The folkloric figure of Black Pete is a racist stereotype; a prolongation of a long history of blackface. As the folktale goes, mid November St. Nicolas and his group of helpers, called 'Pieten' arrived in The Netherlands. They will return to Spain after December 5th. During this period, I will post daily on the subject matter of the 'racist character of Black Pete'. Each post will show, deny, neglect, protest, present, discuss or challenge an aspect of this racist character. Black Pete must go!

“The final member of the coon triumvirate is the uncle remus. Harmless and congenial, he is a first cousin of the tom, yet he distinguishes himself by his quaint, naïve, and comic philosophizing. […] He did not come into full flower until the 1930s and 1940s with films such as The Green Pastures (1936) and Song of the South (1946). Remus’s mirth, […] has always been used to indicate the black man’s satisfaction with the system and his place in it.” (Bogle, 2001, 8)