H.A.N.R.: Christmas | Black Pete and Black Santa Claus

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Christmas is around the corner and even though Christmas is one of the best holidays and universally loved, there are still very problematic themes that has continued in Christmas that perpetuates racist stereotypes. 


In the Netherlands, Dutch boys and girls await eagerly for the arrival of Sinterklass, the dutch equivalent of Santa Claus. This version of Santa has a very odd helper who travels with him from home to home and that is Zwarte Pieten, aka Black Pete a stereotypical depiction of african americans with the big lips and giant afro. Many stories about Black Pete vary, from being a slave of Santa forced into a life of slavery including Christmas Day, to one where they backpedal away from the slavery orgin story and claim that he was a chimney sweep with soot on his face.

Either the origin story, every Christmas the dutch will partake in parades and excitement over the christmas celebration by crowding the streets, wearing blackface, including afro wigs and cosplaying as Black Pete. Recently, this act was depicted in The Office and the episode in questioned was removed completely from Netflix. Since the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the push to remove Black Pete imagery has been at a all time high, and in October 2020, Google banned any advertisement that features Black Pete.

The question of the race of Santa Claus can be whatever you want it to be, and in the era of better representation, it is very important that blacks have a Santa Claus that best represents them. For me, seeing the images of Santa Claus as a white man was normal, because that is what you saw, on a coke can or on a billboard. In 2016, The Mall of America hired their very first black santa claus, to encourage black families to take photos of a black santa claus. And its exciting to see that representation. And then you hear, 

Removing the idea of a black Santa Claus is furthering this idea that you can only have white santa claus and also furthers continues the discussion of normalized racism throughout society.

The legend of Santa Claus traces back to the 4th century in Turkey where there existed a monk named St. Nicholas. However, Santa Claus, the creation by Thomas Nast for a cartoons in Harper’s weekly magazine gained notoriety for having the now common white skinned Santa.

By why is black Santa so villianized and looked down upon? Many cultures view black skin as something as evil, where it be from mormon religion to a civil rights case in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education where they used a white doll and a black doll to gauge on a childrens perception of race. The fact that segregation and lack of representation hurt black children psychologically.

The concept of where or not Santa should be white shouldnt matter upon belief of Santa. Santa Claus can be anyone and everyone and should be embraced by kids around the world and shaped by kids around the world. There is no singular ownership of the character, as there is one day a year, Santa Claus, both white and black can visit all kids, regardless of the race.