When a Chinese singer appeared onstage on the Dutch TV show Holland's Got Talent, a judge named Gordon shouted out: “Which number are you going to sing? Number 39 with rice?” Afterwards, Gordon was complimentary: “This is the best Chinese I had in weeks. And it's not a takeaway.”
By recent Dutch standards, Gordon's remarks weren't particularly offensive. Blacks, Jews and asylum-seekers have all taken a kicking lately, alongside the country's favourite modern scapegoats, Dutch-Moroccans. But anti-racists have grown louder too. This is a squabble for the soul of the little country where I grew up.
The current frenzy began with “Black Pete”. All of us who were once children in the Netherlands know and love Saint Nicholas's helper. He and “Sinterklaas” bring presents and “pepper-nut” biscuits. Unfortunately, Pete - with his black face, earrings and big lips - is modelled on a colonial slave. Verene Shepherd, a Jamaican historian who chairs the United Nations working group on people of African descent, complained about him, whereupon Dutch media wrongly reported that “the UN” wanted to ban Black Pete, or even Sinterklaas himself. Hysteria erupted. Within days, two million of the Netherlands' 17 million inhabitants had signed a pro-Pete “Pete-ition” on Facebook. Black Dutch people who didn't like Black Pete were advised to “go back” to their own countries. A parade featuring black, green and orange Petes was called off after organisers received death threats (a common Dutch debating technique in recent years).