Blacked up

THE Dutch festival of Sinterklaas on December 5th, the country’s most important children’s holiday, is turning into an annual slugfest of racial politics. The problem is the figure of Zwarte Piet, an impish clown with a black face who accompanies the bearded St Nicholas (“Sinterklaas”) on his rounds, distributing presents and biscuits. The character is derived from 17th-century paintings of Moorish slaves, and many Dutch with African ancestry find it offensive. Most white Dutch fail to see the problem, and react angrily to accusations that their tradition is racist. The conflict plays out in the media, the schools, the courts and at Sinterklaas parades around the country. And it has fed into culture wars between Dutch liberals and anti-immigration populists such as Geert Wilders.