black peter (a bit late...)

so I must talk about Sinterklaas and Swarte Piet, although they have come and gone already this year. in Belgium and the Netherlands there is a tradition that Sinterklaas (and Sint is the real deal, the inspiration for our Santa Claus) comes to town sometime in November - he sails in from Spain - and then distributes presents on Dec. 5 or 6 (depending on the country). He is accompanied by his 'helpers', Swarte Pieten (Black Peters). See the wikipedia entry for more information.
Anyway, even before Sinterklaas arrived I was noticing these strange decorations and advertisements that featured what appeared to be people in blackface! Woah! I didn't know much about the tradition here and so someone had to explain it all to me. All right, I guess...but it was still really weird and not a little uncomfortable for this white north american to attend the Sinterklaas parade in Amsterdam and see armies of mostly white people running around painted black.

But at least I knew what was going on.
Back at the hostel I listened in as some very stoned young (white) Americans tried to figure out what the hell they had just witnessed and they tried to explain it to someone who hadn't seen it.
"...and it's like...these little kids are like, painted, like, black!"
"Oh my god!"
"yeah! and they're like, with their like parents and everything! and it's so..."
"oh, weird!"
"...and they're like wearing these like little outfits, and like hats and stuff. they're like Shakespearean or something..."
"wow...it's so like...weeeeeird...."
"um...what are you guys talking about? I wasn't listening..."

the conversation lasted for like, an hour.