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.