“With his drawing René Leisink perfectly captures the only way too many Dutch people, high on white privilege and the most anti-Black form of xenophobia, are able to discuss matters like racism and asylum laws. Here these topics demand sensationalism, dehumanisation and objectification. Also, whenever racism is discussed, the ground rule is that whiteness is the sole decider of what deserves our attention. Whiteness determines the difference between racism and humour, sensitivity and relevance, unfortunate incidents and systematic oppression. It prefers its own imagination over historical contexts and views racism as a game of quota in which one can earn the right to do or say something racist. Take Leisner. In one of his apologies he mentioned that he once housed a group of undocumented Romanians. By presenting this ‘proof’ of his okayness he’s basically stating that because of these ‘cool points’ he earned the luxury of being vile. Incidentally, of course, because the sleepover shows that he’s not always ‘like this’ and racism, of course, is something that only presents itself as a loud and steady sort of violence. The rest might qualify as poorly executed good fun but racism? Isn’t that the thing that carries around swastikas and nooses?”

To read our full interview, click here. 

Many thanks to This Is Africa‘s Chandra Frank for interviewing me about Dutch cartoonist René Leisink’s disgustingly dehumanizing illustrations, the outrageous response of Vluchtelingenwerk (the Netherland’s National Council for Refugees) and how this all perfectly illustrates the Netherland’s national ‘conversations’ about racism, undocumented communities and all the other racially motivated rubbish that’s filed under ‘freedom to insult’.

If you, too, would like to file a complaint you can do so by sending an e-mail to nieuwsredactie@metronieuws.nl (e-mail address of the newspaper that publishes René Leisink’s cartoons)