Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution

Article 1
All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted.

Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution stands for equality before the law and the prohibition of discrimination. However, when it comes to Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet (Santa Claus and Black Pete) the Dutch act as if article 1 only applies to the white Dutch. They consider their blatant exhibition of racism in the form of their blackfaced Petes - and thus ridiculing Black people as a whole - as their constitutional right, instead of a violation of other people’s human rights. Especially the Black Dutch from the former Caribbean colonies are not entitled to equality before the law nor can they successfully claim protection against discrimination.


The Dutch government upholds the violation of Black people’s human rights by allowing for the caricature Black Pete images to be exhibited in public places such as government buildings and public schools, and in public media. The government advocates display the offensive images in shops, work places, and commercial media.

Furthermore, the police have the informal mandate to beat up and incarcerate Black protestors who dare point out the blatant racism, thus making sure that the message that there is no equality before the law gets received hard and clear. Never mind that the police brutality goes against article 6 (the right to manifest beliefs freely) and article 11 (inviolance of the body) of the Dutch Constitution.

Since there are anti-discrimination bureaus - and even a Human Rights Watch - in the Netherlands, one would think that they would have picked up on the blatant racism by now. But, not a word on their websites. They are too busy writing about gay rights and collecting trophies that they hand out among themselves. They probably do not want to lose their subsidies for actually doing their jobs. The arab director of the anti-discrimination bureau showed no shame in blaming the victims. She claimed that Black people have had no complaints when it comes to the travesty. And worse, Black people supposedly enjoyed celebrating racism too. She had nothing to say on the violation of constitution rights, nor International and European Human Rights.

Article 1 forbids discrimination, but allows for affirmative action. Before the white Dutch even dare to brand their racism as affirmative action, it should be pointed out explicitly that the people blackening their faces and dancing around like clowns, are white. No Black people are employed. However, it is hard to imagine a Black person desperate enough to want to be a Black Pete.

Thus, the Dutch Constitution seems only applicable to white Dutch. "In equal circumstances" seems to indicate that one has to be white to get treated equal to white Dutch. When it comes to other Dutch people there is no such thing as equality before the law or protection against discrimination. It is bad enough that covert discrimination is rampant and without direct consequences for the perpetrators. But, when even overt discrimination is denied through organized police brutality and empty words from other government branches, that is when the Dutch should just remove "race" from article 1 of the white Dutch Constitution, and get real about their only law called white supremacy.