A good native Dutch friend confirmed this yesterday when I tried to explain why I am working on Kroeshaar.com and why all of this, from frizzy hair issues to Black Pete, does indeed have its origins in our slavery past.
Before the discussion had a chance to succeed, he stormed off, out of my house, because I pointed the finger, calling him a racist. In my entire life, I have never experienced anything like this.
To give you an idea, I was talking to Bill, a good American friend of mine, who also happens to be white, about “White privilege.” Before I could finish he told me that he had attended a lecture at the New School where he teaches by a black woman about women's rights and white privilege.
I felt quite attacked during that lecture, he said. The fact that I grew up completely unprivileged made me feel that things were being unfairly talked into me simply because I am white. It really took a while, he continued, for the penny to drop, that despite my modest background, I still have more privileges as a white man than many black men who may have made it even further. Bill ended with, “If it took me, a progressive film director from New York, a while to get it, I fear that for a lot of white people, the penny will never drop.”
These two conversations illustrate to me the difference between America and the Netherlands when it comes to racism. I don't think I need to explain what Bill thinks of pieterbaas.
Although it is often assumed that racism in America is much worse than in the Netherlands, they are clearly much further ahead with the discussion here. The cases that you hear about, you can see and you see because a discussion is possible here at all. Racism is taken seriously here, which is why it is discussed and addressed so openly. In the Netherlands, this loaded subject is preferably avoided and in most cases ended with "You are too sensitive" or "Go back to your own country."
America is a country of immigrants where from the beginning, the sentiments of different cultures had to be taken into account in order to defeat the native inhabitants, take over the country and above all build it up. The Netherlands, however, is a colonizer who benefited from playing the sentiments of different peoples in overseas areas against each other, divide and rule, for their own economic gain. There is a fundamental difference in that.
The way in which non-European cultures are viewed and the associated sentiments are dealt with is historically different. The fact that a normal conversation about racism has never been possible in the Netherlands is, in my opinion, due to the colonial past.
Van Dale says Colonialism: way of thinking and acting of a colonial power.
As a child from the former colony of Suriname, I myself have thought and acted for a long time in the way that native Dutch people think, whether it was to my own advantage or not. For example, I have believed for a long time that the Netherlands was a tolerant country where racism did not or hardly occurred.
Now I know that people are the same everywhere. The Netherlands may be a unique little country, but like everywhere in the world, there will always be enough racists in the Netherlands to keep racism alive and there will always be incidents that, no matter how annoying, will remind us all of a painful past. The only thing that can provide clarification is honest, open communication.
Besides from Black Americans, I also learn from white Americans when it comes to racism. Not only from Chris Mattew and Rachel Maddow who structurally and factually make it clear how racist President Obama is treated. Also from Seth Meyers who says to Twan Huys “Don't be fooled. Just because we have a Black President doesn't mean there is no racism in America.” And from Larry King who says to Tyler Perry “It is said that the Black woman is the strongest individual figure in America.” And even from a white reporter who says, bewildered, after an interview with Malcolm X that X was right.
These events may not make the news in the Netherlands, but they do enrich the discussion about racism and have certainly made me a richer person as a black woman. Especially through people like Time Wise , author of the book “White like me” and Tanner Colby of “Some of my best friends are Black” I have learned to view racism from a broader white perspective.
It may take a while before similar books are published in the Netherlands, but I have high hopes. Not only because of people like Anouk and Jerry Arens , but also because of Martijn Krabbe, who noted that a company that had initially rejected an applicant on the basis of colour had apologized for the way in which the applicant had learned of the rejection, but not for the form.