An American journalist has received a death threat after commenting in an article that one of the attractions at the Dutch Efteling amusement park had racist overtones.
DutchNews.nl – American journalist gets death threat for Efteling racism comment
From the article:
Gisela Williams’ review praises the Efteling as a European alternative to a Disney theme park with its fairytale attractions, special effects, lack of queues and affordable food.
However, towards the end of the article Williams refers to one ‘unpleasant part’: ‘the way dark-skinned people were depicted’.[…]
Commenters on the Elsevier website said Williams is ‘ripe for the psychiatrist’, should keep herself busy making such comments about the USA and should take up cooking instead.
The criticism has since reached Williams herself. ‘I received my first death threat today. Believe it or not it was regarding my recent WSJ article on a fairytale amusement park,’ Williams said on Saturday, using the microblogging service Twitter.
The throw-away reference to the fairground attraction is the latest international news article to mention racism in the Netherlands. At the end of last year, there was widespread attention for the racist overtones in the Zwarte Piet character during the Sinterklaas celebrations and for Dutch entertainer Gordon, who made fun of a Chinese talent show contest.
In The Netherlands, death threats for pointing out racism are a common tactic. Mainstream media like that owned by The Telegraaf Media Group regularly incite to violence towards people who resist racism. This is not merely a subgroup of fringe racists but a common rhetorical device to silence any kind of political intervention towards the ingrained racism within the dominant culture.
Of course I am horrified that yet again this is happening. However, this is just one instance making international news while the practice remains a daily reality for local media in the Dutch language. What makes it particularly interesting is that in the same breath these violent media will staunchly defend “freedom of speech”. Obviously, they refer to the freedom to continue being racist. The same standard need not apply for those who speak against it.
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