Black-face of Holland, Misinformation or Racism

Most truths are half-false and most falsehoods are a half-truth. Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

Blackface Enactment in Holland

 In fact, the statements in the five paragraphs below are 20% and 80% false, hence calls for the banning of  Sinterklass (Santa Claus) holiday based on falsehood and fabricated fallacy.

The act of dressing in blackface stems from the Sinterklass holiday which takes place on December 5th each year. At first glance, the celebrations seem identical to that of an Irish Christmas Day. Gifts are exchanged, Sinterklass (Saint Nicolas) delivers presents to the children, and time is spent with family. Yet it is not all a fairy tale; there is a stark difference of opinion on the tradition. Sinterklasses helper is Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete. Black Pete first appeared in a children’s novel by Jan Schenkman, written in the mid-10th century. His duty was to reward the good kids with treats and punish the naughty ones. This was done by either beating them with a chimney sweep or throwing them in a sack and shipping them off to Spain.

Zwarte Piet is seen as a representation of Dutch colonial history and slavery, particularly in his appearance. Ignorance is a disease and a very infectious disease once perpetually asserted by people who knew no difference.

Blackface Enactment in Holland

The fact that he is a Moor, followed by the way he dresses, is a reference to the colonisation that took place. In 2015, a United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Netherlands to ditch the tradition of Zwarte Piet, after publishing a report which found that “the character of Black Pete is sometimes portrayed in a manner that reflects negative stereotypes of people of African descent and is experienced by many people of African descent as a vestige of slavery”.

The Dutch government refused to ban the tradition but said it would encourage discussion and debate, even if “uncomfortable”, about racism. In recent years, anti-racism protesters have demonstrated at parades with blackface all around the country, while white extremists are using blackface as a means of protesting against immigration. I met my first young Zwarte Piet at a vintage clothing shop.

St Nicholas AKA Father Christmas

 I was rummaging through the rails attempting to find a winter coat that met my student budget when a young child emerged from the curtain of clothing. He was kitted out in Moorish dress, an afro wig, large creole earrings, big red lips and was smeared with black paint from head to toe.

Later that week my station manager told me about the Zwarte Piet tradition, explaining how it divides the Dutch population between those who associate it with racism and those who see it as a harmless custom. I was intrigued and decided to focus my next podcast on the arguments for the pro and anti-Zwarte Piet sides. Speaking to those who support the tradition, I heard their main argument for defending the custom is that Piet is a fictitious character who is just part of a ‘children’s holiday’. But after interviewing Larice Schuurbiers (lariceschuurbiers.nl), an anti-Zwarte Piet activist and photographer,

St Patrick AKA the Irish Patron Saint

I learned how this tradition is merely a catalyst for a much larger conversation, tackling institutionalised racism which has accompanied the refugee crises, and the Netherlands’ unaddressed colonial hangover.

The Black-faces being enacted over the years in Holland is not racist at all. It is only mimicking the culture and people of Holland in the medieval Netherlands mixed with a lot of misinformation. You see Holland is getting tangled up in its own web of lies. The 3 nations that did the most to write and paint Black people from their history are England, Germany, and Holland. In maintaining every medieval black person in Europe at that time were slaves including their descendants? Absolute lies, poppycock, and balderdash and piffle.

A Description of THE WESTERN ISLANDS of Scotland (CIRCA 1695) By Martin Martin, Gent.
Including A Voyage to St. Kilda By the same author and A Description Of THE WESTERN ISLES Of Scotland By Sir Donald Monro Edited with Introduction by Donald J. Macleod, O.B.E., M.A., D. Litt., Officer d'Académie Foreword

This pre-Celtic recognition of motherhood only, shows its influence in the acceptance by the Picts, a people with some Aryan culture since they spoke a Celtic language, of the principle of matriarchy, and we have an echo of it to this day in common expressions in Gaelic, such as that of which the English equivalent is "I’ll call no man brother except the son of my mother."

Isle of Sykes

Various rivers, such as the Lochy, noted by as early a writer as Adamnan as the abode of the "Black Goddess" ("loch" in old Celtic means "black"), the Ness, etc., mountain tops, fords, valleys, locks and tarns were all looked upon by this earlier race as the abodes of local deities, benevolent or otherwise, and to this day one may listen to tales of water-horses, river kelpies, sprites and such like, from the lips of old people who speak Gaelic only, and who, though living in the midst of a Christian culture, is still thoroughly in touch with the traditional pagan beliefs of their earliest youth. These old people are nowadays extremely reluctant to speak of such things, and it requires much tact and the most careful approach in homely Gaelic to excite their memories and set them a-speaking.

The Complexion of the Islanders of the Isle of Skye:
The inhabitants of this isle are generally well proportioned, and their complexion is for the most part black. They are not obliged to art, in forming their bodies, for nature never fails to act her part bountifully to them; and perhaps there is no part of the habitable globe where so few bodily imperfections are to be seen, nor any children that go more early.

Isle of Arran

I have observed several of them walk alone before they were ten months old; they are bathed all over every morning and evening, some in cold, some in warm water, but the latter is most commonly used and they wear nothing strait about them.

The mother generally suckles the child, failing of which a nurse is provided, for they seldom bring up any by hand; they give new-born infants fresh butter to take away the miconium, and this they do for several days; they taste neither sugar, nor cinnamon, nor have they any daily allowance of sack bestowed on them, as the custom is elsewhere, nor is the nurse allowed to taste ale. On the north-west side of Strath lies that part of Skye called Macleod’s Country, possessed by Macleod. Genealogists say he is lineally descended from Leod, son to the Black Prince of Man. He is head of an ancient tribe.

The Complexion of the Islanders of the Isle of Arran
The inhabitants of this island are composed of several tribes.

The most ancient family among them is by the natives reckoned to be MacLouis, which in the ancient language signifies the son of Lewis. They own themselves to be descended of French parentage. Their surname in English is Fullerton, and their title Kirk-Mitchell, the place of their residence.

If tradition is true, this little family is said to be of 700 years standing. The present possessor obliged me with the sight of his old and new charters, by which he is one of the king’s coroners within this island, and as such he hath a halbert peculiar to his office. He has his right of late from the family of Hamilton, wherein his title and perquisites of the coroner are confirmed to him and his heirs.

He is obliged to have three men to attend him upon all public emergencies, and he is bound by his office to pursue all malefactors and to deliver them to the steward, or in his absence to the next judge. And if any of the inhabitants refuse to pay their rents at the usual term, the coroner is bound to take him personally or to seize his goods. And if it should happen that the coroner with his retinue of three men is not sufficient to put his office in execution, then he summons all the inhabitants to concur with him; and immediately they rendezvous to the place, where he fixes his coroner’s staff. The perquisites due to the coroner are a firelet or bushel of oats and a lamb from every village in the isle, both which are punctually paid him at the ordinary terms.

The inhabitants of this isle are well proportioned, generally brown, and some of a black complexion. They enjoy a good state of health and have a genius for all callings or employments, though they have but few mechanics. They wear the same habit with those of the nearest isles and are very civil. They all speak the Irish language, yet the English tongue prevails on the east side, and ordinarily, the ministers preach in it, and in Irish on the west side. Their ordinary asseveration is by Nale, for I did not hear any oath in the island.

Next Blog 27/11/18: Donald Trump, Truth and Lies, and Hermetic Principles Explained