I Saw People In Blackface At The Grocery Store. When I Found Out Why, I Was Even More Disturbed.

In 2004, I followed my boyfriend Frank from North Carolina, where we’d met, to the Netherlands, where he was born and raised. When that didn’t inspire reflection, they created Kick Out Zwarte Piet, an organization that coordinated protests with signs reading “Zwarte Piet kan niet,” an expression roughly translating to “Black Pete is not allowable.” In 2013, then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte took the position that “Black Pete is black, and we can’t change that.” Traditionalists were confident that Black Petes could do no harm because they meant no harm. That November, when St. Nicholas and the Petes boarded their steamboat in Spain and made their way to the Netherlands, we watched the Dutch public broadcaster’s nightly report on the journey, called “Sinterklaasjournaal,” or the “St. Nicholas News.” Children across the nation tuned in to watch the 10-minute “Sesame Street” inspired newscast every night, as presenter Dieuwertje Blok talked to correspondents all over the Netherlands about the weather conditions for St. Nicholas’ journey and how kids were preparing for his arrival. We continued to talk about why blackface wasn’t OK, and my kids were able to enjoy St. Nicholas while understanding that Black Pete was problematic.