Yesterday we watched a documentary about Zwarte Piet: ’Zwart als roet, our colonial hangover’. This was the theme to discuss in the debate. I didn’t grow up with Sinterklaas, so the first time that I found myself on the 5th December I didn’t understand the real reason about why Sinterklaas has a black helper with the name Zwarte Piet, but I was never thinking that it could be racist.
But now that I saw the documentary, I actually think having a black slave really is racist. Not just the tradition, but also the way that people act with that. The conclusion that I can take from the documentary is that Dutch people can sometimes act really racist. And what scared me was that it is not just with black people, but also a lot with Moroccan people, and everyone says that I look exactly like a Moroccan! For instance, the documentary showed an experiment: if a black guy or me (a Moroccan looking guy) are going to break the padlock of a bicycle, people are going to say “what are you doing?!” or stop me, take photos, call the police, etc. If a blond guy is doing the same, people are going to help him!
Holland is a country that is so much developed in so many aspects. And one of them is the sexual choice. Dutch people accept the all the sexual choices in a good way. But now I have learned that also Holland has it’s problems; the color of your skin might be a problem! I know that there of course black and Moroccan people that are aggressive and that steal and all that stuff. But there are also a lot of black and Moroccan people that don’t do that. And in the same way, there are blond people that are aggressive and that steal! There are people of all colors with good and bad intentions.
In conclusion, I would like it if stopping racism would be one of the next improvements of Holland, because with that, it would really be the country of the future!
BART