Which is BS. Black Pete is not the SLAVE of Sinterklaas, he is his HELPER. And contrary to what I´ve read in American press about him, he is NOT made fun of, he does NOT have to talk dumb and with an accent, he does NOT have to act like a fool. He is the one that hands out the candy, and the one that climbs the rooftops to put the gifts in the children´s shoes (Because Sinterklaas is too old for that himself). There are several shows and movies around Sinterklaas and Black Petes (He brings a whole 'army' of them), and they are never made fun of or belittled. Children LOVE him. They are a bit scared of Sinterklaas himself, being the big old man with his beard sitting on his white horse, but they aaaaallll love Pete, who is in the crowd handing out candy, performing acrobatics, shaking children's hands, taking pictures with them...
Also, I read in an article that Sinterklaas is our alternative santa claus. He is NOT. We celebrate Sinterklaas on dec 5th, and christmas, WITH SANTA CLAUS, on dec 24th/25th like everybody else. If anything, Santa claus evolved from our Sinterklaas, the similarities are there (Red clothing, gifts down the chimney, lots of helpers, has his own special animal (White horse/reindeer), both saints (Sint nicolaas, Saint Claus) but he is older than Saint Nick. I think, when Coca Cola needed a holiday to promote their merchandise, they took our Sinterklaas (A lot of early americans were Dutch, after all) and transformed him into their own 'saint'. Even their names sound alike: Sin-ter-klaas / san-ta-claus.
Here is a shot for those who don't know Sinterklaas.