When I try to analyze racism/ race matters/ racial struggles and all related issues in The Netherlands, I have no significant local body of work to draw from and/ or reference. Most of the work done on these matters is done from the perspective and by members of the dominant culture and as such, they downplay & whiteplay these issues to the extent that they do not represent or even attempt to represent the whole picture.
It has gotten to the point where native Dutch people tell me that I am wrong attempting to contextualize these subjects or trying to name them appropriately because this is not how it is done around these parts. Even people I care about have told me that perhaps I should reject my racial background altogether so as not to make Dutch people uncomfortable and that I would advance my aspirations/ career even more if I didn’t identify in racial terms. My frustration at not being able to explain why this matters to me and why I think it is important that I do this has reached the point where I seriously question if this matters at all.
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