This is en excerpt of the presentation given bij Mitchell Esajas at the event Whatever happened to racism in the Netherlands on December 12th 2012.

My name is Mitchell Esajas, I am a student Business Administration and Social and Cultural Anthropology at the VU University. Furthermore I am the chairman of New Urban Collective, a network of students and young professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds. Today I will attempt to speak on behalf of the collective, I will attempt translate the experiences and conversations I’ve had with more than 250 members of the collective and the more than 700 visitorsof our activities on the issues of race, ethnicity and racism in the Dutch society. Most of them highly educated with a migrant background. Our last event, the ‘ NUC Dialogue: Hoezo Zwarte Piet, hoezo Alleen maar nette mensen?’ was about stereotyping, racism and discrimination in the Dutch media , More than 100 young people attended.

I will share my thoughts on the central question of this evening: whatever happened to racism in the Netherlands? My point is that racism has never left the scene, but it has transformed into new ways of perpetuating structural socioeconomic inequalities. I will give a few examples of how I think racism is subtly and sometimes obviously embedded within the fabric our Dutch society.

 

Why race matters

I have been born and bred in Amsterdam. Growing up, my best friend in primary school was a boy name Mike. We played together every day, all we cared about was soccer, eating candy and playing games. He was white and I was black, they called us Duo Penotti. But this was never a problem, we just lived together young boys. A change came when I made the transition to high school. A new chapter in my life began, one that has continued up until the day of today, the chapter of being the only black person in class, at work, or in the room. I went the Gymnasium, the highest level of high school and together with Jeffrey, A Ghanaian guy we were the only black guys in the Gymnasium class. He did not make it to the second year of Gymnasium so the rest of the 5 years of VWO I was the only black guy. In the breaks, however, I would meet my fellow Surinamese friends, my Ghanaian and friends from different cultural backgrounds. In class I learned about Dutch history, the WO2, the Age of Reason, the Enlightment, the great Golden Age but at home and in my free time I also learned about the history of my people, black Surinamese people, about slavery, colonialism and pre-colonial Africa. I had to learn to live and switch between two worlds, my predominantly white VWO class in which we would talk proper Dutch ABN and learn about the white Dutch culture and history. And outside of class I would switch to the multicultural environment, where I would hang out with my Surinamese, Moroccan and Turkish and people from all other cultures. We had our own language, our own style, a place I felt more at home. Unconsciously I developed a double consciousness, where dr. Gilroy refers to in his concept of the Black Atlantic. It is in this period that I became aware of my “otherness”, the color of my skin and the culture and heritage attached to my appearance. It is in this environment that I learned about the disparities in the socioeconomic position of different ethnic groups in Dutch society. I could literally see the inequalities within Dutch society, it seemed that the lower the level of education the more colored it got and the higher the level of education the whiter it got so at an early age I raised the question:

Why is it that people of color, in particular, black people seem to stay stuck in the lower levels of education? Why was I always the only black person in my class, in college, and today in my work environment?

The story continues…

The story continued when I took the step as the second in my large family to attend university, but the first to finish it. At the university, however, I was not the only black guy in a class of 25 people but the only one in a college room filled with 250 people. Again, I felt I was black, I was feeling like I was the “Other”, it even led me to question whether I belonged there; I began to question whether university was place for people like me. Fortunately I met a few people like me. It was easy to spot them since there were only a handful of us in a sea of whiteness at the university. As I got to know other black students, and other students of color, in the conversations I learned about the similarities in our experiences. Often they were the first in their families to attend university and the only black or colored person in class. Together with a few fellow students the idea emerge to create a space where we as people of color could deal with issues that concerned us, a space where we could be learn and grow and a space where we could simply be ourselves. To explore whether there was a need for such a space we conducted a questionnaire among 150 black university and HBO students to learn about their experiences and needs. Since the start of the we have organized several debates and dialogues on the issue of identity, discrimination and racism, this are the general findings from the questionnaire and the dialogues:

1. Being the only one… “not feeling at home”

Being the only or one of the few “black” person they often feel being culturally different in their educational and professional environments. The majority of students agree that their cultural identity is an important aspect of their daily lives. Some do not feel at home at their institutions and start to question whether they belong there. Others handle it well and are able to adapt or switch between different cultural environments.

2. Being the first “pioneers”…

Often they are, just like myself, the first in their families to attend a higher educational institution in the Netherlands which means they lack social capital. They do not have family members, mothers, fathers and friends who can help and guide them in their academic careers. On the other hand they are extra motivated to be successful because they feel they have a ‘responsibility’ to set an example for the rest of their families and friends.

3. A long road to higher education

The majority of students from a non-western background have reached higher education through the process of “stapelen”. They started out on lower levels of high school after because of low advice of their primary school teachers yet they managed to climb up the educational ladder and reach the university or HBO at a later age. They are determined to move forward in their lives through their education.

4. Being unrepresented in the curricula….

Many of the students do not feel represented by the current curriculum. They learn little to nothing about their own history, culture and experiences at school or college.

5. Media: lack of role models

Many of the students think there is a lack of positive black or colored role models in politics, in business and in professional environments with whom they can identify. They rarely see them in the media and in their direct environment, instead they are regularly faced with negative stereotypes in Dutch mainstream media.

6. Racism and discrimination:

At the dialogues and debates we organized about ‘Zwarte Piet” and the movie “Alleen maar nette mensen” the majority of students said they have experienced some sort of racism or discrimination in their lives and continue to experience it trough the annual celebration of the Sinterklaas holiday with Zwarte Piet as the black caricature based on racist ideology. Furthermore, they think that there is still a taboo on the colonial history of the Netherlands, the Dutch Caribbean and Africa which limits their space to discuss issues related to discrimination, racism and their history and culture.

Whatever happened to racism?

Racism never left, it is disguised in subtle and sometimes obvious forms of exclusion and structural inequalities which is reflected in the experiences of students of color. My experience, as many others, of being the only black student in a class of 250 students reflects the structural inequalities in education which is perpetuated in the labor market and corresponding income levels en social security dependency. But does it seem so difficult to talk about race and racism in the Netherlands?

Essed and Trienekens (2008) and Grosfoguel (1999) have argued how racism is still embedded in the fabric of Dutch society. For the untrained mind and eye, however, it is a difficult subject to deal with in the Dutch context because of Dutch society’s problem with race, the taboo on colonial history and the ‘politics of color blindness’.

From biological racism to cultural racism

Grosfoguel (1999) argues that the discourse has shifted from biological racism to a new form of racism which he dubs as cultural racism. The former refers to the dominant discourse of the past in which people of color where classified as genetically inferior races which justified their subjugation and culminated in the institution of slavery in the New World and the Nazi occupations in Europe. After the decline of biological racism trough the Civil Rights movements in the US and the UK and the defeat of the Nazi’s in Europe cultural racist discourse came to dominate racial discourses. In this new form of racism the word race is not even used, it is sees as a thing of the past. Instead, the discourse is about ethnic minorities which are viewed as fundamentally different from and mutually exclusive from the dominant culture. Public discourse about ethnic minorities is generally about problems caused by these ethnic groups and their inability of integrating into Dutch society due to their ‘culture’. The inferior status of ethnic minority cultures is expressed in relation to criminality, their labor market position and social welfare dependency which is constructed as a consequence of their cultural values, habits and behaviors implying the cultural superiority of dominant Dutch culture. The distinction is made between autochtonen and allochtonen, the latter is formally defined as a person of whom one parent is born outside of the Netherlands. Furthermore a distinction is made between non-western and western allochtonen. In practice the term allochtoon implies the racial thinking and cultural hierarchy in Dutch society and refers to the non-western ethnic groups which are seen as disadvantaged, problematic and less integrated groups with origins in Turkey, Morocco, the Dutch Caribbean, Surinam, Africa and Asia. In contrast the term autochtoon refers to white, middle class norms and values and serves as the norm of Dutch citizenship and identity. In practice this means that those who can “phenotypically”, read white people, can pass for “being Dutch” and enjoy the advantages of whiteness.

The politics of color blindness and Dutch self-imagery

This emphasis on cultural differences constructed as allochtoon vs. autochtoon and Dutchness vs ethnic minorities illustrates the politics of colorblindness of the Dutch. We do not talk about race, therefore Dutch people cannot be racist right? Wekker (2009) dubbed this Innocence Unlimited. The dominant self-image of the Netherlands is that of a innocent little nation which was victim of Nazi occupation in World War II which prides itself as a beacon of tolerance and its color blindness. In this collective innocent self-image there is no space for the Dutch colonial and racial history. The “zwarte piet is racism” discussion therefore becomes problematic because it touches the heart of Dutch identity and citizenship.

A discussion I had with a fellow Anthropology class mate illustrated the difficulty of this discussion. After I kindly expressed my feelings and views on the racist elements of the Zwarte Piet figure she responded: “

In my opinion Zwarte Piet has always been the one who went through the chimney to provide the children who were good with presents, so not in any way anything bad. The innocence therefore for a child is something that is destroyed by emphasizing the racism debate – something which is in my opinion not very wise to do because the concept of race has been rejected for a long time in the Dutch scholarly society, and unfortunately when applicable used in debates. I think that you know, as well as I, that race is not the right word here to use; if you want to talk about something the concept of discrimination would suffice better. […] Her friend, another fellow class mate got emotional and responded:

[...]And besides that, nobody is forcing you to celebrate it. It is a part of Dutch culture however, so you can accept that and shut up, or keep whining about it and move.

(Discussion in Anthropology Facebook group on December 5^{th 2012} ) This is the politics of colorblindness, Innocence Unlimited and cultural racism in practice.

Daily racism: structural inequalities

When we think about the question: whatever happened to racism in the Netherlands? I do not understand it as a the traditional notion of racism where people of color where obviously and structurally excluded based on the color of their skin but as a form of cultural and everyday racism embedded in normalized routine discourse, thinking and behavior in society. In her seminal work on everyday racism in the Netherlands Philomena Essed (1995) wrote:

“Once we recognize the fact that racism is systematically integrated into meanings and routine practices by which social relations are reproduced, it follows that it is not specific agents but the very fabric of the social system that must be problematized. This requires that we reformulate the problem of racism as an everyday problem. The analysis of everyday racism makes clear that racism must be combated through culture as well as through other structural relations of the system. Racism not only operates through culture, it is also the expression of structural conflict. Individuals are actors in a power structure. Power can be used to reproduce racism, but it can also be used to combat racism.”

 

When we think about racism therefore we should look at the power structure and structural relations in society beyond the issues discussed above such as the politics of color blindness, the cultural hierarchy embedded in the allochtoon vs. autochtoon distinction and Zwarte Piet. Hen we come to understand racism as ‘everyday racism’ we can state that racism I deeply embedded in the fabric of Dutch society which is reflected in the educational position of ethnic minority groups, their labor market position and the dominant discourse in the media.

Structural inequalities in education, the labor market and the media

In all levels of education, from primary school to higher education there are significant disparities in the educational position between different ethnic groups in Dutch society classified as autochtonen and non-western allochtonen. Indeed, at the primary school level we face segregation between ‘white’ and ‘black’ schools in which the latter has a high concentration of non-western allochtonen and is associated with language deficiencies, problematic children, and high dropout rates. In contrast ‘white schools’ are associated with good behaving and high achieving children. Furthermore, the educational system perpetuates educational inequalities as it disproportionately tracks non-western allochtonen into lower levels of high school which is reflected in their underrepresentation in higher education. Despite the positive development that the gap of the attainment of higher education between autochtonen and allochtonen has been narrowed from 9% to 3% in the period of 2004 to 2010 serious disparities remain. The majority of highly educated non-western allochtonen reach higher education trough a detour of the so-called stapelen. They start at the lower levels of high school and trough the completion of a MBO study they reach HBO and some continue university which means the educational structure does not recognize their potential at an early age.

havo/vwo (3)	21%	22%	29%	34%	45%
hbo/wo instroom 2010	40%	39%	46%	51%	52%
Startkwalificatie (20-35 jr.) niet schoolgaand	46%	68%	57%	79%	81%

The educational disparities are translated in disparities in the labor market. Non-western allochtonen are more likely to be unemployed and to have a temporary contract. The current unemployment figures reflect thestructural inequalities in the labor market. [1] Of the highly educated autochtonen under 25 3% is unemployed in contrast to 16% of their non-western allochtonoon peers. For low-educated autochtonen this figure is 9% in contrast to 20% for their non western allochtoon peers. Recently, the CPB publicized a report which showed that ethnicity is still an important factor on the labor market as labor agencies continue to discriminate on the basis of people ethnic background. [i]

Another example of everyday racism is they ways in which allochtonen, especially muslims, are depicted in the media. Essed and Trienekens showed that the mainstream media perpetuates the negative imaging of allochtonen as most news coverage on these groups focused on problems such as criminality, discrimination and political issues such as immigration legislation. In November 2012, we organized a dialogue on Zwarte Piet and the film “Alleen maar nette mensen” where black women were depicted as hypersexualized docile beings. A film full of racial stereotyping which showed how black women are viewed by mainstream society “we don’t know why you are dating a Black girl. Everybody knows that Black girls are at the bottom of the totem pole. The only reason why guys date Black girls is because they can’t find a white girl to date.”

New Urban Collective

I have shown how racism is still embedded in Dutch society trough power and structural relations but also trough daily discourses, practices and social relations which affect the experiences of students and young professionals of color. New urban collective serves as a counter space, a place of space for students both from diverse cultural backgrounds to deal with these issues of these issues of race, racism and structural inequality. We try to fulfill the needs of the students and young professionals of color which are not met by the educational institutions and other students organizations. A place where their particular experiences, identities, cultures and histories are acknowledged and represented, a place where they can come into contact with positive role models of diverse cultural backgrounds and a space where they can discuss and deal with issues such as the colonial history, discrimination and racism. The New Urban Collective serves as a place of space where we can collectively celebrate, learn from and appreciate our differences. We attempt to combat racism by exerting the power of our collective voices and agency to create a truly equal pluralistic society in which all people have the ability to realize their full potential.

In 2013 we will continue to organize events to discuss the issues of racism, discrimination, exclusion, the colonial history and its legacy in the Netherlands and beyond. The first event we will contribute to will be a dialogue about slavery of slavernijonline.nl More info will come soon.

Essed (1991) Everyday racism: an interdisciplinary theory, Sage publications. Amsterdam

Essed P. & Trienekens S. (2008): ‘Who wants to feel white?’ Race, Dutch culture and contested identities, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31:1, 52-72

Grosfoguel R. (1999)
Introduction: “cultural racism” and colonial Caribbean migrants in core zones of the capitalist world-economy Review : a journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilizations. – Binghamton, NY : Center, ISSN 0147-9032, ZDB-ID 4021617. – Vol. 22.1999, 4, p. 409-434

Wekker G. (2009) Another dream of a common language: Imagining Black Europe in Black Europe and the African Diaspora edited by Hine D. C.m Keaton T. D. and Small S. university of Illinois Press.