Criticism of Dutch "Black Pete" Tradition Grows Foreigners visiting the Netherlands in winter are often surprised to see that the Dutch version of St. Nicholas' helpers have their faces painted black, wear Afro wigs and have thick red lips - in short, a racist caricature of a black person. The overwhelming majority of Dutch are fiercely devoted to the holiday tradition of "Zwarte Piet" - whose name means "Black Pete" - and insist he's a harmless fictional figure who doesn't represent any race. But a growing number are questioning whether "Zwarte Piet" should be given a makeover or banished from the holiday scene, seeing him as a blight on the nation's image as a bulwark of tolerance. "There is more opposition to Zwarte Piet than you might think," says Jessica Silversmith, director of the regional Anti-Discrimination Bureau for Amsterdam. She said that historically her office received only one or two complaints per year, but the number jumped to more than 100 last year, and will escalate much further this year. "It's not only Antilleans or Surinamers who are complaining," she said, referring to people descended from the former Dutch colonies that once traded in slavery. It's all kinds of Dutch people. There are various versions of the history of St. Nicholas - "Sinterklaas" in Dutch - and of Zwarte Piet, who made his debut as an African servant in an 1850 book. Margriet Faber/AP Photo "Nobody is against the Sinterklaas celebration or is calling people who celebrate it racist," said Silversmith. But it is time to consider whether this is offensive, whether there actually are racist ideas underlying Zwarte Piet. The debate comes after a decade in which the Dutch have rolled back many aspects of their famed tolerance policies, and in which anti-immigrant sentiment has risen sharply. Zwarte Piet is frequently defended as part of Dutch cultural heritage, and those who don't like it are often bluntly invited to leave the country. Many Dutch say Pete's black face derives from the soot he picked up climbing down chimneys to deliver presents - although that hardly explains the frizzy hair and big lips. In the U.S., stereotypical black makeup - called blackface - was phased out in the civil-rights era. But in Britain, a TV show featuring blackface lasted until the late 1970s before the practice became taboo. Blackface crops up in other European countries from time to time, such as in a theater performance in Germany this year, but it's only in the Netherlands that it's institutionalized in the form of Black Pete. A sea-change may have occurred here during last year's festivities, when four men were arrested for wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "Zwarte Piet is Racism" outside a store during an appearance of Sinterklaas - and charged with protesting without a permit. Police threw one, Quinsy Gario, to the ground, and kneed him in the back repeatedly as they dragged him away, though he offered no resistance. A video of the incident was placed on YouTube, and the slogan began trending. Although police were later found to have acted wrongly, many parents still felt that it was inappropriate to protest during the holiday or when children were present. Gario responds that Dutch people won't discuss the matter the rest of the year, so his protest was the only way to broach the subject. This year the debate has clearly escalated.