"It's totally misunderstood really. They are black from going down the chimneys…" The discourse of denial in Facebook forums discussing Zwarte Piet

Arguably the Netherlands’ most popular tradition, the arrival of Sinterklaas (a Saint Nicholas-like figure who delivers toys to children in early December) onto Dutch shores is an event many look forward to each winter. However, his faithful assistant Zwarte Piet (literally, ‘Black Pete’) has been making headlines in recent years, and not for the right reasons. Having transformed from an aid who dealt with misbehaving children to a clumsy assistant and, more recently, as a clever and helpful sidekick (Lemmens, 2017: 124), the controversy lies in the character’s seemingly “exaggerated” (Raboteau, 2014: 145) depiction of a black person. Sporting blackface, bright red lips, and curly hair, these features are comparable to the old Colonial stereotype of an African slave (Hilhorst and Hermes, 2016: 220), with the Dutch attributing Piet’s colour to soot from the chimneys he descends when delivering presents. However, critics have denounced this theory as his clothes remain spotless, further suggesting that he intentionally portrays an individual of African descent. My research analyses a series of Facebook comments collected from Dutch, British, and American users across four forums that debated the custom, employing elements from a variety of frameworks that concern racist denial discourse: Potter and Wetherell (1988); Van Dijk (1992); Marlow (2015); and Hilhorst and Hermes (2016). Ultimately, I endeavour to discover just how the participants use these linguistic devices in discriminating against those with sound reasons for believing Zwarte Piet to be offensive to black people, and how they justify their own arguments in the process.