Zwarte Piet

Football Match paused due to a black player being called Zwarte Piet I don’t know much about football, apart from never bet on the English football team to win a major tournament. As I write this post, it’s the happiest time of the year in the Netherlands, Sinterklaas time. The …

Sinterklaas Dutch Vocabulary Guide It’s the happiest time of the year as on Sunday, November 17th Sinterklaas will officially arrive in the Netherlands. Depending on where in the Netherlands you live, Sinterklaas will somewhat confusingly arrive on a boat from Spain with one of the following: A group of happy, …

Rant of the day! The imaginary black friends of Zwarte Piet supporters Once upon a time, there was a man named Piet, Zwarte Piet. He was loved by all kids throughout the Netherlands. Well, that’s not exactly 100% true because, in fact, the Dutch children’s ombudsman did some research which …

Geert Wilders Admits That Zwarte Piet Is Racist In an interview that will shock many, Geert Wilders the founder, head and deputy head of the anti-Islamic party the PVV has admitted in an interview that Zwarte Piet is racist. His admission has left many of his followers in shock. Speaking in …

Why Zwarte Piet must remain black! As I write this, it’s November again. In the Netherlands, the annual pretending not to be black season is about to begin. I am of course referring to the annual Sinterklaas celebration and the most popular ethnic minority in the Netherlands, the Zwarte Piets. …

Keep Zwarte Piet Black! The PVV, the party of Geert Wilders, are proposing a new law to keep Zwarte Piet black. I say black, but actually, brown is also ok. Martin Bosma, a spokesperson for the PVV goes as far as to suggest that the physical characteristics of Zwarte Piet …

As a black foreigner living in the Netherlands, I went through several phases when I first came across Zwarte Piet. Prior to moving here, I’d never heard of ZP, so you can imagine my surprise the first time I saw a group of white guys blacked up and dressed as Zwarte …

We don’t need nieuwe Sinterklaas liedjes The Shallow Man has been feeling pretty depressed this year. The reason for this is that it hurts me to see so many Dutch people being dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. Some minorities have used the rights available to all …

Sinterklaas gedichten and how to survive the season Back in the days when songs actually had more than one or two repetitive phrases, repeated over a dreadful electronic beat, there were people known as musicians. (Look it up on Google if you’re not sure what that means). They would perform on songs, …

This is the first and last post that the Shallow Man will write about Zwarte Piet this year. Like many of you I’m sick of the whole thing. Today the Raad van State will make a decision with regards to the appearance of Zwarte Piet and the recent court ruling …