Rearticulating critical awareness about racism in public discourse: changing one's mind on the Black Pete debates in the Netherlands

Large-scale social and political debates can be understood as dynamic and inter-discursive networks in which a multiplicity of subject positions are being activated, challenged and negotiated in attempts to fix the meanings that shape our daily lives. They take place across a multiplicity of speech events and media and are often marked by a great deal of repetition and reiteration. This results in a high degree of predictability that becomes especially obvious in debates that concern issues of diversity and migration. As a case in point, we can take a look at the debates surrounding the folkloristic figure of Black Pete in the Netherlands. Black Pete is the counter-part of Saint Nicolas or Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. He is a cherished black-faced figure enacted by white men and/or women for most, and a racist remnant of colonial times for others. Since 2013, debates concerning the racist character of Black Pete have flared up to the point where the UN and various courts in the Netherlands became involved. Anti-racist activists calling for a reconsideration, adaptation or abolishment of the figure of Black Pete have faced death threats while the majority of the population is clinging to the traditional Black Pete / Saint Nicolas binary pair. In this emotional debate, some people have changed their opinion. This does not only involve a practice of re-positioning oneself towards Black Pete, but also a complex re-articulation of the various voices that constitute the debate in the first place. This chapter focuses on a case study in which a video-blogger engages in such a complex reconsideration of the debates and practices surrounding the celebration of Saint Nicolas. By focusing on the meta-pragmatic discursive strategies deployed by this blogger, we seek to gain deeper insight in the development of critical subjectivities in the public realm.