Fréderike Geerdink
So, this country of mine, the Netherlands, is going to have an extreme-right government, initiated by Geert Wilders. If they can find a Prime Minister to lead the gang, that is, because so far, they haven’t been successful at that. Nobody should be surprised. This country of mine has work to do when it comes to cleaning up historical waste before it can advance and grow beyond its deeply rooted white supremacy.
I’ve said it before: I learned a lot about my own country in the 10, 15 years that I lived and travelled around and educated myself in Turkey and different parts of Kurdistan.
When fascist Geert Wilders won the elections in the Netherlands in November last year, all kinds of explanations were sought for why such a radical, hate inciting, racist liar could gather so many votes. Most explanations didn’t go much further than looking at the previous couple of governments and what they had possibly done wrong, and at the micro universe of The Hague, where the parliament and government are seated. In that micro-universe, part of the blame was put on Dilan Yeşilgöz, the leader of the party that has led several previous governments under the current outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte.
One man show
Rutte had always rejected working with Wilders, while Yeşilgöz opened the door to him before the elections. That gave people who would potentially vote for him, the final push towards Wilders’ party. Which we can’t call a party, by the way, because it has no members and is a strictly one man show.
Anyway, none of the analysis I have seen went further back in time. Back to the centuries that the Netherlands was a colonial power and one of the global leaders in slave trade. To the centuries that globally, white supremacy was constructed and became part of Dutch identity. The colonial times in which western countries literally occupied countries, looted them and subjugated its populations, has come to an end, but we never de-colonialized our structures, our minds, our practices.
Colonialism is our original sin. Just like the Armenian genocide is Turkey’s original sin. As long as we don’t honestly face that history and look really carefully how it has shaped our nation as a whole, we will not be able to get past our whiteness and build a just society.
First step
It’s interesting in this regard to look at a specific aspect of the way Turkey deals with the Armenian genocide and how the Netherlands deals with its colonial past. Turkey denies there was a genocide while the Netherlands can’t deny colonialism and slave trade, but acknowledging the facts is clearly only a minor first step. The Netherlands pretends these four centuries of crimes against humanity and genocide doesn’t have repercussions. Colonialism and slave trade are considered to be ‘black pages’ in our history, which we metaphorically ripped out of the book. Now we delude ourselves into thinking these pages don’t affect the continuation of the story. Emerita professor Gloria Wekker has written an amazing book about it, White Innocence, https://www.dukeupress.edu/white-innocence and I warmly recommend you read it if you want to know more.
One of the reasons the Kurdish movement in Turkey is so smart and humane and really focused on a new future, is that they are not in denial about the Kurds’ share in carrying out the Armenian genocide. I was in Digranakerd (the Armenian name of Diyarbakır) when in 2015 the Armenian genocide was commemorated for the 100th time and saw how deeply Kurds and (diaspora) Armenian communities
tried to connect to overcome the past together. The importance of that cannot be underestimated.
Full respect
Why did Wilders win now? Let me draw another parallel because everything is connected, my dear readers. Why did Trump win in 2016? Is it a coincidence that he succeeded the first Black American president, Barack Obama? No, it is not. Trump is what happens when whiteness gets really afraid it will lose its power. Whiteness, inextricably connected to capitalism, to patriarchy, to imperialism. Wilders is what happens when groups in the Netherlands who are marginalized start demanding full respect for their existence. Black people and Muslims, the LGBTQ-community and trans people specifically, women who demand their borders are respected. In the previous parliamentary term, there was a small party in the Dutch parliament that connected all these struggles, led by one of my heroines, Sylvana Simons,
the only MP of that party. She was incredibly sharp, exposing everybody’s double standards and hypocrisy. The Dutch white supremacy that Wilders represents, is part of Dutch identity, but this small party laid it bare – and here’s the backlash.
Muslim country
This is also of course why the Netherlands is one of the countries that staunchly supports Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians. Our minds are still colonial, and othering and dehumanising Muslims are part of that – mind you, we colonized the biggest Muslim country in the world for four centuries and it ended less than a century ago – how could that not have repercussions now?
But if I tell Dutch people that to get rid of Wilders and everything he stands for, we need to de-colonize, I get hazy stares. White people I mean. Smart white people, with educations and open minds, neatly voting for leftish (not leftist!) parties. Some people are stupefied when I bring this up. “Oh come on! That’s crazy!”
We’re in denial. And the people which white supremacy denies the right to live, pay the price. I’m glad there is a global movement who just won’t take it any longer. They are definitely going to win.
