It has been almost two weeks since RTL broadcasted the Dutch talent show ‘Holland’s Got Talent’, which contained a series of jokes on a Chinese contestant. The show was the start of a stream of (inter)national discussions and reactions. What jokes should not be tolerated? Is Holland implicitly tolerating racist’s jokes?
CPIPF believes that being tolerant or living in a country with freedom of speech does not imply or give you the right to offensively stereotype other people based on their ethnicity, colour or culture. That is not even an opinion; that is blunt racism!
Don’t laugh it off, it’s not normal
For decades long the Chinese-Dutch said nothing back to these offensive stereotype jokes. By doing so they have implicitly contributed to the attitude of both the Dutch and the Chinese-Dutch to ignore these stereotype jokes or to just ‘laugh it off’. But that does not make it ‘okay’ to continue laughing it off and say nothing at all anymore. It is a good sign that, in this country with freedom of speech, the Chinese-Dutch has finally shown a mass reaction ‘NO IT’S NOT NORMAL, AND ITS OFFENSIVE’ to these offensive stereotype jokes.
The voice of…the Chinese-Dutch:
In the past week no national TV program has featured Chinese-Dutch to ask for their perspective. We want to prove that the Chinese-Dutch also have an opinion and a voice that:
- Stereotype jokes based on ethnicity, colour or culture are NOT normal
- The well-educated and well-integrated second-generation Chinese-Dutch are more communicative skilled and dare to question what is normal
- More ethnic minority groups in The Netherlands experience comparable offensive stereotype jokes
- We should have the decency and mutual respect for each other to apologise if you obviously have offended the other based on “jokes”