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A review by eline1701
Witte onschuld: Paradoxen van kolonialisme en ras by Gloria Wekker
[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