Being Different

In this episode, I speak with a wonderful young woman whose mix background apparently has brought her more questions and curiosities than every other Suriname-Dutch or Afro-Dutch person. I share my conversations with Manisha Nash who recently graduated from a master program in anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Manisha and I spoke about belonging, racism in the Netherlands, complexities of having a Hindustani mother and Hindustani and Afro-Surinamese father. Manisha also shared difficulties of writing about minorities while she had to satisfy the gaze of the so-called white scientists/anthropologists. Let’s listen to her and find out what does it mean to be different in the Netherlands.

Ep 1, we meet Rosa Luna, a Dutch-Suriname student of Amsterdam University College. She shares her perspectives on racial consciousness, the question of blackness in the Netherlands and influence of the BLM movement in the Dutch society. Rosa Luna researched Dutch-Surinamese and Dutch-Caribbean community in the Netherlands to find out the notion of blackness in among Dutch.

Mohammed Badran graduated from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and his research explored citizenship and passport materialities among Palestinian refugees. He explained the connections between bodies and documents to highlight the racial bias in the immigration system and border regimes. His conversation with me is timely because it further highlights Western European racial bias in solidarity with refugees. He explains how some European universities are complicit in colonial settler processes by not paying enough attention to the Palestinian cause.