These culture war things are so stupid. Should be simple. Do we consider ourselves a racist country? If the answer is no, then if we are carrying out a super racist tradition we should take the super easy steps it takes to make it not racist. And it should be easy and not fucking matter, but instead we have politicians and protesters putting all this time and effort into fighting some imagined cultural battle that at the end of the day is wholly inconsequential to the quality of life of every day citizens. It’s infuriating.
Personally I think that every mistake is a teaching opportunity. In this context, rather than try to sweep the racism under the rug of history as quickly and quietly as possible, I think changes should be made but in a way that invites people (especially children) to ask questions about the background of the traditions and why those representations of persons of color are problematic and should be changed. Without this it just looks like an attempt to cover up and deny the existence of the past forms of discrimination, which especially does a disservice to people experiencing present forms of discrimination.
And also, maybe, dealing with these things should not be fast or easy.
Nothing about this is imaginary, because in some ways these problems haven’t changed much. There is value in spending time on it in the present.
All of that said, I am a white guy from North America, not a POC from the Netherlands, so my input is just an opinion.
These culture war things are so stupid. Should be simple. Do we consider ourselves a racist country? If the answer is no, then if we are carrying out a super racist tradition we should take the super easy steps it takes to make it not racist. And it should be easy and not fucking matter, but instead we have politicians and protesters putting all this time and effort into fighting some imagined cultural battle that at the end of the day is wholly inconsequential to the quality of life of every day citizens. It’s infuriating.
Personally I think that every mistake is a teaching opportunity. In this context, rather than try to sweep the racism under the rug of history as quickly and quietly as possible, I think changes should be made but in a way that invites people (especially children) to ask questions about the background of the traditions and why those representations of persons of color are problematic and should be changed. Without this it just looks like an attempt to cover up and deny the existence of the past forms of discrimination, which especially does a disservice to people experiencing present forms of discrimination.
And also, maybe, dealing with these things should not be fast or easy.
Nothing about this is imaginary, because in some ways these problems haven’t changed much. There is value in spending time on it in the present.
All of that said, I am a white guy from North America, not a POC from the Netherlands, so my input is just an opinion.