Racism Our Future - Wilders, Trump, and so on

I’ve been warning for years now … the Dutch right-wing Islamophobes … and what the Republicans and Trump supporters will bring on … one could argue, under the Obama presidency latent racism steadily drifted and floated upward throughout US “new culture” and society. Social media brought it faster and stronger … the blessings of Internet.

Nevertheless, the Bush years and the War on Terror became the accelerator, the catalyst of fear, anxiety and believers in fake news and conspiracies. I have thrown two son-in-laws to be out of my house because the younger generation is quite susceptible. It must be because of a void in historical knowledge, plain wisdom or just stupidity combined with a different focus on life and the meaning of a social being.

Dutch race hate row engulfs presenter Sylvana Simons | BBC News |

The images of a black Dutch TV presenter’s face super-imposed on the hanged bodies of victims of a lynching are too nauseating to look at. And yet a video featuring the mocked-up pictures has been widely circulated online here.

Sylvana Simons has for years been a familiar presence on Dutch TV and radio, and the attack on her has highlighted a debate bubbling inside the Netherlands far removed from its reputation as a liberal tolerant nation.

A former presenter on talent show Dancing with the Stars, she recently joined the political party “Denk” (Think) and is running in the next election.

« click for more info Sylvana enters Dutch politics (Credit: VARA)

But it was her criticism of the traditional festive character known as Black Pete that unleashed a backlash of death-threats and misogynistic, racist abuse, which quickly escalated from unpleasant to outright shocking.

The video that circulated online also featured a song entitled “Oh Sylvana” including the lines “why don’t you pack your bags… why don’t you go and emigrate”. But the song-writers insist it was a party anthem about a Russian woman and nothing to do with Sylvana Simons.

The self-proclaimed creator of the video has now handed himself in to police, but the sentiment among a small but significant section of society appears to be – if you question our traditions then you are fair game.

When a football show host suggested that Sylvana was “running around proud as a monkey”, a colleague suggested he had meant to use the phrase “proud as a peacock”. But he was adamant: “No, she doesn’t look like a peacock.” Then a famous radio presenter played gorilla grunts on air and said “be quiet, Sylvana”.