Where St. Nicholas Has His Black Pete(s), Charges of Racism Follow

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By John Tagliabue

St. Nicholas in Amsterdam on Sunday with his Black Petes, whom critics denounce as racist caricatures. 

AMSTERDAM---St. Nicholas entered Amsterdam twice this weekend. On Sunday morning, astride a tall white horse and clad in the red-and-gold cloak and miter of a bishop, to the cheers of tens of thousands of children and their parents, he paraded into the center of town accompanied by his faithful servant, Black Peter. Another St. Nicholas arrived on Saturday afternoon. He sat quietly on a makeshift stage in a tiny square near the Stock Exchange, dreadlocks flowing from under his gold-and-red miter, but without Black Pete. For if Black Peter is a white Netherlander in blackface, this St. Nicholas was a member of the country’s small black minority, and he was presiding at a demonstration by several hundred people, black and white, denouncing Black Pete as racist. [link]