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Understanding autochtoon privilege

Here in The Netherlands, racial matters and subsequent discussions are framed very differently from those in North America. I suspect that due to the fact that The Netherlands has lacked an equivalent to the Civil Rights Movement, race issues are still stalled in a colonial phase where oppressive language and the relevant discourse have never been properly deconstructed and challenged (and hardly analyzed at all outside academic circles). To give a bit of background, the Dutch state has a classification system for those of us who live here. This classification is not necessarily framed on ethnicity but on place of birth (both for the classified subject and her parents). The Dutch state uses a word appropriated from biology, “allochtoon” to refer to us. This term originally denotes any organism which is non native to a given ecosystem. They have, in turn, created a scale of “foreignness” in which a Native Dutch (known as “autochtoon” in Dutch state parlance) is at the top of the food chain, followed by “Western foreigners” (i.e. Americans and other Caucasian Europeans) and then at the bottom of the foreignness pyramid, “non-Western foreigners” (i.e. everyone who comes from a country classified as non Western or underdeveloped). This foreignness is determined not only by the place where one was born but also by the place where one’s parents come from. So, someone could be born in The Netherlands, but still be classified as a non Western foreigner because one of her parents hails from such place. Because I am South American, I am one such “Non Western Foreigner”. My status as an ethnic foreigner is also made evident by the way I look (I am consistently addressed in Arabic or Turkish because of my completion).

The laws of the country are such that I am obliged to disclose my “Non Western foreigner” status in a multitude of ways: if I am to apply for a job, I am obliged to tell; if I am to take a language course, I am obliged to tell; my healthcare provider demands to know this and I am obliged to tell (supposedly for statistical purposes); education plans and programs are put in place specifically for people like me (and my children if I had any).

So today, I was trying to explain the concept of “White Privilege” to a Dutch person but half way through the discussion, realized that there is no such concept in The Netherlands. At least, the equivalent to such concept, “Autochtoon Privilege” (autochtoon bevoorrecht in Dutch, which are the terms I googled for) is not used at all in media or discussions on racial or ethnic matters. I googled the term, hoping to find a Dutch equivalent to Peggy McIntosh’s seminal “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, but after scouring the first one hundred or so results, I came to the conclusion that this framework doesn’t exist at all over here. In particular, I would like to address “Autochtoon Privilege” within these variables (quoted from McIntosh):

I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions which were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make.  I could think of myself as belonging in major ways, and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.

       In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made inconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color.

I think that given the current government negotiations including the PVV (Geert Wilders party) and the talks on burqa bans, ethnic registrations for non Dutch, discussions to close Muslim schools, prevalent Islamophobia, etc, the concept of “Autochtoon Privilege” is fundamental to frame the discussions in the current political climate. In addition, mainstream media seems very keen on perpetuating the myth of “reverse racism” or “reverse discrimination” to point out the emotional reactions that some people within certain minority groups display towards what they perceive as “Dutch oppression”. These myths of racism or discrimination supposedly perpetrated by the minority groups constantly targeted by the media as the “the reason for the downfall of Dutch culture” almost always go unchallenged. The popular discourse is such that it has been widely accepted by the local autoctonous population that they, too, are being victims of racism. The fact that “autochtoon privilege” or “white privilege” are not at all part of the narrative dissolve the fact that, in order for racism to happen, a combination of privilege + prejudice need to exist. Without this combination, all we have left is prejudice, which is indeed bad, but hardly oppressive or capable of affecting the policies and regulations of a country at all.

Inspired by Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, I have tried to put together a list to describe the myriad manners in which “Autochtoon Privilege” manifests:

• Because I am an autochtoon, I am not obliged by law to attend an integration course to learn not only the language but the prevailing culture in a curriculum that enforces traditions and practices I am told I must embrace or else risk my legal status.
• Because I am an autochtoon, my culture is always portrayed as “the proper one” in mainstream media
• My religion is not being discussed as a breeding ground for terrorists and a destabilizing force in the country
• My children will be accepted in any school of my choosing without being singled out as minorities that can potentially affect the school’s reputation in a negative way
• My children’s school curriculum will not be “dumbed down” because the expectation is that they cannot make it to university *
• My clothing will not be subject to legal debates, including the prohibition of my attire because it offends Dutch dominant culture
• When I go to my healthcare provider, my complains will not be dismissed because it is assumed that I am ignorant about healthcare practices due to my cultural and ethnic background
• If my language skills are poor, it will not lead to the assumption that it is because I come from a “backwards country” and as such, I am developmentally disabled.
• Media representations of people like me are varied and nuanced. I have a number of role models to identify with.
• My ethnic group will not be used as a caricature during the biggest national children’s festivity
• I can speak in public and my statements will not be used against the entire ethnic group I belong to.
• My religion will not be used negatively to further politicians careers
• If I speak negatively about The Netherlands, I will not be called “unpatriotic” and my legal status will not be questioned or risked
• If I make mistakes on my job, those mistakes will not be attributed to the poor working ethics of the minority group I belong to
• If an employer does give me a job, they are not going to use my employment as a way to get tax breaks due to me being a minority
• The foods I eat and prepare are never singled out as an oddity or a nuisance
• The way in which my culture celebrates festivities and events will not lead to neighbors calling the police due to the perception that my celebrations are a public nuisance
• When discussing youth related issues, my teenage children are not being used as an example of the need for specific laws to target the problems they create **
• If I am in any way involved in politics, my ethnic background will not be used as proof of my incompetence or inability to be impartial to the needs of the country, nor will I be accused of being against the country’s best interest.
• If I am a woman and decide to become a stay at home mother, I will not be used as proof that the totality of my gender within the minority I belong to is being oppressed.
• If I am a woman, the way in which I choose to exercise my right to be sexually active will not be used as further proof that I am not liberated or emancipated
• If I express unpopular opinions, I will not fear deportation

I see this list as a work in progress and I intend to expand on it and elaborate further. However, I also insist that it is crucial that we start to understand that there is no such a thing as “reverse racism” and that “Autochtoon Privilege” is a reality, even though one that is hardly questioned, if at all.


* Dutch school system is such that non Western children attend schools with curriculums that do not enforce the path towards University education, and, instead, are encouraged to go into vocational training education paths.

** Hangjongeren is a Dutch term that denotes “Youth hanging out” and special ordinances have been enacted in different municipalities to discourage these groups from forming. Since the groups are prevalently either Moroccan, Turkish, Surinam or Antillian, the laws have been passed to target the phenomenon described as “threatening and a nuisance to the public order”.

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When good intentions don’t go below the surface

Utrecht Municipality wants to help “allochtonen” women find work, or so says the headline at the De Stad Utrecht newspaper. The article goes on to explain that only 40% of foreign women of Turkish or Moroccan origin have paid work vs. 66% of autochthonous Dutch. Sure a cause of alarm due to what the figure could potentially represent (financial dependence, lack of career opportunities, hindrance in emancipation, etc.).

However, these are the facts the article fails to mention: even the most basic jobs require  “accent-less Dutch” (i.e. Dutch that sounds like “pure” Dutch and not language spoken in the “weird” ways that foreigners tend to, this requirement is clearly stated in most job ads); employers are reluctant to hire veiled women (not surprisingly, a good portion of Moroccan and Turkish women wear hijabs); child care is prohibitively expensive in this country and, while certainly this affects native Dutch women as well, immigrants have the added problem of stay at home or part time working dads not being a common occurrence (or something even culturally acceptable).

Good intentions matter but not when they seem like yet another attempt at presenting foreigners as “other” and “alien”, different from the accepted Dutch standard and even worse, when they are presenting as a hindrance to the notion of Dutch progress.

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CDA’s Arie Oostlander: Wilders acts like a mass murderer

AD Binnenland - ‘Wilders gedraagt zich als Karadzic’

Now, this hyperbolic rhetoric of comparing Wilders to Karadzic sure is tempting. I get where Oostlander comes from. He wants to bring attention to Wilders dangerous “othering” of Muslims and inmigrants but in doing so, he goes overboard, detracts from his valid points. As we know, the derailing immediately kicks in. But here is what nobody speaks about in The Netherlands: the media is responsible for this othering of minorities. Every time I protest that minorities are not included in media representations it’s not because I want to see People of Color doing “stuff”, it’s because the lack of inclusion is an effective erasure of their humanity, of their place in society, of their roles in the public eye.

From zero to Karadzic doesn’t happen overnight. One doesn’t go from a tolerant, open society to one that commits genocide in the name of racial purity in the course of one week. It happens gradually, it happens throughout the course of years, every time the media normalizes a vision of the country comprised exclusively of native Dutch people. Every time something as inane as an advertising campaign for laundry soap contributes to the erasure of minorities, they are saying “they are not us, they are not our people”. What Wilders does is take the lack of representation one step further. Whereas the media has been telling the Dutch: they are not one of us, Wilders tells them: they are not human. And in that, Wilders indeed has many rhetoric similarities to those who committed genocides.

But since the media is complicit in this lack of representation they will never call him on it. Oostlander’s statement is unfortunate because it is hyperbolic, because it lends itself to be shut down, it’s a statement that stems from passion and not from logic or reason. However, Dutch media could use the opportunity to do some self scrutiny and analyze how they contribute, day after day to the creation of a political figure whose entire ideology is based on removing humanity from minorities. That is the white elephant in the room that always goes unchallenged.

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Don’t let my colonialism get on the way of your poverty

1%CLUB - An item in the neverending list of “things that make me stabby” (or the road to hell is paved with good intentions).

I just came across this project at a Dutch website that seeks to pair volunteers and donors with charities. The project runs under the name “A very small positive point in the slums” and its goal is to create a school library in a Bolivian village. And yes, I see red when I come across stuff like this. I do understand the good intentions and I do understand that the project itself is a good thing, probably bringing improvement to the lives of the children in that particular village. However, the implication that there is nothing positive going on in these communities, the subtext that it is the enlightened participating Europeans who are bringing “a very small positive contribution” to an otherwise primitive and subjugated community is patronizing at best and reeks of typical European colonialism at its worst. I spent three quarters of my life in South American, scratch that, I was born there even. And let me tell you, these “slums” have more than a “small positive contribution” from well-intentioned Europeans going on. They are vibrant communities with self sufficient individuals that, what they lack in material resources they certainly make up in solidarity, imaginative solutions and the intellectual capacity and skills to live fulfilling lives on a day to day basis. I do agree that bringing books to children’s schools is a “good thing”. However, I wish they didn’t use the colonial narrative to “market” the benefits of contributing to such project.