Within its cultures, Dutch Whiteness sees historical context as something that exists by the grace of whether or not they, white Dutch people, choose to deal with it. When Dutch Whiteness sighs “Not today…” a subject is expected to automatically detach itself from the systematic oppression it is a symptom of. Dutch Whiteness’ level of critical, non-eurocentric, decolonial thinking is so absolutely subpar because it only trusts itself to correct itself. Since their obsessive love for blackface can no longer fully rely on the immunity granted by so-called Dutch Innocence, it was only a matter of time before they turned to another form of anti-Blackness: the human zoo.  On September 5 Valtifest, the love spawn of MTV Nederland and DJ Joost van Bellen, hosts the 8th edition of their annual dress up festival. This year’s theme: The Hottentot Exhibition.

“Hottentot” is the highly derogatory term Dutch settlers used for the Khoikhoi, the people who are among the first inhabitants of Southwest Africa. Most people probably know it from the exploitative ‘nickname’ that was given to Sarah Baartman who was known to racist white scientist and voyeurs as “The Hottentot Venus”. Combine the Netherlands’ colonial terror in South Africa with Western Europe’s history of human zoos and one understands why Valtifest received a variety of protest Tweets in response to their announcement. Their reply? Typically Dutch.

First things first, this is how it works in Dutch:
Hottentot – singular.
Hottentotten – plural.
Tentoonstelling – exhibition.
Hottentottententoonstelling – “An exhibition of hottentots”
It’s not rocket science. It’s not a word like “fast” that means something different for a duck than it does for a cheetah.  An exhibit of Black people is an exhibit of Black people is an exhibit of Black people. History doesn’t magically change because Valtifest founders MTV Nederland and Joost van Bellen decided that appropriation is the new creativity.

The organisation starts their statement the way Dutch Mainstream Whiteness always begins: by stressing that the criticism they will now address is subject to the feeling/experience/humour of those who have been offended. It reaffirms the White Dutch theory that within the Netherlands’ white picket borders, racism, colonialism, eurocentrism and xenophobia are sentiments rather than systems. Everything anti-Black that’s happening outside of the country? “Racism! Absolutely racist. Soooo racist!” It’s when it happens on Dutch soil that the maze of semantics, intention and sensitivity can’t be constructed quick enough.

In the second paragraph of their ‘explanation’ the organisation states: “That in the past Khoikhoi members, among others, were exhibited as an anomaly is a horrific truth. We detest those dark pages from the colonial era.” I lack the vulgarity to properly express how much I hate it when people refer to colonialism and slavery as “dark pages”. Pages? Books. Not even chapters… books. Books full of dehumanizing monstrosities and terror. And aren’t they white as hell?
Also, what’s a Khoikhoi member? Could it be that in the minds of Dutch Mainstream Whiteness ethnic and/or cultural groups are so over-appropriated that they are now considered to be clubs one can sign up for? Should we now wait for white people to claim they’re “politically Khoi” and explain to us why this party isn’t a problem?

Dutch Mainstream Whiteness wouldn’t properly live up to and roll around in its anti-intellectual mediocrity if it didn’t demand a redefining of terns. According to the third paragraph of their explanation, the organisation explains: “We don’t detest the word ‘hottentottententoonstelling’. It’s a cheeky tongue twister, a word that will score many points in word games but, above all, a word that doesn’t have a literal meaning, after all: there’s no such thing as a hottentots exhibition and there never has been.”
The festival’s claim that the word doesn’t exist and that no such exhibition ever took place, banks heavily on the eurocentric, whiteness driven ignorance of its potential visitors. Should we expect anybody on Team Valtifest to slam a research thesis on human zoos on the table while urging their colleagues to do the historically right thing? Of course not. Can we expect them to build their dismissal of historic events on something stronger than “Because Wikipedia said it never happened!!”? Perhaps not even that.

Regardless, we owe it to our survival to not let our expectations navigate our demands.

This year’s edition of Valtifest takes place on September 5, giving everybody who’s not having any of this a good 14 weeks to deal with the matter however they see fit. To join the conversation on social media, please use/mention #ValtifestIsHumanZoo , @Valtifest and/or @MTVnl in your statements.