As if Zwarte Piet wasn’t enough, now the Dutch women’s magazine Jackie has run a headline describing pop star Rihanna as a “niggabitch.” The article described how to dress your daughter in fashion emulative of Rihanna, wrongly claims that Rihanna is from Jamaica (she’s from Barbados), and then hopes that your daughter won’t beat up on other kids in daycare. I’d never heard that term before, so I was pretty surprised when the editor of the magazine was quoted as saying “The term ‘n****bitch’ has blown over from America and we were only trying to highlight a style of clothing.” Jay Smooth, host of the longest running hip-hop radio show in NYC, notes that he’s never even heard the term before either. It isn’t just the use of a racial slur that’s offensive; the lack of fact checking regarding Rihanna’s country of origin and the implication that dressing your daughter like Rihanna will cause her to beat up kids at daycare are also problematic. The entire piece is demonstrative of a utter lack of critical thinking about race and racial issues that, in my experience, is frequent in Dutch society.
Archive for the 'Back Of The Bus' Category
It’s that time of year again. Cold weather, pretty lights, snow, presents…and Zwarte Piet.
In the Netherlands, it’s not Santa Claus, it’s Sinterklaas. And he isn’t aided by elves but by Zwarte Piet, which literally translates to “Black Pete.” Fortunately, I was prepared for this holiday by David Sedaris, who wrote an article for Esquire about the tradition (audio of a Sedaris reading here). The origin of Zwarte Piet isn’t clear. According to one story, Sinterklaas defeated a devil and enslaved him as a helper. Other stories suggest that Sinterklaas is from Turkey and his assistant is a Moor, hence the dark features. Another history suggests that the Zwarte Piets were Sinterklaas’ slaves until the early part of the 20th century, when the characters transform to Sinterklaas’ helpers or friends. Or that Sinterklaas liberated Piet from a slave market in Ethiopia and Piet was so grateful he decided to stay on as a servant.
I doubt even members of the Tea Party would have the audacity to claim that a bunch of white people dressed up in black face with curly wigs and big red lips and gold hoop earrings isn’t racist. Yet many Dutch, unfortunately, continue to embrace this tradition. One of oft-heard defenses of Zwarte Piet is that he isn’t actually black, he’s a Moor. This insight into Piet’s history actually reinforces the racism argument. For starters, “Moor” is considered a pejorative term. Nothing like defending racism with racism. Secondly, if Piet is actually from Western North Africa, he would be fairly light-skinned with more Arab features than African features. Another defense argues that the reason Zwarte Piet is black is because climbs down the chimneys to deliver presents and thus gets covered in soot. The Dutch must then have the world’s most interesting chimneys, since those traversing them only get their faces coated in soot, simultaneously reddening just the lips. And making their hair black and curly.
Regardless of the history or obvious negative stereotypes, many will suggest that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are part of an innocent fable for children and it’s the adults who foist racism into the story. But kids are aware of race and they absorb all of those negative stereotypes. In a country with few racial minorities, the first exposure to non-Western Europeans many Dutch kids have is Zwarte Piet. It doesn’t exactly get the discussion of race off on a good foot. It’s hard to move past ingrained cultural norms, even when they are blatantly racist. It’s difficult for people to admit that they participated in something considered by many to be racist. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I swear I saw fewer kids in blackface this year than I did last year. Let’s hope that trend continues.
When I was a kid, my family used to dress up as Pilgrims and Indians for Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the costumes; black construction paper hats complete with tinfoil buckles for the Pilgrims and bands of construction paper with real feathers for the Indians.
The Thanksgiving holiday celebrates the bounty of a good harvest and “remembers” how the members of the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to survive the winter and were supported by the Wampanoag Indians.
Dressing up in the historically incorrect stereotyped costume of an oppressed minority group is, well, racist. It embraces the cartoon version of people. It reduces a group of people with varied customs, languages, culture, and dress down to a few feathers taped to a headband. Although this piece is about Halloween costumes, the same arguments apply to Thanksgiving dress. This incorrect perception about Indian dress is so common that it’s a TV trope.
We can all enjoy the holiday without perpetuating stereotypes. Food and family will be there, even if your “Indian” costume is not.
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Over on The Daily Dish, there is an ongoing discussion about how you deal with racist relatives over the holidays. Lots of interesting suggestions about how you can handle your racist grandfather or homophobic aunt, everything from simply not attending family functions to pulling a “Colbert.”
A comment on one of those posts lead me to video on illDoctrine by Jay Smooth. Pretty solid advice on how to handle people making racist remarks (at any time of the year.)
“I hope I can bring the realization that everyone is controlled by fear. Whether it is imagined or actual, the fear is real to them and controls every aspect of their lives.” -Debby Shoun
I don’t regularly read Balloon Juice, but this piece about Glenn Beck’s rally is fascinating. I think it’s really hard for me to understand what motivates people to follow someone like Glenn Beck. Dennis G. compares Beck to D.C. Stephenson, one of the leaders of the KKK.
This piece contends that, even more than Blacks, foreign-born Catholics terrified the populous. What lead people to buy into the vitriolic message of the KKK was the fear that that “foreigners, immigrants and their weird religions that were out to conquer and subjugate the United States.”
The piece pulls a section from a Wiki article on the KKK and updates it to reflect the fears of the Glenn Beck followers.
“The Klan’s Teabagger’s primary enemies were Catholics Muslims who the Klan Teabaggers feared were behind secret plots to overthrow the government and exterminate Protestants. Another important enemy was people of foreign birth, especially those from Catholic Islamic countries. A third, and lesser enemy, were blacks.”
Only 28% of American’s have a passport.* We don’t have to travel. We don’t interact with other cultures. All the black kids sit together in the cafeteria. And we’re all afraid of each other.
*If you’re interested, you can read this piece from Phil Gyford’s website about passport statistics.
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