If there is one building that reflects the spirit of our country, it is the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. That bridge was built a quarter of a century ago to connect the rich and poor city banks. But in recent years, the bridge has mainly become a stage for polarization, identity politics and protest. Yellow Vests, Erdogan fans, BlackLivesMatter protesters paraded on the bridge deck – every group interest passed by.
The bridge itself also often makes identity statements. For example, last year the bridge was illuminated in rainbow colors, for ‘diversity and inclusion’, but also purple (because of Keti Koti), orange (violence against women), blue (human rights), rainbow colors (Oslo attacks), blue-red (police and fire brigade), pink (Pride) and green (climate). Any interest group may submit a request to paint the bridge in a colour, provided it is a message of ‘public benefit’, according to the website of the municipality of Rotterdam.
A bunch of neo-Nazis didn’t feel like going down that royal road. They arranged a laser beamer and projected texts on the bridge last year such as: ‘Black Piet did nothing wrong’, ‘happy white 2023’ and ‘White lives matter’. They were on screen during the live broadcast, the perpetrators turned out to be genuine anti-Semites, the newspapers reported on them for days. An efficient hack: who needs Twitter when you can use all media as a megaphone with one beamer?
Not making it bigger seems like a good response. Also found the Rotterdam alderman Ronald Buijt. He called the slogans “rude and polarizing,” he said against RTL News. These guys don’t deserve a second attention. Rotterdam is one city, a city where everyone is equal.’ Nice words, although ‘rude’ is somewhat euphemistic for neo-Nazis. And: how far does his own ideas actually lie from these slogans?
Maybe not miles away. ‘Black Pete did nothing wrong’, said the beamer. As party leader of Liveable Rotterdam in 2017, Buijt was furious about the ‘waste’ of Zwarte Piet. ‘Everyone says they are proud of the 175 cultures in Rotterdam,’ he said in 2017 against it AD‘but it does not take into account the culture that has been dominant in this country for centuries.’
More recently he enrolled Elsevier Weekly magazine an opinion piece under the heading: ‘White privilege’? I kneel to no one’. In it he called it ‘completely ridiculous’ that ‘white Dutch people of this moment’ are blamed for the slavery past. He blames the Moroccans themselves for discrimination against Moroccans. Etcetera.
I hope the mayor thinks otherwise. That would be nice. But with these kinds of opinions Liveable became the largest. And that beamer expressed what many people in the city and in the Netherlands think. ‘Can someone explain to me why black lives matter is NOT racist, but white lives matter IS racist’, was a typical response.
In short: how do we brush that real, stubborn muck off the bridge? Step one: understand where those toxic sentiments come from and remove the fertile soil.
In the same opinion piece, Buijt denounced the fact that poor people are accused of ‘white privilege’, while they too are weighed down by money worries, cannot get social housing, and so on. ‘Their children also receive primary school advice.’ Unfortunately, he has a point there. Take that school advice. Scientist Josse de Voogd has been pointing out for yearsSurprisingly, under-recommendation appears to be most prevalent in predominantly white rural areas. Where you live (Randstad or rural areas) and whether your parents studied are at least as important as the color of your skin.
Such a combination of factors also plays a role in police brutality, to which the slogan #BlackLivesMatter (and indirectly #WhiteLivesMatter) was a response. See American research by Harvard sociologist Justin Feldman. He shows that black Americans are indeed relatively more likely to be shot by the police; but he also shows that a poor white American can be more at risk than a well-to-do black American. Color plays a major role, so does class.
Hammering at just one factor, then, can be a recipe for resentment. What is needed: a policy that addresses the problems of the whole population instead of partial interests. So yes, also an eye for the underadvised white boys from the province. Offering a non-toxic alternative, preventing such a person from thinking only after seeing a Nazi projection: hey, hey, now it’s finally about me on that bridge.
Arjen van Veelen replaces Floor Rusman as columnist.
A version of this article also appeared in the January 7, 2023 newspaper