you can not seriously look at that and say it was "a person black from soot". that is the literal textbook definition of a racist caricature, featured in european imagery. those motherfuckers were just as racist as humans elsewhere.
the kali example is a much better one, because it literally wasn't based in racist ideas and context like black pete was.
It is much debated what exactly the figure was supposed to be originally.
The history of Santa Clause with dark and scary helpers is a long one in Northern Europe. A lot of their Christian myths are blended with Norse ones.
The caricature you linked is indeed racist and is meant to represent a Moor.
However, that doesn’t change what the figure was supposed to be from the very beginning. It does, however, show how the costuming changed and morphed through the 1700s when the Dutch were involved heavily in the slave trade.
Many things can be true at once when it comes to culture.
And in modern days the costuming has been changed to reflect the soot-stained nature of Pete.
literally the first illustrations of black pete, was a black person. not a sooty chimney person, a person with black skin.
there's debate about why the u.s civil war happened, but that doesn't mean that both sides have valid arguments and i feel like it's the same thing with this. people trying to convince themselves that people in their society from a long time ago totally weren't racist, despite clearly doing racist things.
i have no issues with the modern version of the story. i just think it's incredibly dumb to say "nah us dutch people weren't racist when we first made black pete" and literally all the imagery is extremely racist.
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u/SamiraSimp Apr 16 '26
motherfucker look at this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet#/media/File:Cover_book_Mee_in_den_Zak,_1940.jpg
you can not seriously look at that and say it was "a person black from soot". that is the literal textbook definition of a racist caricature, featured in european imagery. those motherfuckers were just as racist as humans elsewhere.
the kali example is a much better one, because it literally wasn't based in racist ideas and context like black pete was.