itchymuller

Question about one of your articles on Zwarte Piet, in which you exclaimed (and I'm paraphrasing and probably forgetting some nuances) that due to the fact that all races are genetically extremely similar... the idea of 'race' as a concept is benign and should not be the focus of discussion.

To me that came over like a cheap cop-out where you purposely ignore the societal aspects of race as whole. Of course, the idea of races is biologically not relevant but in society it definitely is. It is very easy to proclaim that 'race does not exist' when you look at it from a pure biological viewpoint. Is it that you knew that this opinion would go over well with the masses of pro-Zwarte Piet reader who would then share the article because it seemed like pandering to a readership which you knew existed during a lively national debate.

Also, have you considered your own lack of perspective in this matter? I won't say: oh white priviledge blabla but you can imagine that in the eyes of a minority, your article might sting and seem like a: 'stop whining. there are no races so what are you complaining about?' -statement. It is not something you touch upon in your article and I would like to know your thoughts.

disclaimer: not about to start a Zwarte Piet-discussion. So tired of that. This is not about that. It is about the seemingly purposful ignoring of race as a factor in societal perception and hammering on the idea that, genetically, humans are so similar that the word race is stupid.

Thank you for replying. It was not that you said it specifically. It was just the timing of the article. The whole country was going wild on a racism problem when you came out with an article that tried to re-define racism as 'less than it actually is', which a lot of pro-ZP people then used to fuel their argument that racism is almost non-existent in the Netherlands. I understand what you tried to convey but at that time you could have known it would be used and abused in that context. It is not really your responsibility but to me, it sounded like safely jumping on a bandwagon for clicks.