Criticism on Dutch tolerance

July 22, 2015 - The director of EduDivers, the Dutch expertise centre on schools and sexual diversity has criticized the myth of Dutch tolerance in a blog on the US website: "Not in our town". He analyzes that Dutch tolerance is not more than a disinterested tolerance "at a distance" and calls for a rethinking of how to promote basic competences and social structures to become more tolerant at a distance "nearby".

Don't bother me

Dankmeijer offers a historical analysis, which comes down to one bottom line: Dutch tolerance is great "as long as people feel not bothered" by others. In practice this means that any non-heteronormative behavior is strongly rejected. In schools and on the political level, he notices an "organized disinterest".
He says "We could better label this heterosexism than homophobia and transphobia, because it is not gays, lesbians or transsexuals in general that are excluded, but "just" the ones who do not fit into the (hetero)norm."

Challenging skin-deep tolerance

Dankmeijer asks the question how to challenge such "tolerance at a distance". He thinks it is too great a task to structurally change the entire Dutch culture, on which this type of tolerance is based. He suggests to link into the pride of the Dutch. Even when real tolerance is skin-deep, they are still very proud of it. However, this pride of tolerance is now confronted with severe challenges. Dutch people deeply worry about how to deal with religious and political extremism. According to Dankmeijer, this concern is an opportunity for schools and politicians to rethink which basic competences and structures the Dutch need to be not only "tolerant at a distance" but also from nearby. Such a better understanding could be a first next step to mainstreaming a deeper level of tolerance.

Image: Peter Dankmeijer. The poster behind says "With my teacher you cannot speak about LGBT issues".

Source: https://www.niot.org/blog/dutch-tolerance-revisited