Frits Wester argues that he and three other white fellow Expedition Robinson candidates are accused of racism for sending two non-white candidates away. “So crazy!”
The kick-off of Expeditie Robinson, which was broadcast on RTL 4 on Saturday evening, is causing some unrest. Shortly after arriving on the uninhabited island, a letter was delivered to the two candidate camps by presenter Nicolette Kluijver. That letter was read by only two camp members in each camp.
Tossing at Robinson
Those two camp members were instructed to immediately vote out one candidate from their camp. The two Krista Arriëns and Willem Voogd decided to vote Iris van Lunenburg out of one camp, the two Frits Wester and Chelsey Weimar (Linda de Mol’s daughter-in-law) chose Eva Simons in the other camp.
The decision process was captured by camera. In both cases there was a toss between two options, so Eva versus another candidate and Iris versus another candidate. “You have to weigh up: who is physically strong, who could do this well, who could do that well, who do we already have, what do we still need?”, says Frits.
‘This is racism’
Despite the coin toss, according to Frits, there are still racism accusations. “You just asked me about the reactions to Expedition,” he says Race on Sunday. “I thought: I’m not just saying about the negative reactions, but what shocked me: we had to send someone away on both islands on the first night.”
He continues: “We did this by drawing lots on both islands. A few people we went to raffle between. They were two dark women: Eva and Iris. Last night on Twitter: ‘Yes, it’s racism, two black women were sent out first.’”
Crazy and unreal
Frits immediately shrugs off those accusations. “When I read that, I thought: how on earth do you get here? No one has thought about that and I don’t even want to think about this.”
He doesn’t want to take it seriously. “Then we really start blaming each other for things that are so crazy and unreal.”