donderdag 20 maart 2014

Ugly.




If you have come here to look at my usual posts...please look away. 
I cannot write about beauty today. I am to angry. 

The local elections (municipal elections) ended in an absolute low for me.
It wasn't the outcome nor the turn-out that got to me.
It was politician Wilders statements about Moroccans.

What has happened to this country?
Why is there no outrage?
Why isn't the whole country in turmoil? 
Why aren't the streets filled with angry people?

Wilders is standing in front of his party and is asking a series of questions. 
He's working towards the climax, the finale, the final question:
"Do you want more or less Moroccans in this city and in this country?"
His party responses by chanting: "less, less!"

That what drives Wilders, what motivates him 
or what sewer like substance abides within his head doesn't interest me,
 doesn't shock me.
I have seen hatred in many forms in my life.
Wilders has a thing against Moroccans. So be it.

Wilders has chosen the easiest group of people to hate publicly.
We are suspicious of Muslims as it is and in every tv show Al Qaida has it in for us.
It is trendy to have a thing against Moroccans in  this country.
And it seems to be normal to say negative things about Moroccan people aloud,
without anyone looking twice.
"Yes it is true, they are really annoying,"I hear often.
And, "They don't speak the language and they don't work."

Ehm, no, it is not true.

We are taking a part of a group and applying that to the whole group.
I know enough highly educated well Dutch speaking Moroccans.
It would be offensive to take the trashy (fictive) Dutch family that lives next to me 
and assume that all Dutch families are the same.
And it wouldn't be very intelligent of me to do so, by the way.

Earlier this week, comparisons to Hitler have been made.
Wilders thought it was disgusting.
He didn't like that he is repeatedly being compared with Nazi's.
Suddenly Wilders was the victim.

We can discuss whether it is okay to compare people to Hitler.
We could just have a long dragging discussion about it.
I don't think that that's the issue here.

The point is, that I as a Dutch person of color,
 I understand why the comparison is being made. 
Whether I am Moroccan or not. 
Apparently it is possible, even if you are born in this country;
 even if you study or work hard; 
even if you speak the language and are well integrated, 
apparantly it is possible to be put in a 'box' of people 
and to be told to leave the city or country.
Because this is what it looks like from my point of view.

And everyone is simply watching. 
They don't realize that it is wrong to think this way, 
that it is dangerous to think this way.
And that is frightening.

We can not make the comparison to Nazi's.

This is all I am saying:
There has been a time before,
when a man started speaking  increasingly negative about a group of people.
And those people were purely selected based on their religion 
and cultural background.

Take Wilders statement and replace Moroccans 
with women, gay people or black people.
See, if the shivers don't run down your spine.