Zwarte Piet

And you can, like, pick which one you want.

Yeah, like the Dutch Zwarte Piet.

[laughs]

[laughs] Yeah, yeah.

Pete.

Black Pete is a legend.

He is Santa's surly, terrifying enforcer.

He is considered a giant in the elf world.

sounds so intense.

It implies centuries of violent, magical geopolitical warfare long before the modern concept of Christmas even stabilized.

Black Pete isn't a jolly helper.

He is a battle hardened, traumatized veteran who runs an elite soul sapping training academy designed to completely break the elf cadets before building them back up.

It can make the mundane important.

You know, um, I, I, last year, our, in, at Christmas time, w-we went ape on, like, you know, um, oh, gosh, like, uh, Black Peter and Frau Perchta and, you know, all these, these things.

Things that were less as known as Krampus, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

The Black Pete.

I mean, they, yeah.

I mean-

Yeah.

Um, because I have so many different people around me, like, uh, really hardcore activists and also people who think like, "Oh, why is Zwarte Piet an issue?" So that's a wide range-

Yeah [laughs]

... [laughs] of people who are surrounded by me.

They're still small.

But do you know who they like even better than Santa Claus? His helper, Pedro el Negro, Black Peter.

Yeah.

There's an old Mexican tale [clears throat] that tells of how Santa Claus got so very busy looking out for the good children that he had to hire some help to look out for the bad children.

So, of course, I was also exposed to many different cultures.

But I also grew up celebrating Zwarte Piet, which was a big part of my childhood.

And I did not see a problem in that for decades.

for the biggest part of my childhood.

Please wait for budget day to do your strikes.

I, I'd love to hear your opinions on Zwarte Piet.

[laughs] Oh, man.

[laughs]

The Cat and the Cradle.

In the early ages, when our far-off ancestors lived in the woods, ate acorns, slept in caves, and dressed in the skins of wild animals, they had no horses, cows, or cats.

Their only pets and helpers were dogs.

The men and the dogs were more like each other than they are now.

However, they knew about bees, so the women gathered honey, and from it they made meat.

In the course of time, he became a regular land thief.

Whenever he saw or heard of a f- floating bit of territory, he rowed his boat after it by night.

Before morning, aided by wicked helpers who shared in the plunder and were in his pay, he would have the bog attached to his own farm.

Everybody has their own opinion and they do want to listen to all different types of people from the Netherlands.

But when we tell our story, an example is Black Pete.

If they find one Black person who says, I'm okay with it.

They say, see, the Caribbean people are okay with it.