Who is Black Pete?
Black Pete is a figure from a dutch holiday called St.Nicolas.
He turned black because he always had gone threw a chimney, and there for he supposed to look like this.


Unfortanly he don't look like that, and he looks more like this.

And that leaded to big discussions in the Netherlands, and with this post i want to show the facts, the arguments and the non arguments about that discussion.
I also share my own personal view about this all, because at the end of the day, i am a colored man who was born in the Netherlands and grew up in a catholic foster home, i experienced the holiday from the dutch point of view.
So Let's start shall we...

What is St Nicolas day in the Netherlands?
Every year on 5 and 6 December, many people in the Netherlands celebrate St. Nicolas or Sinterklaas.
It is a Catholic holiday and it represents the celebration of the birthday of St.Nicolas.
The road to the holiday starts of, when St. Nicolas comes with his helpers to the Netherlands, who are called Black Pete, on the end of November.
The story goes, he comes from Spain to the Netherlands on a big steam boot.
When he arrives it is a big event, and is usually live on national TV.
And many people are waiting at the harbor, to welcome him in the country.

From there he is in the country, and from that day his helpers ( Black Pete's) can appear anywhere in the country.He can appear on schools, or at the shopping mall or his image is on merchandise, candy, and almost everywhere in the city.


When its 5 December he will visit the people in there homes, and give the children candy and presents.
The children will sing songs and enjoy the candy and presents.
Then when its 6 december St. Nicolas will end his birthday and will then leave the country.

This is the St.Nicolas holiday tradition what many people in the Netherlands celebrate every year.It is a holiday for the kids and every parent was grown up with that tradition.
But the last couple of years St.Nicolas is not the happy holiday from the past, it is divided by people who wants to change that tradition, with people who wants to keep the tradition.
And with this post i want to show the historical background of the key players in this tradition and my personal point of view on the situation.

So Let's begin with who was St.Nicolas?
The official story what goes around in the Netherlands is, that St.Nicolas came from Spain.
And his helper Black Pete was a guy who turned black because he went threw a chimney.
St.Nicolas helped children who where nice to there parents the hole year, and Black Pete was the guy who would punish the bad children.
Back in the days the parents always said to there children, be nice to us or Black Pete will put you in a big bag and bring you back to Spain.
Nowadays they don't say that anymore.
And Black Pete is always around and can see every bad thing the kids will do, and write that down in a big book.
Then on the evening of 5 December, St.Nicolas will visit the people in there homes and will look into the big book to see if someone was nice or not, and then he gives the kids present or let Black Pete punish them.
Nowadays the punishment is gone, and they don't talk about that anymore.
But back in the days Black Pete walked around with a bad and a ree, to hurt the kids and bring them back to Spain. This is the official story of the Dutch holiday St.Nicolas.

Another story is that people say that St.Nicolas came from Turkey.
And there he had freed a slave who was Black Pete, and he followed him because he rescued him.
Then since Black Pete supported him on his journey to help children.
There for on this moment some people thinks he comes from Spain and others will mention Turkey.
And because he came from Turkey, he was a Turkish guy.

Another story is that St.Nicolas is originated from the Germanic god Wodan.
Yule was an old Germanic winter holiday to celebrate the birth between the light and the darkness, the end of the winter and the birth of spring.
Nowadays they celebrate it between Christmas time and around new year.
Wodan looked like a old man with a Speer, who rides a Grey horse with 8 legs.
He had a army of black demons, and people give him offers like carrots and other foods.
Because of all these details people said, that St.Nicolas look like Wodan and there for the St.Nicolas story came from that.
Unfortanly historic facts show another story.

The only records found about St.Nicolas came from the church itself.
Nicolas was born on 15 march 270 AD in a little place called Patara,Lycia in what we now call Turkey.
That means he was not a Turkish guy, because the Turkish empire did not exist in those days.
The only empire what was around, was the Roman Empire.
Nicolas belonged to a Roman elite family and after traveling around the empire, he became a bishop of Myra , when he was 19 years old. ( some books say Greek family, but based on information about the Flavian Dynasty, is Nicolas part of an Roman elite family, but il will put all these information in another post)
The story goes that he helped two young woman , from two men who wanted to buy the woman from there father.
Nicolas helped them by putting two gold coins in the shoes of those woman s, and he also helped a kid from drowning by helping him on board.
Since then he was Savior for the sailors who needed help when they had troubles on sea.
Nicolas grows up in a christian Roman family and supported the catholic ideology.
There for he was a important figure at the council of Nicea in 325, he was one of the 300 bishops who supported the foundation of the catholic creek, what is still be used today.
So, at the end of the day, St.Nicolas did not come from Spain, nor did not come from Turkey.
He came from a Roman Elite family and there for he could be a Roman catholic bishop.
And Nicolas died on 6 December.
So, the dutch people are not celebrating his birthday, they celebrate his death.
Nicolas was born on 15 march.

Then how became this Nicolas the St.Nicolas what many people celebrate in Western Europe?
In around 1000 AD the Ottomanic empire started to rise, and they took control over parts of the Byzantine Empire, what is the follow up of the Roman empire.
And many catholic relics were moved to France, one of them was the body of Nicolas.
The remains of his body came to France in around 1087 AD, and then the Church called him a saint and since then he is St.Nicolas.
But it is not exactly clear when the church started to celebrate his holiday, but in the Netherlands the oldest evidence found of his holiday was in around 1400.
An old painting in Utrecht had proved that.
In those days kids could put his shoe in the church and the church would give presents to the kids or people, in those days there was no evidence of a Black Pete near St.Nicolas.
Until 1850 that was the year Black Pete made his entrance in the holiday.

When did Black Pete come in the story?
In the year of 1850 there was a teacher called Jan Schenkman.
He changed the story of Nicolas and turned it into another story.
It was formed into a story what could support the parents with there children, by creating Black Pete and use it as a tool to treated kids.
If they did not listen to the parents, then Black Pete would punish them and would bring them back to Spain.
So, black Pete was used to frighten the children that they must do what the parents or society demands from them. And that was gone to school, and learn to follow orders.
In those days parents had families with many children and needed support to dicipline the children, to prepare them self on school, for the upcoming factories.

But who is Black Pete?
The figure what the teacher Jan Schenkman created look like a black man, what wear the clothes of slaves who lived in the western world in those days.
Many paintings from slaves have clothes on what look identical as Black Pete.
Black Pete also have ear rings, necklace and big red round lips and frizzy hair.
But the problem is, that Jan schenkman never told presicly where Black Pete came from.
He just put Black Pete into the story without any explanation.
That leads to that anyone can assume were Black Pete came from.
Some people said Black Pete is a white guy who turned black because of the chimney.
In fact that is the most used argument on this moment.
Unfortanly the chimney don't explain the ear rings, the big red lips and frizz hair.
Unless someone is so focused on what he believes, that he don't want to see the other details.
And that is nowadays the problem in the Netherlands.

What is the problem nowadays in the Netherlands?
The Netherlands had several colonies and had legalized slavery.
Many companies earn from the slave trade and the dutch regime earn from the tax of slavery.
One of the countries what was controlled by slavery was Suriname.
And officially slavery ended in 1863, that was 13 years after Jan Schenkman invented the story of Black Pete.
But the unofficial story is, that slavery did not end there in Suriname.
The black slaves were not free, they were forced to sign contracts, to continue working.
Unless the slaves flee into the Amazon.
And it was far up into 20ste century that the black people in Suriname could free them self, and got indenpendency from the Netherlands.
That happened in the year of 1975.

It was the first time that Suriname would be controlled by the offspring of slaves, migrants and offspring of slave owners, to control there country.
And many Suriname people did not trust the new government and migrated to the Netherlands.
So, in the 70s and begin 80s many Suriname people moved to Netherlands, to start a new beginning in what they saw as the motherland.
Because the people in Suriname had always learned that they are citizen of the Netherlands, and that Suriname is like a extra Provence of the Netherlands.
My parents are one of those people, who came to the Netherlands for a new life.
To find some luck and some peace for a new adventure in life.
Unfortanly for many people in the Netherlands it was a huge surprise to live among people, who they first had learnd to hate.
And that brought many problems with racism and discrimination.

One of those surprises for the Suriname people was the mentality around Black Pete, and almost every Suriname guy knew about Black Pete, because they celebrated St.Nicolas in Suriname to.
But they never had experienced the feeling to celebrate St.Nicolas in the Netherlands.
Almost everyone would experience some degree of racism.
And that happened in many levels of the society, it could happened on kindergarten, regular school, or on work, or by a stranger on the street.

Because, there was a mentality around the figure of Black Pete.
It was a stupid, funny black guy, who is a helper and can't do anything on his own and at the end of the day, he still needs his master St.Nicolas.


So, when someone calls a black person Black Pete, then is just saying that you are something else then him.
And that was not the only thing what bothered people.
Because in the past the people had learned to call black people Negroes and they said that openly.
Negroes is a name what black slaves get when there identity and culture is removed.
And many people in the Netherlands had learned from the past ,to call black people Negroes .
What some black persons had accepted or even adept but many others don't, and that brought another frustration.

Because, for many people in the Netherlands, a negro was someone who have his origin from Africa, it doesent matter from wich country from Africa or South-America .
As long that he have dark or black color, big nose and frizzy hair and then he is a negro.
Like on this moment, if they want to mention a black guy, then they will say it's a negroid race.
Even when someone in an American movie calls a black guy , a black man, then it would be translated into a negro.

So, besides Black Pete there is also the name Negro and the negative mentality around that.
And for years black people in the Netherlands had open there mouth, talk about it and even go to court.
Til now the dutch dictionary don't want to acknowledge negro as negative and only mention that some people might think its offensive...
A group in Amsterdam tried for years to bring the case of the name Negro to the court, and the judge don't find it offensive.

What leads to that in the dutch society, some people openly call others with names and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

And if you want to do something about it, it will end up at a close door or you will be trow into jail.
This is unfortanly the path of many black people in the Netherlands, they can only standby and watch and they can't do anything about it.
So, even if you have another opinion and you openly share that opinion, then you might get arrested for it.
We can aspect that in a third world country, or maybe in Russia or China.
But in a civilize country of the Netherlands, it also happened allot.
And thanks to the internet, videos and stories can now be shared and expose the way some people in the Netherlands handle the discussion.

A good example is the story of Quinsy Gario.
In 2013 he was wearing a t shirt with... Black Pete is racism.
And he was standing peacefully in the crowd, just watching St.Nicolas and his Black Pete's coming by. He only stood there until two police officers saw him and arrested him for that.

The situation of Quinsy Gario started a movement of people who stood up against the old tradition and wanted to go in dialog to change the appearance of Black Pete.
The argument what they used was, that Black Pete look to much like a black person.
That it is a caricature of a black slave, and that its only confusing or frighting people.
I personal saw and experience how white people make fun of black people, by calling them Black Pete, it is sad to see the only colored kid in the class and there for others call him black Pete.
Its even worse when old people on the street get called by that, and the biggest problem is that a colored person get treated differently, and that divide or isolate people or kids.
There for they want to change the appearance of Black Pete.
But the majority of the people don't want to change the tradition.

So, the biggest problem of this situation is not the lack of arguments, its more about that one party don't go in dialog with the other party.
The arguments get dismissed by a fallacy or non arguments, or the tradition argument is used.
Because we are doing this for ages, we can't change it??

So, what is the problem from my point of view?
What i noticed is that it is a 10 to 1 discussion.
And that the 10 don't want to listen to the 1s....
No matter what the few are saying, the numbers are deciding who is right and who is wrong.
The discussion is filled with non arguments.
Just take a look at this video of a demonstration against the movement who wants to remove black Pete.
A young girl who was grown up with Black Pete saw on the news that some people wants to remove Black Pete, she thought it was sad and wanted to create a demonstration in the capital of the Netherlands. And she rally the demonstration with the best intention, but not everyone had the same intention. So, many thinkers gathered at that location to support the case.

But then out of nowhere a colored woman walked by with the flag of Papoe-New Guinea.
Because she thought, if the media ask attention for Black Pete ,then she wanted to use that to ask attention for her country, where people are dying.
She had nothing to do with black Pete and was there by coincidence.
The protesters aw the woman as a treat, and started to stand around her, and started singing St.Nikolas songs and told her, to leave the country....
Then on some point it became so violent that the police had to remove the woman for her own safety.

Another video is from a demonstration in Gouda in 2014.
A group who wanted to do a silent protest against the appearance of Black Pete.
They were standing silently in a crowd and just stood there watching the event.
Then the police stand around the group and isolated the "leader" of the group called Jerry Afriyie.
They arrested him violently in front of everyone and after that arrested the full group.
Only after two years the judge said that the police was wrong and acted to violently.
http://www.ad.nl/dossier-sinterklaas/vergoeding-voor-opgepakte-zwarte-piet-demonstranten~a5e8cb2b/

And the leader of that group Jerry Afriyie got sued by a few police officers, who said that he heard his arm and demanded an amount of money.
But the judge dismissed the claims and agreed that the police reacted to hard on them.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/rechter-anti-piet-activist-afriyie-opnieuw-onrechtmatig-gearresteerd~a4390430/

Here is the video of the arrest at the demonstration in Gouda.

And the discussion also when to social media, and some guys created facebook pages to ask support against the movement who see black Pete as racism.
One of those pages called Pietitie, who created a petition to keep Black Pete black as how it was.
When that page was created, it had within no time more than a million likes and it's still going up.
https://www.facebook.com/pietitie?hc_location=ufi

There for, the attention around this topic was also caught up by the government.
And even made it to president.
One of the journalist asked him about Black Pete, and this was his answer.

So, that was the opinion of the president of the Netherlands.
That means the dutch politics do not mixed in the discussion about Black Pete.
And leave the discussion open for the people.
But the problem is the small group who do not support Black Pete is the minority in the Netherlands, and they must stand against the opinions of the public, and against the police.
And the government don't want anything to do with it.
That means the situation is more or less like David against Goliath.

But what are the facts of this holiday?

1. St.Nicolas is Nicolas of Myra.
2. He was born on 15 march 270 AD
3. He died on 6 December 343 AD
4. Nicolas was a Roman and grown up as a christian.
5. The teacher Jan Schenkman created the concept of the St.Nicolas holiday in 1850.
6. After the WW2 American soldiers created more Black Pete's for the dutch children after the war, before WW2 there was only one Black Pete, Pete is a dutch name.
7. The American soldiers brought St.Nicolas to the US and changed it into Santa Claus.
8. Since the 1900 St.Nicolas was celebrated on almost every school in the country.
9. His arrival with the boot is always huge and live on television.
10. Black Pete was a caricature of a slave, created in a time when slavery was legal.
11. Slavery ended in 1863.

Here are some sources of the information.
http://persmuseum.nl/tentoonstelling-zwarte-piet-geopend/
http://www.livius.org/articles/person/nicholas-of-myra/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/russian-soviet-and-cis-history-biographies/saint-nicholas
http://www.historien.nl/jan-schenkman-en-het-eerste-sinterklaasboek/
http://www.ninsee.nl/weblog/-Zonder-Slavernij-geen-zwarte-Piet-
https://nl.pinterest.com/sintnicolaas/sint-nicolaas-en-zijn-knecht-prenten-uit-boek-van-/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131219-santa-claus-origin-history-christmas-facts-st-nicholas/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Nicholas

In fact, on the internet there are more information about this subject, just Google Nicolas of Myra and you will find more than enough information.
The only problem is, not many people will do that because they adept what others believe.
That is the situation on this moment in the Netherlands, it is more about opinions against the facts.To make a example, here are some arguments what are mostly used in the Black Pete discussion. And below every comment il explain what i would answer on that.

It is an old tradition we do this for ages!!
In fact the holiday as what people celebrate now in the Netherlands origin ed since 1850.
And every tradition get changed in a way what every time zone or mentality accepts.
That is why traditions never stay the same, they always change in a way what people think is most appreciated.
Just like here in the Netherlands, we never celebrated Halloween.
But the last couple of years people adept that holiday and now here in the Netherlands people start to celebrate Halloween.
The Netherlands simply adept the holiday and formed it into what we think is best.
We are not yet on that part that people aspect kids at the door for candy, that is still new.
But changing into spooky costumes is upcoming on this moment.

Don't mess up the holiday for the kids! Because it is for the kids....
The truth is, people don't want the holiday to stop.
They want to change the caricature of the Black Pete, to changed it into a more neutral figure.
A kid don't know something until we grew up teach them a holiday.
For them it is important to get presents and candy, and then it doe sent matter if that person is black or white or purple with white stars.
As long if that person is nice, friendly and got candy's and presents then he is there friend.
There is nothing wrong with that.
Unless people want to see a black color on that caricature.

Black Pete is black because he come threw a chimney!
While Black Pete got big red lips, frizzy hair, ear rings, necklace. He don't really look like a a white man who turned black because of a chimney.
He looks more like the slave on this painting from 1700.

Black Pete was not a slave, he was a Moor.
The origin of the moors are Berber and Arabic people who made a entrance after 700 AD.
The formation of the cultures of the moors was still in preparation in the times of the Romans.

I was grown up with Black Pete and i am not a racist!!
By celebrating the holiday wound make anyone a racist, its more about the point of view created by Black Pete, what could change the view about black people.
Children adept what they see and if a kid never meet a black person before, then he dont know how to react, because he dont know what to aspect from him.
This happened many times when kids just freeze when they see a black person, or even get a afraid of him, or wound see him as equal because he learned that a black person is something else.

I know black people who celebrate St.Nicolas to!!
True, but people celebrate what they are used to celebrating.
I mean, nobody of this or the last generation, asked to celebrate the holiday on that way.
Everyone kind of adept the holiday and joined the holidays.
In fact everyone who grown up between people who celebrate St.Nicolas might have a positive experience about the holiday, because of the candy and presents.
But many others who came in this country or are born here might have another experience with the holidays, what were not positive.
Like they have been treated differently on school, work or in daily life.
I remember being on work, and a very nice colleague of mine had a day off, but i did not know he dressed him self as black Pete, and made a visit on work.
The first thing he did when he was at work like Black Pete, was sitting next to me and look at me.
On that moment i was behind my computer on the telephone and saw him sitting next to me.
He just sit there and smile and said nothing, i looked at him and smiled back and continued work.
He then stood up and then said hi to the others.
But the reason he did that, was because deep in his heart he knew it was wrong.
He wanted to get an acknowledgment of me that it was a funny action of him to dress up as black Pete, and i know he don't get a bad intention and there for i smiled back.
Because, he is only doing what society accept on this moment.

My conclusion:
What do i personally think of this matter?
The truth is, i am a colored man who was born in the Netherlands and was grown up in a catholic foster home, i was kind of grown up with dutch values and traditions, but i experienced it as a colored kid.
I experienced in a way that i enjoyed it in some situations, but i also experience a lot of negative situations, with a lot of racism.
Now, does this qualified me to have an objective opinion about the situation?
Or is mine opinion more subjective because of mine experience?

My guess are that on both of these rhetorical questions i could say yes.
Mine opinion is more subjective because of my experience and yes i am qualified to say something about it.
But i wound because my point is not to choose a side and trow some water on hot oil.
Nope that is not my point with this post.
Because, i see something else in this hole discussion in the Netherlands.
From my point of view is the content not the problem, the communication is the problem.

The lack of respect or the skills to communicate is a big issue.
And the Black Pete discussion had exposed what many people suspected, the hate and racism is very deep.
For some unknown reasons there is a huge anger and hate to black people or vice verse.
That has nothing to do with Black Pete, because that is just the content.
The problem is more about how to talk with each other or how to agree that we disagree.
I mean it should be no problem to disagree with someone else, and then talk about it on a rational way.

Because changing Black Pete wound remove the hate and the racism what is institutionalized in the Netherlands, it only exposed the situation for everyone to see.
So, we could change the appearance of Black Pete, and then pretend like the problem is over.
But from my point of view, it is time for a change.
Because this discussion had shown the racism and hatreds amount each other, it is so open on the internet that we can't ignore that.
And even if Black Pete will change, the hate and racism will stay.

The situation is like this,the system wount do anything about racism in our society, were we have people walk openly with a black face, and black people get stopped by the cops because of the color of the skin, and that black people can't go in every night club yet, and that immigrants or Muslims still have problems to get a job, that we get filled with hate about some people that we agreed to bomb them..and let millions go to defense while we need money for health care, education and jobs.
Many people have never ever learn what a fallacy is, they use their own believe system to decide what is wright and what is wrong, and used to prejudice people before they can say A or B.

This means what ever content get mixed up in this chaotic situation is from my point of view nothing more or less than cold water on hot oil.
Some people who benefit that the people are divided, are sitting on the sideline enjoying there champagne from a Jacuzzi.
And are sitting there invincible while the divided people are fighting each other about the color of our skin.
If you ask me, that is just pretty stupid.
I could make it sound scientifically but basically its just stupid.

I mean lets look to the facts shall we.
On this moment there are some citizens who hate other people based on there color, religion or gender choice.. ah yes that is another story but il make a post about that one day.
And some of those people had never ever meet someone from the religion or culture he hated.
I mean, that is latterly saying ... i hate a stranger???
How stupid is that?
Oo because he is a black stranger???
Ah yes of course , because blacks are violent and aggressive and dump and there for better save then sorry right?

Or when someone is having a job interview and he rejects the person because it is a migrant or a colored person.
But they will never say it is for that reason, they will say that the person don't fit in the company..
Then how on earth could one interview expose if someone can fit in the company?
That interview only expose that someone, have the skills to give a good expression in that interview, it says nothing about how that person will is in one month work.
And this is still a huge problem in the Netherlands, or everywhere even.
What leads to an economy problem, because many fathers can't get a regular job and there for can't support there family.

And on the same time the system who organized all this, are fooling the people to support the useless wars for profit. As a result more money to defense and less money to the social structure.
And then on the same time many people are complaining about the economy.
From my point of view, this all is simply pretty stupid.

If you ask me, if the people understand that we are divided and learn to understand what we really are, then people will see and realize that cultures and countries are a illusion.
It don't exist in the laws of nature, it only exists in our minds.
And the struggling and battle what the majority of people have is part of that illusion.

Like this story of Black Pete.
The truth is, in the times of slavery only companies of the elite was doing on slavery.
The government made money with the tax of slavery, and on the same time the common men in the Netherlands was also a slave for the elite.
They either work for them, or was a soldier for them but at the end of the day, it was the elites who decided what is right and what is wrong.
They also brought the myth and hate about the black man to the common men.
The hatred and racism was needed to divide white and black and to have an excuse for slavery.
The common men would not accept another human being as a slave, unless it is a stupid, dumb, evil, bad and negative person.
And that information was spread around the citizen in the Netherlands, and the common men adept that information as the true.
They could not verify the information because the common men had never seen a black man before, and saw that information as the true.

It was even so bad that in early 1900 there was a human zoo in Amsterdam.
I mean they were Zoo's for humans!


Where people could go to, to see people from Africa or South America like animals.

http://www.quest.nl/foto/menselijke-dierentuin

And that was all done by the elite, the same elite who made profit of the dutch farms, the import and export.
This all was not done by the common men or woman, they had nothing to do with slavery.
They are just like the slaves a victim of the situation, and they only heritage the hatreds of the past, but many just never figure out were that hate came from.
Only for that reason i could never get mad anyone more when i experience any form of racism or discrimination.
Because i know that he only react because of what he has learned, and from my point of view. He is a victim just like me, in fact we all are victims of the past.

We all learn what others had taught us, and that's why we treat people the way we do.
If someone learns that black people are bad then he might "believe" that black people are bad and lazy.
And if someone lives in a poor neighborhood with a lot of black people and when he sees only negative things of black, then he might "believe" that all black people are negative.

And when someone learns that black people are aggressive and violence and rape woman, and when he hears that a black person did something like that, then he might "believe" that black people are like that.

And start to use a prejudice about black people, because he "believe" and aspect black people or another minority are like that.
So, basically it looks like what people believe plays a key role in our social communications and contact with each other.

And that is also the situation of this post.
There are people around who wants to tell there kids a fairy tale story, about St.Nicolas and Black Pete, and because the children see it every year, they start to believe it.
And when they grow up, they want to keep the story what they believed and celebrated, to give it further to the next generation.

And on the other side are people who choose not to believe and had investigated the source of that story, and found evidence that the source of the caricature of Black Pete was a slave.
And use that information in the discussion.
More like believers against rational thinkers.

Basically this is going on in the hole world.
There is one side people who believe this or that, terrorism, evil religions, evil people or that war is the only way to find peace.
And on the other side are people who think rationally about our reality and choose the most logical steps in life.

But if you ask me?
I had chosen for ,to tell my kids the truth about our reality.
I will never tell them lies, and i would more tell them the truth about our reality, to prepare them for the future.
I am teaching my kids to investigate everything before they believe in it.
Because from my point of view, your belief is a powerful energy, if you can control it, then it can serve you and others, and if not then it might destroy you and others.
And this above here is what is going on in the Netherlands on this moment, around the Black Pete discussion, its more about people who believe in something against people who know.
It's not about Black Pete, the discussion of Black Pete only expose the racism and hate between some people, what was hidden for ages.
Now that it is wide in the open, i wounder..
How can we use the situation into a benefit for everyone?
Feel free to reply on this question..

And thank you for reading my post, this is honestly my first and last post about this subject, it's just to make it clear how i look at it ,and what i as a colored person, who was born and raised in the Netherlands, look at this situation.
I honestly never shared mine opinion about it, because on the heat of the moment, it is to hot to explain everything in a rational way.
Many avoid those conversations and there for i never said anything about this subject.
But i personaly think, there is nothing wrong with this picture.

So, when any person say, some black people don't mind Black Pete.
Then i can say from my heart, i don't like it and i don't like to see any caricature from any culture or religion at all.
From my point of view groups and cultures are an illusion, what we create in our mind and if some illusion can hurt your fellow man, then maybe its time to change that illusion into something what could benefit everyone.
I would like to treat others as how i want to be treated, and i would never ever made fun of any kind of culture or religion, but i cant demand that from anyone.....
I can only share mine opinion about all this.....and this is what i think of al of this.
If you want to stay uptodate regard what i post, then feel free to follow me!
Thank you!