Ferguson, NYC and now the Ongoing Zwarte Piet Controversy in Holland

“Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man ."

Yes I know: another day, another racist outrage. Butt do you know what tomorrow is? It’s the Eve of St. Nicholas Day. You do remember St. Nicholas don’t you? Aka St. Nick, aka Sinterklaas?

You may recall when we discussed him last year, during one of BO’s European tours. St. Nick, Dutch progenitor of our own American Santa Claus, visits children on the eve of his feast day (December 6), bringing them small gifts (i.e. no iPhones or Xboxes):

Later on the night of December 5th, Sinterklaas takes his book of names and, dressed in his long red robes trimmed in white fur, goes out with Zwarte Piet in the nighttime delivering gifts to the good children.

Whoa! Timeout: who is this “Zwarte Piet” and what does he have to do with our story?

It appears that he’s an undocumented immigrant who came to Holland via Spain in search of a better life, and to do the work that the Dutch wouldn’t do:

A few weeks before St. Nicholas Day, Sinterklass and his Moorish helper, Zwarte Piet, which means "Black Pete", arrive from Spain in Amsterdam, Holland. They are greeted by the Royal Family. Sinterklass is dressed in his long red bishop's robes, wears a mantle and carries a crozier.

Later on the night of December 5th, Sinterklaas takes his book of names and goes out with Zwarte Piet in the nighttime delivering gifts to the good children. The bad children are said to get a lump of coal and the naughtiest of the children might get stuffed into his bag and taken back to Spain! 

Well, that’s one way to handle the “dreamers” who aren’t behaving themselves.

They wake up in the morning to find their shoes filled with nuts and candies, and a small bag of chocolate coins wrapped in gold paper -- or a lump of coal!

Good grief, we’re already pushing it with the “chocolates,” butt a lump of coal!? You’ve got to be kidding. Besides, now that the kids have discovered there are iPhones and televisions out there, just for the taking whether they’ve been good or not, the small treats in the shoes lose much of their appeal.

Butt let’s get back to Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete if you will. While St. Nick’s original little helper was a Muslim convert from Morocco, now days they just take any old white Dutch guy and let him put on blackface and pretend to be  Black Pete. It’s stunning that this blatantly racist behavior has been allowed to continue, despite protests around the country.

At this point it’s unclear whether old St. Nick will be able to continue his good works if Black Pete is no longer allowed to assist him. Butt don’t worry, we probably don’t need him imposing his Christian-based values on  little Dutch children – many of whom are Muslim now – anyhow.

So I’ve got to run, I have to bake some Dutch speculaas – the original gingerbread men – for tomorrow’s feast.

If you wish to review the original BHO-gingerbread story from last year, it’s right here. Including the special gingerbread man the Belgians made for Big Guy…

and a special section on speculaas.

Happy St. Nicholas Day Eve!

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Gingerbread: Better than Belgian “chocolate” or a “lace doily”…no?

Big Guy is finally home from his grueling international tour. He’s planning to leave all the problems in the world behind this weekend (i.e. don’t call him, Pooty) by unwinding with a marathon session of Sweet Sixteen playoffs.

What a nightmare last week’s trip was: First they dissed BHO in the Netherlands by not even applauding his best rhetorical efforts off-prompter. Then there was Belgium – oy! Does nobody in that country even understand the meaning of political correctness? I mean good grief, a life-sized gingerbread Barack Obama cookie presented as an official gift from the Kingdom of Belgium to the first black President of the United States of America?

Good grief:

“Nobody cares that Ronny Demedts is a famous cookie artist in Belgium, or that they've been talking this up on Belgian radio for weeks. Nobody cares that this is a special kind of gingerbread called speculaas, which has even more spices and is often shaped into really fancy animal crackers. They'll probably just harp on the fact that it sounds like an OBGYN device. Let's be honest, the problem is that it sucks. A lot of people will also try to say that it's racist, but more on that later. Did you know that Ronny Demedts made a mold of the President in order to bake the cookie? Well, it's true, despite the fact that literally nothing about how it turned out makes it look that way.”

  

How many racist stereotypes can you find in this one Belgium cookie?

What were they thinking: that their world famous Belgian chocolate would be considered racist? Trust me, chocolates would have been a better choice, as long as they weren’t made in BO’s image and likeness.

The fact that the original gingerbread men, known as speculaas in Holland/Belgium, was none other than kindly old St. Nicholas didn’t even seem to cushion the blow.

Because even though the kindly Sinter Nicholas (predecessor of our own beloved Santa Claus)

brought cheer and Christmas gifts to all the good little boys and girls, he did so on the back of little Zwarte Piet:

And frankly, many people think it’s time to end that tradition as well.

Boy, Barry can’t cut a break lately; talk about inadvertently stepping into the middle of another country’s heated controversy.

To borrow a phrase from the more multi-culti advanced Scandinavian culture: uff da!

All I can say about this controversy is I’m certain the Belgians, as is their want, did not intend to offend. I believe they thought they were just presenting a Belgian cultural icon to the American cultural icon. After all, Big Guy has been called American’s first black Santa Claus.

And perhaps if we all remember the original story of the gingerbread man, the gift will seem more political than racist. After all the gingerbread man was made by the white couple who lived on the farm. Anyway, if you think about the recurring verse:

“Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man ."

the last 5 years will begin to make more sense.

Of course, things didn’t end well for the gingerbread man, so I presume there’s a moral in there somewhere, butt I don’t think it has anything to do with racism.

 

Subliminal message from the Belgians?

Oh well, at least they didn’t give him a doily.

 

UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON SPECULAAS:

As I am a bit of an expert on gingerbread speculaas of the Dutch variety, I thought I would share a few additional observations on the cookie. Did you know that the very word, speculaas, comes from the Latin word speculum, which means…mirror?! Coincidence? I think not.

The spicy cookies are traditionally made by pressing the dough into a mold, hence producing a mirror image.

You can make them in German springerle molds, and they will look and taste quite wonderful,

butt technically they will be neither “windmill” nor “St. Nicholas” cookies. Butt a fine cookie nevertheless.

If you grew up Dutch (I did) there were always windmill cookies in the house and fresh coffee for dunking them in, which even the wee ones did. Way back then, if you lived in Dutch country (I did) you could pick up excellent windmills at any local bakery or grocery store. Today, with one exception, the commercial variety are not worth bringing home (Archway and Voortmans used to be good butt somewhere along the line were bought up by “Big Cookie” and now are butt a mere shadow of themselves). The one remaining cookie worthy of the name is made by a bakery in Hudsonville, Michigan: Steenstra’s Almond St. Claus Cookies. So good, they come complete with their own legend, and 5 different shapes. Alas, the formerly 16 ounce box is now a mere 9 ounces, which is probably okay because most people can eat the entire box in one setting.

Oh, how I wish I had one now, to dunk into my afternoon coffee!

While the Windmill is traditional, I think the rooster would be more appropriate around here 

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