Cocoa Pete, Chocolate Pete, Mocha Pete, or Brown Sugar Pete.
Pete got “black” from going down chimney’s for crying out loud, it has nothing to do with race.
...with a nice Chianti.
Regards,
Cheesy...
“It’s our old friend political correctness at work, with attendant accusations of racism. The word “black” means all the difference in the world. We’ll have to abolish it from our vocabulary, we cannot use it any more without provoking mayhem.”
Time to ban:
blackboard
black hole
black list
blackballed
blackjack
blackbird
blacktop
blackout
and many, many more!
We have the same thing in the U.S., except when you wake up in the morning your stuff is all gone.
I lived in the Netherlands for fifteen years. “Black Pete” is an integral part of St. Nicholas celebrations, but you have to understand the Dutch version of both characters. First of all, St. Nicholas Day has nothing to do with Christmas. It is held on December 5th. Secondly, St. Nicholas and Black Pete differ greatly from American Santa Claus and his elves. In Dutch tradition, St. Nicholas is a Roman Catholic SPANISH bishop. His costume is a cleric robe with shepherd’s crook. While he is kindly to good children, he is very stern with those who are bad. While we were there, it was not uncommon to have children scolded publicly by St. Nicholas for some act of theirs in the past. If someone has a habit of being late, it would not be surprising for them to get a present of an alarm clock with a poem describing their fault in a humorous way. Also the “Petes” are quite mischievous and often poke kids or otherwise harass them behind St. Nicholas’ back when he pays a visit to schools. Yes, they do pass out candy - at the same time they bop you on the head! Our kids were rather intimidated by the whole experience - and they weren’t alone!
Black Pete as it is traditionally played is a very stereotyped character so I think the charge of racism is more true than not. However, probably the reason why Black Peter is now coming under attack after all these years is not really clearly stated. Black Pete is a MOOR, ie. a Muslim. This explains why some in the Netherlands are nervous about the celebrations and also why Geert Wilders also wants to legally keep this character in Dutch society.