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| Europe |
| "Dutch Segregation Is Not Racist" |
| 2006-01-20 |
| Last Wednesdayâs BJ article about an Amsterdam school with two separate entrances â one for indigenous Dutch children, the other for immigrant children â drew a response from Robin Gerrits, the journalist of the Dutch (left-liberal) newspaper De Volkskrant, who first reported the case. His article was entitled âBlack and white have their own entrancesâ and began with the following paragraph âAn Amsterdam primary school has indigenous and non-indiginous children under one roof. But there is no integration at all: white and black have their own doors.â The streamer reads: âAmsterdam school building poignantly illustrates growing segregation.â Mr Gerrits sent us the following email (translated, the original Dutch letter is below): Dear folks of The Brussels Journal. I hereby firmly protest against the way you present my article in De Volkskrant of Tuesday 17 January in your article Segregation in the Netherlands. In your âtranslationâ the impression is conveyed that one school has intentionally decided to make separate entrances for black and white children. This is NOT the case. I realize: it is complicated, and you have to be familiar with the Dutch school system, but try to acquaint yourself with it before making this public. The reality is much more subtle, and is not racist. It is about a school building, belonging to De Rietlanden, that has lots of leftover empty space because the white parents of the neighbourhood do not want to enroll there. They fear that at the school, which has predominantly immigrant pupils, their children will get poorer education or will not feel at home. Since the school has a lot of unused space (an entire floor), it allows the nearby Montessori school to use this floor. The Montessori school is very popular with white parents. Not exclusively white parents, but predominantly so. In the Netherlands parents are free in their choice of school. Various plans of the authorities to create as many mixed and non-segregated schools as possible have had little effect. Here you could see the whiter and the blacker entrances at one glance. No racism, but the consequence of a policy that tries to mix schools, but fails because in the end the parents make their own decisions. I found this picture striking enough for an article. The picture and the situation itself is not served by being abused by your website for what are perhaps your own political views. I insist that you remove the articles in this format or remedy them. With kind regards, robin gerrits editorial desk de Volkskrant |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 A while back in France in a junior high school (what we call "collège") IIRC, there was a call for segregation by the students, it was reported by a newspaper, the "Figaro" I think : the muslim majority requested separate gym lockers and separate water taps... one for the "circumsed", one for the "impures"... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-01-20 14:51 |
| #3 I love it. Finally a journalist does something SO stupid anyone can see it. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-01-20 13:55 |
| #2 Last Wednesdayâs BJ article about an Amsterdam school with two separate entrances â one for indigenous Dutch children, the other for immigrant children â drew a response from Robin Gerrits, the journalist of the Dutch (left-liberal) newspaper De Volkskrant, who first reported the case. I believe a few Dutch fellows tried something similar in SA to help sort out the multi-cult difficulties. It received the "racist" lavel there, and elsewhere as well. It's all much better in SA now thank you. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-20 13:34 |
| #1 Just as a comment, the Netherlands has the equivalent of school vouchers, and @ 70% of the kids attend private schools. Anybody who says a voucher system will not work (for any reason) is full of it. |
| Posted by: buwaya 2006-01-20 13:17 |