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jamiejaaay's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Though this book is written for a Dutch context, I'm strongly recommending fellow white folks in the western hemisphere pick it up and read it. In its pages, you will find a thorough critical insight into yourself staring back.
We use a different vocabulary here in western Canada than they do in the Netherlands, but we do all the same things here. We lump all racialized peoples into one homogenous racial category, and call it BIPOC, ignoring their diversities and treating them all as if they all experience the same universal needs. We silently imply the importance of whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, monogamy, and western-ness, in contrast to the outwardly declared abnormality of everything defined in difference to these qualities. We see middle-aged white men feel they should be the first and last to speak in conversational spaces, with completely disingenuous and emotionally antipathic questions, where discernment and empathy should be exercised to allow Indigenous or Black folks to speak first and last. For Christ sake, we've even had a troupe of dancers show up wearing blackface in our downtown core here in the lower mainland, without the slightest hint of why this might be wrong or insensitive.
But unlike in the Netherlands, which is transitioning into a postcolonial multicultural society since the liberation of the majority of its former colonies, we ARE the colony. We aren't postcolonial - we are still hundreds of years from achieving that at our current pace.
We are witnessing the true cost of this colony being slowly located and excavated, one tiny, brittle body at a time, across the country, at the sites of former residential schools. We are witnessing the renewed outward expression of Nazism at all levels of our society. We are witnessing the attempted rise of an alt-right populist pillar in our own government.
But we can do the work to resist our own complicity. And it starts with picking up books like these.
eline1701's review against another edition
[review copied from my goodreads, written after finishing it]
I'll write the review in English since it's also available in English, but I read this one, the Dutch version.
First of all, it feels good to learn more about the ways in which racism - and particularly anti-Blackness - manifests itself in the Netherlands, and I found myself nodding along a lot. As Wekker explains, the Netherlands are a country of white innocence (witte onschuld) - we like to pretend that we don't have racism here, we're all colourblind and the real racists live in the United States, which is where slavery happened. When it comes to our past, we call the age of colonisation our Golden Era because we (somehow!!) made so much money then that our painters could be commissioned to paint etc. Basically, race/ethnicity is kind of taboo.
This is exactly what Wekker has researched and written about for decades. It's important to know going into this that this is an academic book. The language can be a little dense at times (though tbf I realised I haven't read any Dutch academic sources in ages) and there's a lot of restating of the intentions and conclusions. Beyond that, though, there's a lot of interesting points being made and research that is shown. I also enjoy how much Wekker focuses on intersectionality, especially where it comes to being LGBTQIA+, gender, and race. She also ensures to continuously acknowledge the islamophobia that is running rampant in the Netherlands right now.
However, as another reviewer, Jade, pointed out, Wekker never addresses non-binary people and rarely mentions trans people at all, and the way she talks about Indo's (people who are mixed race, descended from white Dutch people and Indonesian people) borders on dismissive - suggesting that their forced assimilation was something they wanted or chose. This may be poor wording since apparently it sounds less bad in the English version, but worth noting regardless.
In 5 chapters and an epilogue about the reception of the English version of the book, Wekker addresses everyday instances of racism, the way systemic racism works in the Netherlands, the history of race in the Netherlands, the presence of race in 1917, homo-nostalgia and (post)colonialism, and the racist figure of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete. I found all of them really informative, and it was especially interesting (not to say disheartening) to learn about the different laws and departments we've had here to protect and call for the rights of people of colour as well as to bring awareness to our history of slavery and colonisation. It's very cool to read how much Wekker herself has always been involved to improve (awareness of) all of the above so many areas, especially in academia too.
Some quotes that stuck with me (translated by me):
"Knowledge about the Dutch overseas expansion has, not accidentally, been placed in quarantine as a separate specialisation of the historical discipline; it's not an integral part of Dutch national history. The general idea, both within universities and outside of them, is that the outwardly-focused colonialism has created enough distance in regards to the former Dutch colonies to enable a complete disregard of imperial thought patterns and feelings that are hard to get rid of, when studying the Netherlands" (59)
Basically, we pretend that since colonisation happened overseas it is not something that has to be considered in regards to the Netherlands itself, and can't possibly have lasting consequences here.
Furthermore, Wekker addresses how the white western way of looking at sexual orientation has been made into the dominant and singular existing narrative. In this narrative, not coming out is seen as living a lie, for example, when that is just not something that is natural or necessary for every culture. She explains how many other countries and cultures had and have different ways of looking at sexuality:
"Mati and kapuchera are women from the African diaspora who have erotic relationships with men and women, at the same time or after one another, and often have children. The way their sexuality is constructed, based on West-African 'grammatical principles' (Mintz and Price [1976] 1992), should not be seen as the simply the same as western homosexuality or bisexuality ... Furthermore, Ghanaian supi (short for 'superior'), who often begin their love lives with other girls at boarding school (?) and sometimes continue these relationships into their marriage and when they have kids, have existed and still exist among us" (158)
All in all, a super valuable read that I would definitely recommend to gain insight into the Dutch societal psyche and the ways in which racism works and has worked here
I'll write the review in English since it's also available in English, but I read this one, the Dutch version.
First of all, it feels good to learn more about the ways in which racism - and particularly anti-Blackness - manifests itself in the Netherlands, and I found myself nodding along a lot. As Wekker explains, the Netherlands are a country of white innocence (witte onschuld) - we like to pretend that we don't have racism here, we're all colourblind and the real racists live in the United States, which is where slavery happened. When it comes to our past, we call the age of colonisation our Golden Era because we (somehow!!) made so much money then that our painters could be commissioned to paint etc. Basically, race/ethnicity is kind of taboo.
This is exactly what Wekker has researched and written about for decades. It's important to know going into this that this is an academic book. The language can be a little dense at times (though tbf I realised I haven't read any Dutch academic sources in ages) and there's a lot of restating of the intentions and conclusions. Beyond that, though, there's a lot of interesting points being made and research that is shown. I also enjoy how much Wekker focuses on intersectionality, especially where it comes to being LGBTQIA+, gender, and race. She also ensures to continuously acknowledge the islamophobia that is running rampant in the Netherlands right now.
However, as another reviewer, Jade, pointed out, Wekker never addresses non-binary people and rarely mentions trans people at all, and the way she talks about Indo's (people who are mixed race, descended from white Dutch people and Indonesian people) borders on dismissive - suggesting that their forced assimilation was something they wanted or chose. This may be poor wording since apparently it sounds less bad in the English version, but worth noting regardless.
In 5 chapters and an epilogue about the reception of the English version of the book, Wekker addresses everyday instances of racism, the way systemic racism works in the Netherlands, the history of race in the Netherlands, the presence of race in 1917, homo-nostalgia and (post)colonialism, and the racist figure of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete. I found all of them really informative, and it was especially interesting (not to say disheartening) to learn about the different laws and departments we've had here to protect and call for the rights of people of colour as well as to bring awareness to our history of slavery and colonisation. It's very cool to read how much Wekker herself has always been involved to improve (awareness of) all of the above so many areas, especially in academia too.
Some quotes that stuck with me (translated by me):
"Knowledge about the Dutch overseas expansion has, not accidentally, been placed in quarantine as a separate specialisation of the historical discipline; it's not an integral part of Dutch national history. The general idea, both within universities and outside of them, is that the outwardly-focused colonialism has created enough distance in regards to the former Dutch colonies to enable a complete disregard of imperial thought patterns and feelings that are hard to get rid of, when studying the Netherlands" (59)
Basically, we pretend that since colonisation happened overseas it is not something that has to be considered in regards to the Netherlands itself, and can't possibly have lasting consequences here.
Furthermore, Wekker addresses how the white western way of looking at sexual orientation has been made into the dominant and singular existing narrative. In this narrative, not coming out is seen as living a lie, for example, when that is just not something that is natural or necessary for every culture. She explains how many other countries and cultures had and have different ways of looking at sexuality:
"Mati and kapuchera are women from the African diaspora who have erotic relationships with men and women, at the same time or after one another, and often have children. The way their sexuality is constructed, based on West-African 'grammatical principles' (Mintz and Price [1976] 1992), should not be seen as the simply the same as western homosexuality or bisexuality ... Furthermore, Ghanaian supi (short for 'superior'), who often begin their love lives with other girls at boarding school (?) and sometimes continue these relationships into their marriage and when they have kids, have existed and still exist among us" (158)
All in all, a super valuable read that I would definitely recommend to gain insight into the Dutch societal psyche and the ways in which racism works and has worked here
lidewij_ej's review against another edition
2.0
Ontzettend moeilijk leesbaar door de academische schrijfstijl. Het boek bevat enorm veel informatie en kan heel leerzaam zijn, maar de moeilijke manier van schrijven blijft bij mij helaas meer hangen dan de inhoud van het boek
kimocuk's review against another edition
Ik kan eigenlijk moeilijk een sterren-rating op dit boek gooien, maar ik moet wel zeggen dat ik het een heel belangrijk werk vind. Wekkers analyse van het idee van 'onschuld' in de Nederlandse samenleving is scherp en geeft woorden aan een onbewust denkbeeld dat ik in de media of de politiek maar zeker ook bij mezelf kan terugzien.
reneehunter93's review against another edition
3.0
Truly valuable and insightful read, and I enjoyed her sarcastic frustration at points. However, it sometimes felt like the case studies or 'vignettes' were a little haphazard. Also, this book will speak very well to people that already agree with Gloria (as I did), but will not expose Dutch culture and identity in a way that will convince *others* of the hypocrisy and paradoxes that she discusses. It would have been a lot more valuable if it would actually be able to convince others as well.
lulu2121's review against another edition
5.0
Gives a great viewpoint on the situation in the Netherlands. Every Dutchie should read this! (And every single white person too)