Category: Reality

But it is the most selfish thing that you must do.

I didn’t begin my study abroad experience necessarily with any expectations. Of course I had hoped that it would be a great time and that I would form memories for life, but that seems like a given. Don’t we go into any experience thinking it will be a great thing?

My experience abroad has been the most liberating thing I have experienced thus far in my life. I had five whole months to do whatever I wanted. That sounds worse than it actually is. I obviously had pretty solid parameters, but I could really focus on doing the things only I wanted to do. I could take the courses that truly fascinated me, form relationships with people who intrigued me, travel to places that seemed worth discovering to me, and discover what all these connections meant to me as a person. How these connections form what matters the most to me.

I have learned that I am happiest when I am doing something that betters the social welfare, or social justice. Feminism empowers me and it is what gets me going. I am happiest when I am learning about the effects of postmodernism on how we perceive what it is that gives us happiness. The things we value are inherently subjective and a product of our individual realities. There is no objective truth.

I know this may sound like I just turned into a free-spirit hippie who has no concept of reality, but I mean it. I think it is bull-shit that there is only one thing that will make me successful. There is no one path designed for you. The more time you spend with yourself, the more time you spend learning what you love. You begin to understand that if you are good at something, you will succeed at it. You really begin to believe it because it is the only thing that makes sense to you.

Europe has been wonderful to me. Amsterdam specifically has shown me so many beautiful things. I can no longer look at it through the eyes of a newborn baby. It is a piece of me. It has given me so much joy over the past five months. I do not regret staying when everyone left (even though it wasn’t on purpose). This past month itself has shown me how important all of this is – immersing yourself in a culture and dipping into the surfaces of others.

It is only the beginning for me. My travels only begin here. I truly believe leaving your home can change your world. And by home, I don’t mean the physical space. I mean the feeling of home. Because if you only reduce your home to a physical space, you ignore that you can form other homes, and that is so very, very tragic. Because a home can give you so much more than shelter. It can give you a feeling of familiarity, of ease that everything is going to be okay. Amsterdam is my home; it does that to me. And that is why this selfish thing is the best thing, the best thing that everyone truly should do.

I came to Amsterdam with the firmest belief that where I was coming to was a place filled with liberation and equality. I remember telling people I was coming here and everyone would laugh.

Of course you’re going to Amsterdam!, they would say.

The perception of Amsterdam outside of it is one of liberalism. The drug policy in the Netherlands for soft drugs like cannabis, is generally one of non-enforcement. Especially in Amsterdam, where prostitution has remained legal since the middle of the 20th century, a policy of tolerance, or gedoogbeleid, remains strong. Which is why I am confused why there remains such an institutionalized culture of racism, especially in regards to the practice of blackface.

I have attached a documentary piece from CNN as a source regarding the practice of blackface in the Netherlands:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/30/world/blackface-documentary-zwarte-piet-feat/

According to The Guardian, blackface “represents a time when white Americans would put dark paint on their faces and act out incredibly racist and offensive stereotypes about African Americans” [1]. It is a racist practice that continues to be practiced in the Netherlands every holiday season with the arrival of Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, and his servant, Zwarte Piet or “Black Peter.” What’s so problematic about Black Peter? Well aside the fact that he is a black servant to a white old man, he is always represented by white people covered in blackface.

Regardless of the fact that the Dutch assert that this is not racist and a part of a silly and harmless cultural practice of their country, the reality remains that this is racist. This is institutionalized racism at its finest. Whether or not this practice in the Netherlands is linked to racism, which it is in its direct link to the Dutch empire expansion and slave trade, is irrelevant. The mere fact that it is globally considered racist, the fact that I could come from America and see that this practice has made black people in the world feel less than human, is enough for it to have to stop.

What is potentially more powerful and more dangerous than any one person who is blatantly racist, is a person who refuses to think about what is happening around them. Complicity by being passive is one of the most dangerous states one can be in. Think about Hannah Arendt and her criticism of Eichmann in his moral evasion of responsibility in the dictatorship of Nazi Germany. This is not to say my criticism of the Dutch is in any way on the scale of what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, but this is a criticism of the passive individual and what that kind of passivity could potentially lead to.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/30/blackface-halloween-costumes-obviously-offensive