"My father played Sinterklaas, so it was normal that I ... And all the kids want to dress up and play Pete, whether they're black or white." But others, like Raimund Larat, 23, who is black ...

ADVERTISEMENT “I think the whole Sinterklaas thing, not only Zwarte Piet, has a very racist connotation,” Maclean says. “Here’s a white guy on a white horse with the black helpers coming ...

or Black Pete, Sinterklaas’ helper, who many see as a racist stereotype. While Sinterklaas, portrayed as an elderly white man, arrives by ship and rides a white horse through parades across the ...

An Amsterdam Public Library employee with a book about Sinterklaas and ... uncommon in a country where white families still talk with unashamed disdain of ‘Black schools’ when referring ...

In Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas has a “helper” named Zwarte Piet, or “Black Pete,” who usually ... towns host parades featuring hundreds of white people dressed as Piet.

The holiday has recently come under scrutiny, as Sinterklaas is assisted by Zwarte Piet or “Black Pete,” a character first appearing ... However, the tradition is still insanely offensive, as ...

The origin of Zwarte Piet is disputed with some claiming the diminutive Black figure is a Moor who has come with Sinterklaas from Spain, to others suggesting his colouring is due to soot from ...

At the root of the controversy are Sinterklaas’s helpers, called the Zwarte Pieten, or Black Petes. “And do you know why Zwarte Piet is black?” I remember my grandma asking me.

Black Peters shown in 2015 Sinterklaas Celebration photo taken at Milner Gardens in Langley. (www.sint.ca) Photos of the traditional Dutch Christmas Sinterklaas Celebration at the Jansen-owned ...