Knecht: Knegt : Knight
Zwarte Piet was a clever knecht. The word knecht has a lot of important meanings. You know the knights of King Arthur? A lot of what is made up now by people is simply a lack of knowledge of the Dutch language. It's so sad that people who want to live in the Netherlands do not think the dutch language is important and like to learn it anymore. They want to keep their own language. It's very hard nowadays because there are a lot of migrants. The Netherlands is not able anymore to teach them all.
Sinterklaas and the organisation back then thought the festival would have to be happier. Maybe thoughtless. Because it makes the festival harder to understand. The reason of the festival, taking care of your little mistakes being forgiven, became more unclear because, of all that stood for this, only the positive masking of your face by making it black with ashes, now paint, stayed.
So now everything is a little harder to understand. But no reason to bully people to say they are doing something wrong with Zwarte Piet or something. Most of all to elderly people this shows no respect. Elderly people have a hard time already because there is no time for them because there are so many people in the Netherlands who need care now coming from abroad.
Everything is harder to understand, which is a pity. By integration of people who flee to the Netherlands etc. it's good to make the reason clear of the Sinterklaasfestival with Zwarte Piet. Foreigners really like to make a Sinterklaaspoem. Fortunately there are the poems, the surprises and the rebuses do remind of the festival of forgiving your little mistakes.
Sinterklaas also changed from a strict man in a somewhat sweet , sometimes a little forgetful, man (still 500 years old at least). And still a Saint/spirit and not a white (blanke) boss like some people who don't know anything about it sometimes made up. I still don't know a real man of at least 500 years old. Not even 200 years. Unfortunately that's not for human.
It was a bit strange that a judge in Amsterdam, not in the north, made up that every white (she said "Witte" which is very offending here) man/woman in the Netherlands, as she was concerned, is a 500 year old Saint/spirit. That should mean every white person in the Netherlands could put St. in front of his/her name. Fortunately the final verdict restored these silly mistakes.
The real Sinterklaas: whoever you put next to a saint/spirit is always inferior. That's why someone can't put St. before his name. That has nothing to do with a white dutchman/woman or being less than a white dutchmen/woman.
Remember a Knight or Knecht is a servant from a very important person. That was and is Zwarte Piet from Sinterklaas.