Yesterday I attended a presentation at the University of Amsterdam about race, racism and memory politics. I don’t think I can write about this with any coherence because I was overpowered by rage. There was this body of professors, students and PhD candidates discussing “the Other”, mostly Black identity in The Netherlands, but also immigrant communities, the construction of whiteness as part of an inherent Dutch identity, etc. The word I heard the most during the two hours of the presentation was “they”. Because of course, the subjects that were discussed were about people who were not included in the room.
At a certain point, a friend of mine who was also attending, Egbert Martina challenged these ideas that were being repeated as fact about Black identity and he attempted to bring up the fact that no matter how these academics tried to work around the issue, Black always equates “non Dutch” in The Netherlands, regardless of place of birth, of how many generations of “Dutchness” one’s family might have, etc. A wave of annoyance spread throughout the room. Paul “I claimed to invent the concept of sexual nationalism even though it was developed by a Man of Color” Mepschen visibly expressed his irritation. Later on he also insisted on expressing more of this irritation vocally when Hodan Warsame, a Woman of Color, stated that indeed, racism was the most salient point in all of these discussions.
This group of academics kept referring to a Dutch class popularly known as “Tokkies” as a category or framework. In The Netherlands, Tokkies are slang for White Trash (with the exact same political implications of referring to White Trash in an academic environment). At a certain point, near the very end of this discussion (where I had remained silent because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing), I asked how they could keep referring to working class Dutch (consistently labeled as “the racist ones”) as Tokkies and that I believed it was a rhetorical alibi to exonerate themselves, as White, Dutch academics from their share of responsibility in this racist ecosystem that is The Netherlands. I was told by one of the participants (sadly, whose name I didn’t catch but who was, not coincidentally, sitting next to Paul “I claimed to invent the concept of sexual nationalism even though it was developed by a Man of Color” Mepschen) that the use of White Trash/ Tokkie was “ironic” and it was meant in jest, just like they usually refer to “kut allochtonen” (cunt foreigners, a very common racist slur with widespread use in the country against immigrants and people that the Dutch State classify as “Non Western Foreigners”). I looked at her and said “I fail to see the joke as those were the exact same words used by the White, Dutch racist who beat me up”. Silence followed for a brief moment with a chorus of apologia immediately after, that set to correct me in my “misperception” of the use of the term. Surely I was misinterpreting because those words are only used to expose how “ridiculous” they are. I insisted that, to me, there was nothing ridiculous or funny in the repetition of racist slurs for “ironic” purposes.
In closing, Professor Bowen Paulle left us with a reflection, “These conversations about race in The Netherlands are so complicated and even us, who are the most qualified to have them cannot grasp the issue completely”. And right then, I knew it was hopeless to even try to say anything. These people, in one of the most prestigious institutions of learning think that as White and Dutch they are more qualified to discuss racism than the very same people of color he and his peers kept alienating (he was one of the people insisting on the White Trash stereotype).
While I was standing outside, one of the Dutch women who had attended the discussion approached. She asked me if I was a student at the university. I said no. She asked “then where did you learn so much about race?”. I looked at her and said “Life. Mine. In this country”. And I walked away.
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