For now, it’s enough for me to watch them getting all excited, waking us up at the butt crack of dawn to see what the Sint & Pieten brought for them overnight. I reminds me of how nuts we were as kids on the 25th.
They don’t have Santa Claus the way we do in the US, so this is it for them.
Moms militant side will have to be ‘at-ease’ for the time being. Cool.

I’m not American but am Australian, however I’m sure our countries generally share opinions/feelings about this kind of topic.

I’m surprised that you’re the first black person I’ve come across who is speaking out about how they find ZP offensive! I guess it’s mostly white people speaking out because we feel guilty for our racist past and are trying to be more sensitive.

What a difficult decision re your daughters! I’m not sure how I would handle this situation. Which choice did you end up making?

I understand it’s probably quite difficult for someone who grew up in The Netherlands to find Zwarte Piet offensive.

“So if there is a demand for it the tradition should and can change”

So you do feel it should change, how come?

I’m a black woman living in The Netherlands for 7 yrs now, and I’m still bothered by ZP. I would love to just go home for the holidays, but since Sinterklaas is on the 5th, they begin in early Nov with ads, ZP downtown, on TV, etc. I’d have to be gone for two months! I have told just about everybody I know here how that character makes me feel, and have gotten pretty much the same diversity of comments you’ve received on your post. My Dutch husband ’sort of’ understands now.
The most important comment I read above was Wesley’s post about the indoctrination of children. You can mold a child to believe anything is good, bad, or indifferent. The fact that Dutch people grew up with ZP being a sweet guy is why they don’t ‘get it’. The fact that they have absolutely NO idea of what black-face was, what it meant, or the consequences of black people being portrayed as buffoons for so many years, is also a reason I have decided to give them a temporary ‘pass’ on this subject.

I have two beautiful little girls here, and I had to make a decision to either:
1) leave town with them for two months
2) teach them that ZP is not PC
2a) try to avoid ZP with them, i.e. have them taken out of the class when ZP comes with gifts, therefore making them the ‘weird’ half American kids
3) swallow my ‘colored’ thoughts for 60 days a year and let my kids have fun.

Well the choice was easy. I still have the urge to punch ZP in the grill when he approaches us in the city, but so far, I’ve abstained from physical violence.

The things we do for our kids.

Thanks for the extra info, always good to know other sources of Piet’s origin.

By the way, do you know why there is a sudden influx (influx may be a little extreme) of interest in my post a year later? Is there another big debate on expatica?

Regarding Zwarte Piet; this is what’s on Wikipedia:

“Zwarte Piet,” Sinterklaas’ helping hand Black Pete, has his origin in the bishop’s legendary past. Three small Moorish boys were sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. The bishop intervened and they were saved. To show their gratitude, the boys stayed with Sinterklaas to help him, tumbling and jumping on rooftops on Sinterklaas night to deliver presents. Their black skin may refer either to their Moorish background, or to the job of chimneysweep, an option is corroborated by their clothes, reminiscent of an Italian chimneysweep’s costume and Pete’s rooftop occupation. Another background story for Pete is that he is the devil who was enslaved by Sinterklaas. Nowadays, children in the Netherlands are told that the Pieten work for Sinterklaas voluntarily and that there is a special school in Spain where they learn their trade.

Fred: Yeah it’s a good point, using brown face paint removes it a little from the whole ‘black face’ racist comedy. Again, if black people aren’t being offended then there really isn’t so much to worry about! I feel much less strongly about it all a year later.

ZP is nowadays not even black ( wich they were many years) but they are now brown cause the children accept that more. I however agree with you if ou don’t know the tradition you can see it like mocking the blacks. I play ZP for 6 years now and i never feel like offending the black people i any way. in fact i play ZP in some black families to give them the presents together with Sinterklaas