A few days ago I read the book 'Americanah' from the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The book tells the fictional story of Ifemulu, an Americanized African. In Nigeria race played no role for Ifemelu; she only became a black when she arrived in the US. In the book, the main character writes a blog entitled 'Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks' by a Non-American Black'. The blog plays a central role in Adichie's novel, in which she writes about issues such as migration, attachment, globalization, modern nomadism and love.
I can totally recommend the book, but it was only the reason why I started to write this post. The further I came in the book, the more I was aware that in my society, in Belgium, in Europe, we like to pretend race does not play a role. As if it does not matter what color you have. We are so-called color-blind. But unfortunately, it does matter. Because with each color, there is a different treatment. We like the idea that color does not matter, but we are not that far yet.
I work in the integration sector and it strikes me that people, often friends, first see someone else when they meet a black person on the street. For example, they do not just see a black girl. They see someone else. Does she speak our language? Is she really Belgian? And when that person opens her mouth and she speaks Dutch perfectly, she gets compliments about her Dutch, while she has never really known another language...
There is indeed inequality. An unequal treatment on the grounds of race. And we learn that very early. Small children already learn before their fourth year of life, sometimes even before they go to school, that there is a difference. That it is better to play with a white doll than with a black doll. That black doll is naughty. It does not look beautiful, it is ugly. So a lot of small children choose to play with a white doll if they get the chance. Sunny Bergman shows this in her documentary White is also a color(in Dutch).
Also American research has shown that small children are already aware of this very quickly. Patricia Williams, an American black lawyer, talks about her four-year-old son. He goes to kindergarten and he finds out that when the boys play cowboys and Indians, he can only be the Indian. He can never be the cowboy.
We have the equivalent in Belgium with Zwarte Piet. Zwarte Piet or Black Peter is the companion of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of the Low Countries. For some years now, there has been a heated discussion whether Black Peter is racist or not. A discussion in which mainly white people seem to get a platform.
In short, from very early on it is so that we get all kinds of messages about the fact that being white is a position of privilege. Whether it concerns all kinds of popular cultural festivities, what we see on TV, what kind of messages we get at school, the message is constantly conveyed that white is worth it and is at the top of the ladder.
Of course we do not literally receive this message. In a society with a monotonous media landscape, where a multicultural society apparently does not apply to the top layer and in which refugees are regarded as our only enemy, we just often do not realize it.
This puts a black person, immigrant or refugee in a very difficult position. You have to give all people the benefit of the doubt. At the same time, you must develop an extra sensitivity, because every time you have to check whether those people are worth the benefit of the doubt.
But in fact it should not be that they should bear the burden of history and of the present and should change that. I notice it everywhere: we do not like to talk about race. We have the idea, we have a very positive self-image, that there is not a lot of racism in our society. We do not have to talk about race, because everyone has the same opportunities. In South Africa and the United States they have problems with race, but in some miraculous way it has passed us by.
A number of things should be made clear to white people, to white youth in particular. I don't care how you spin it: race assigns a certain position to people. And that is also true for white people. And in the case of whiteness, that is a position that attracts all kinds of undeserved benefits. It is very important that we become aware of this. That we undertake further study about this subject.
Because in the end, white people will have to ask themselves the question: what am I going to do with these undeserved benefits? Do I enjoy it? Do I use it? Or am I going to try to oppose this with the resources I have? Will I try to bring about change?
I hope that many people realize that if we want to form a harmonious society with each other, if we want to create a more just society, that it is important that we express our solidarity with people of color. That you look at your undeserved benefits and try to put an end to it, so that color ultimately does not matter anymore and everyone in this society can be free.
