SINT-NIKLAAS, Belgium (AP) – In this town named after Saint Nicholas, Yuletide cheer is being clouded by controversy over the good saint’s helpers.
Across the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrations in which Saint Nicholas rolls into town surrounded by a host of “Black Petes” have come under increasing pressure year by year from complaints about racism. Pete is usually played by a white person who paints his face pitch black, dons a frizzy wig and gives himself bright red lips – stereotypes that disappeared from most countries decades ago.
Sint-Niklaas with a church and statue honoring the saint has long been one of the focal points of the celebrations. A grand entrance this Sunday is expected to bring tens of thousands of kids flocking to the “home of the saint.”
Yet even in this bastion of saintly tradition, questions are starting to be asked about Black Pete.
Wouter Van Bellingen remembers how, as a black kid growing up in mostly white Sint-Niklaas, he used to be taunted with chants of: “Look, there goes Black Pete.”