On February 4th American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson gave the Martin Luther King Jr. lecture in The Netherlands. Jackson is touring Europe at the moment.
In the lecture he stated that The Netherlands should do whatever it takes to desegregate its primary school, this should be Dutch national policy.
One result of segregation, according to Reverend Jackson, is that ethnic communities feel stigmatised, and become isolated.
"If you let people live in isolation, and make them feel left out, you are organising your own ticking time bomb."
That is precisely what has concerned many here, since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a young Dutchman of Moroccan background. But Mr Jackson's message when it comes to integration is "Keep hope alive." He is impressed by young people he has met in The Hague and Amsterdam and the efforts they have taken to learn to live together.
Black schools in the Netherlands are schools where the majority of pupils have a “foreign” background. A more accurate term for these schools would be minority schools.
From Jackson’s point of view he is right of course, there is no place for segregation in a modern society. But linking black schools to terrorism is little bit overdone. Read the whole story and see a video here
No comments:
Post a Comment