancel Black Peter" protest</h1>
In fact, in recent decades, the Dutch minority has been protesting the "cancellation of Black Peter".
In 1968, the anti-Black Peter figure was first proposed to include "racist and colonial figures", for which a Dutch magazine proposed the "White Peter Project".
Since then, Dutch society has begun to try to change the image of Black Peter, but this practice is not flattering. In 2006, the famous Dutch TELEVISION station NPS painted Peter a rainbow color when it broadcast the St. Nicholas Festival, which was unanimously criticized by Black Peter fans.
In recent years, on the occasion of St. Nicholas' Day, the Netherlands has staged weeks of anti-Black Peter protests. Currently, the largest protest group in the Netherlands is led by people of color in the Netherlands called Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP), many of whom come from former Dutch colonies such as Suriname and Indonesia.
In November 2019, Avrier led the "Kick Out Peter Black" team to the scene of the parade. Image source: Network
In 2011, Jerry Avrier and Quincy Gallio founded Kick Out Black Peter. Afriend arrived in the Netherlands from Ghana, Africa, at the age of 10, and for the first few years of his life in the Netherlands, he was often called "Black Peter" by the people around him, "They said that I was as dirty as Black Peter, and it was better to be Black Peter." ”
Avrier hopes to turn Black Peter into a "Piet" without any racial meaning and pass on the traditions that have stood the test of time to children.
The "Kick Out Black Peter" group continues to promote member exchanges through exhibitions, debates, reading groups, etc. The group argues that Peter The Black is a product of the 19th-century stereotype of blacks that directly reflects the history of colonization and enslavement in the Netherlands.
Under the influence of protesters, the image of Black Peter has changed somewhat. Today, the common image is dark makeup instead of the previous black face. Dutch children hear more stories that Black Peter is black because he drilled into the chimney of the house when he was giving gifts, so he stuck a face of soot.
Chimney Peter Source: Network
Peter Black was not satisfied. They argue that climbing the chimney can explain the blackness of the face, but not the fact that curly hair, red lips, gold earrings, or Black Peter's clothes are not covered in soot.
Gloria Wekker, an African-Dutch professor, wrote in White Innocence that the chimney Was "a superficial solution" to soot, or blackface, was itself contaminated.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > will Black Peter disappear? </h1>
In recent years, the number of people supporting Peter Black has begun to decrease.
A 2013 poll showed that most Dutch still approve of Black Peter's traditional practices, with 89 percent of Dutch not wanting to change their traditions. But by 2019, that percentage had dropped to 71 percent, and in June, only 47 percent supported the Black Peter tradition.
"Black Peter is Racist" March Scene Source: Facebook
John, a Dutch youth who works for the international courier company DHL, told Quan Now that "dutch political parties and the media are increasingly disapproving of the image of Black Peter, and minorities in big cities in the Netherlands are very disgusted with the image of Black Peter, and it is only a matter of time before they disappear." ”
Especially after the killing of Floyd in the United States, the global racial equality movement began to escalate, and the Dutch also set off a wave of racial equality, and "canceling Black Peter" became one of the demands of protesters.
On June 5, Dutch President Rutte, who has always supported "Peter Black," told the Dutch parliament that he wanted the tradition to disappear and that he did not expect to have Black Peter in the Netherlands in a few years.
In the celebration of St. Nicholas Festival in the Netherlands in December, major cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Groningen also decided that the appearance of Black Peter would be banned.
The dutch president's change of attitude toward Black Peter, coupled with the image of Facebook, Amazon and other companies blocking Black Peter, can be seen as a "compromise" between politics and business circles on the global racial equality movement.
According to Huang Kun, a doctoral student in comparative race theory at Cornell University in the United States, "the image of Black Peter bears obvious traces of European colonial heritage and racist discourse, and as a symbol, it should be reflected, criticized and reformed." ”
However, Huang Kun also told Quan That "cancellation or change still requires in-depth and extensive discussion and consensus, and only through top-down means such as online censorship, removal, and ban, on the one hand, it is not enough to achieve the purpose of truly criticizing and reforming racial issues, on the other hand, such non-democratic measures are likely to cause unrecognized public backlash." ”
Image source: VCG
In addition to Facebook and other companies to block Black Peter, other companies have also taken similar moves, such as Colgate considering renaming the "black toothpaste" in the Chinese market, and HBO in the United States removing the Oscar film "Gone with the Wind" due to racial conflicts.
In response, Huang Kun pointed out, "What we should consider is whether multinational corporations have genuinely reflected on and changed the indulgence of racism in business practices in the black life movement." Perhaps they are only to curry favor with users with political demands, and to maximize commercial benefits in the short term. ”
Not only is Peter Black in the Netherlands being scrutinized, but the "black life is at stake" affirmative action movement around the world has become a yardstick for many countries and individuals to self-examine. In June, statues of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Confederation of the Southern States, King Leopold II of Belgium and other colonists or suspected racialists were all torn down, all of which demonstrated the power of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
"The Black Lives Movement challenged the power structure to some extent. The weak have united to speak out, and have won the support of the majority, challenging the high-powered people in society and suppressing public opinion on the high-ranking people. This kind of public opinion suppression will cause dissatisfaction among those in high positions, and may cause them to criticize the black life movement with 'excessive political correctness'. The American expert and Internet blogger Peking University told Quan now.
Peking University fei believes that "although the scale of the black life-related movement in the United States far exceeds that of the civil rights movement in the United States, the racial segregation system in the South is a clear and explicit racial discrimination, and now the American society presents invisible racism, and the legal provisions are equal, but in fact it is not so." As seen at the moment, it will be difficult for the BlackLife Movement to achieve further results. ”
Similarly, Huang Kun pointed out that "the wave of black life-related movements set off around the world is not only to compete for the interpretation and use of cultural symbols, but also to face the racial discrimination against blacks in the political systems, social relations and cultural consciousness of various countries." If the end result is nothing more than a temporary disappearance of the image of Black Peter without any other substantive and structural changes, the anti-racism movement has failed. ”
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