Abstract
Did and does the Netherlands live up to its international image of tolerance? This contribution argues that, over the centuries, at least a shift has taken place in which tolerance has transformed from a discourse employed by those in power to something that is to be expected from ‘others’. That shift was carried by a secularization of Dutch tolerance from the religious to the cultural sphere. Meanwhile the question is what, in the changing roles of tolerance, has been the impact on issues related to skin colour? The recent heated national debate around the Dutch blackface figure of Zwarte Piet (Black Peet) and its relation to Dutch national cultural identification is a case in point.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
https://www.vvd.nl/nieuws/lees-hier-de-brief-van-mark/ (accessed 20-12-2017).
- 2.
Duyvendak and Scholten (2011: 331) stress this typical paradox of Dutch multicultural society when they state that ‘researchers and policy makers have in the Netherlands been joined in several discourse coalitions’. Indeed, one of these discourse coalitions supported an integration paradigm with multicultural elements, but at least two other types of discourses can be identified in the Netherlands, one of more liberal–egalitarian nature and one more assimilationist. In spite of the persistent image of the Netherlands as a representative of the multicultural model, it is in fact this multiplicity of discourses that characterizes the Dutch case.
- 3.
Survey by NBTC, 2013 [https://www.communicatieonline.nl/nieuws/imago-onderzoek-nbtc-toeristen-vinden-ons-tolerant-en-open] (accessed 20-09-2016).
- 4.
The EU research project Accept Pluralism; Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe (2012) by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, for which the Dutch part of the survey was done by Marcel Maussers, Thijs Bogers and Inge Versteegt [http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/23514/ACCEPT_WP5_2012-28_Country-synthesis-report_Netherlands.pdf;sequence=1] (accessed 18-09-2016).
- 5.
My translation [https://www.nieuwwij.nl/opinie/de-beleefde-tolerantie/] (accessed 18-09-2016).
- 6.
2012 SIRE, the Association of Idealistic Advertising, started a campaign ‘Tolerance; thát will improve the Netherlands’.
- 7.
- 8.
As opposed to active tolerance (acceptance after active argumentation) and active intolerance (exclusion , elimination). See Hoving (2017: 196).
- 9.
This essay was published in the quality paper NRC Handelsblad on January 29, 2000.
- 10.
In 1794/95 a revolution of so-called Patriots, who inspired by the democratic ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, overthrew the government of the old elite led by stadtholder prince William of Orange. The Patriots were helped by an invading French army which occupied the Netherlands. Until 1813 the Netherlands formed part of Napoleon’s empire, where after much of the revolutionary ideas were done away with, or stored and a kingdom under a monarch of Orange-Nassau was installed.
- 11.
This concerned enslaved in Dutch Asia as well, however, in the following I will focus on enslaved Africans in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean.
- 12.
Particularly in Suriname; in the Dutch Caribbean the juridical prohibition on dancing tambu lasted until the 1950s.
- 13.
Albeit the Netherlands remained responsible for a number of things such as foreign affairs, military defense and guaranteeing financial and juridical order. This was laid out in the so-called Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- 14.
Indonesian nationalists declared independence right after World War II in 1945, the Dutch recognized this only after 4 years of war and negotiations, in 1949.
- 15.
- 16.
See for the history of these early Caribbean migrants in the Netherlands Oostindie et al. and Kagie 2006.
- 17.
This was convincingly analysed by anthropologist Gloria Wekker in her recent White innocence; Paradoxes of colonialism and race (2016).
- 18.
For an introduction into the history of this tradition, the current debate and a variety of solutions: PIET, handboek voor een moderne sinterklaasviering (with summaries in English). Rotterdam: Noturban, 2015.
- 19.
- 20.
Idem. In 2013, 89% was not in favour of change, in 2015 this had dropped to 80%, to 68 in 2017. Coming from something like 97% before 2010, the growth of the pro-change view in such a long and immensely popular tradition might also be called substantial.
- 21.
For instance Stop Blackface/Kick Out Zwarte Piet, Stichting Nederland wordt beter, Zwarte Piet Is Racisme, Nationaal Instituut Nederlands Slavernijverleden en Erfenis (NiNsee).
- 22.
Een ‘weg-met-ons’ stroming die ons al jaren wil doen geloven dat onze cultuur niet bestaat en die onze waarden en normen zelfs minderwaardig vindt ten opzichte van andere culturen. Ze stellen zelfs het sinterklaasfeest ter discussie en willen overal slavernijmonumenten om ons als slecht af te schilderen. http://www.refdag.nl/media/2008/20080404_Speech_Rita_Verdonk.pdf] (accessed 20-12-2017).
- 23.
It does not seem to stop. Recently the present vice minister of Interbal Affairs member of the Christian Democrat party CDA stated in the largest daily paper, De Telegraaf (03-03-2018, p. 6) that he is fed up with attacks on Zwarte Piet and other Dutch traditions, he observes ‘a sort of segregation on this theme. It does not contribute anything positive. If people in Amsterdam say that in their neigbourhood Zwarte Piet should not be black, I will not make a problem on that. However, in my village it does not happen. And do not say then that therefore we are discriminating’.
- 24.
This fear is among other things expressed in massive voting for anti-Islam political parties, but also in a distorted image of the number of Muslims. A survey by Ipsos Mori in 40 European countries in 2016 showed an enormous gap between the experienced numbers of Muslims and the reality in these countries. In the Netherlands respondents thought that almost one in five (19%) of the population is Muslim, and that by 2020 this will have increased to 26%. The real percentages are six and almost seven respectively. [https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nederland/er-zijn-veel-minder-moslims-in-nederland-dan-we-denken] (accessed 25-02-2018).
References
Duyvendak, J. W., & Scholten, P. W. A. (2011). Beyond the Dutch “Multicultural Model” The Coproduction of Integration Policy Frames in The Netherlands. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 12, 331–348.
Galenkamp, M. (2012). Locke and Bayle on Religious Toleration. Erasmus Law Review, 5(1), 79–92.
Hooven, M. ten (2003). Op zoek naar een nieuwe inhoud voor verdraagzaamheid. In M. ten Hooven (Ed.), De lege tolerantie; over vrijheid en vrijblijvendheid in Nederland (pp. 11–36). Amsterdam: Boom.
Hoving, I. (2017). Writing the Earth, Darkly: Globalization, Ecocriticism, and Desire. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Jones, G. (2007). Tussen onderdanen, rijksgenoten en Nederlanders. Amsterdam: Rozenberg.
Jones, G. (2012). Dutch Politicians, the Dutch Nation and the Dynamics of Post-colonial Citizenship. In U. Bosma (Ed.), Post-colonial Immigrants and Identity Formations in the Netherlands (pp. 27–47). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Kagie, R. (2006). De eerste neger. Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt.
Kennedy, J. (2001). Oude en nieuwe vormen van tolerantie in Nederland en Amerika. In M. ten Hooven (Ed.), De lege tolerantie; over vrijheid en vrijblijvendheid in Nederland (pp. 244–255). Amsterdam: Boom.
Kennedy, J. (2006). Nederland als het meest progressieve land ter wereld. In W. van Noort & R. Wiche (Eds.), Nederland als voorbeeldige natie (pp. 105–118). Hilversum: Verloren.
Kennedy, J. (2017). Een beknopte geschiedenis van Nederland. Amsterdam: Prometheus.
Kossmann, E. H. (1987). Politieke theorie en geschiedenis. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.
Lem, A. van der (2006). Tolerantie: Het gedoogbeleid in de zestiende eeuw. In W. van Noort & R. Wiche (Eds.), Nederland als voorbeeldige natie (pp. 27–39). Hilversum: Verloren.
Oostindie, G., Maduro, G. and Maduro, E. (1986). In het land van de overheerser, Deel II, Antillianen en Surinamers in Nederland, 1634/1667–1954. Dordrecht: Foris.
Paasman, A. N. (1984). Reinhart: Nederlandse literatuur en slavernij ten tijde van de Verlichting. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
Schuster, J. (1999). Poortwachters over immigranten; het debat over immigratie in het naoorlogse Groot-Brittannië en Nederland. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
Veer, P. van der (1995). Modern oriëntalisme. Essays over de westerse beschavingsdrang. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff.
Verkaaik, O. (2009). Ritueel burgerschap; een essay over nationalisme en secularisme in Nederland. Amsterdam: Aksant.
Wekker, G. (2016). White Innocence; Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. Durham: Duke University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Stipriaan, A. (2020). Dutch Tolerance in Black and White: From Religious Pragmatism to Racialized Ideology. In: Balkenhol, M., van den Hemel, E., Stengs, I. (eds) The Secular Sacred. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38050-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38050-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38049-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38050-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)