People need to understand full story of Black Peter character

Re: Sinterklaas celebration upsetting (newwestnewsleader.com)

I was surprised to read your article about opposition to the Dutch Sinterklaas celebrations at New Westminster Quay. The Sinterklaas tradition and with it the character of Black Peter has transformed over the years and has long since shed any racist overtones that it may have had in a distant past.

The celebration is televised nationally in The Netherlands with a full complement of Black Peters, who basically run the show on behalf of an affable, but these days rather scatterbrained old man with a long white beard.

I understand the connotations that the blackface appearance may have for Canadians and Americans of African descent. But just a cursory look at the figure in his 17th century Spanish outfit will make it obvious that he bears no relation to the minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the early 20th century in North America. These are clearly separate traditions.

The suggestion to remove Black Peter from the tradition is about as realistic as suggesting that Santa Claus shed the reindeer and the sleigh or that the Easter Bunny should stop hiding eggs. The Black Peter figure is much too intricately linked with the celebration in the minds of the several hundred little Dutch-Canadian children that usually line the New Westminster Quay to have him removed. And should you ask those little children why Black Peter is black they will most likely answer: "Because he comes down the chimney, silly! He's covered in soot!"

Black Peter is actually not a figure of fun, but a much admired skillful hero. Many young Dutch kids aspire to become a Black Peter, regardless of their own skin colour.

I commend the organizers of the event for offering to enter into conversation with the people who think they should feel offended. But it might help if those people did a bit more research on the tradition and the way in which it has transformed itself over the years. This is a happy celebration, also in multicultural Holland, also among its ethnic communities. I would suggest that as a usually very quiet and subdued minority in Canada we should be allowed to celebrate our own traditions in our own way, within our own community, once a year for a mere few hours. For the rest of the time we are proud, new, thoroughly integrated Canadians who have made many positive contributions to society.

If the protesters feel otherwise, maybe they could simply look the other way, as they have apparently done since 1985 when we first celebrated Sinterklaas in New Westminster, and allow us to express our otherwise rather restrained ethnic identity. This is the only typically Dutch tradition that is celebrated here. Understanding and acknowledging the sensitivities of the opponents of this tradition, with all due respect, this is not their tradition and it should not be their right to take it away from us and our children, not in an inclusive multicultural society.

Tom Bijvoet

Publisher, Dutch, the Magazine and Maandblad de Krant