If I'm honest, I also thought you're from the Middle East. Yes, really.
What does prejudice do to you?
What has happened to me, because I'm Dutch-Indonesian
but you can't see it. I look more mixed Chinese or Japanese.
Often in my home town, Apeldoorn, whenever I walked by, I'd hear kids say:
In my case, I notice that people stick different kinds of labels on me.
My name is Tarik, but I'm Surinamese- Hindustani, I was born Suriname.
People soon think: Your name is Tarik so you're from Turkey or Morocco.
Or Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, anything from the Middle East has passed the review.
I notice about myself, that I find it very difficult
to meet someone with an open mind. I always think that when you meet someone
something happens in your head that makes you think something about someone.
It happens automatically.
You're Asian, your super good at computer games.
You're Asian, you must be good at maths.
You're Asian, you're good at physics and chemistry.
What else?
You're always late because you're from Suriname, or you're lazy.
A lad with a beard, a tough guy, a gutter snipe.
Bet you have a criminal record or you've done stuff in the past.
You must be loose-limbed, but it's said in a sexual way which is very unpleasant.
I did an internship and somebody in a high position asked me:
What do you think of IS?
I thought: what kind of a strange question is that?
The same as you, I suppose.
Do I have to explain what I think of IS? What kind of a question is that?
You don't ask people that, it's weird.
People often presume I like a certain style of music.
Or that I go to certain kinds of parties.
When they hear I'm not like that at all and that I used to take ballet classes
they weren't expecting that. They had expected me to be into hip-hop.
Yes, it's annoying, it's not nice.
In the knowledge that when you go out or I don't know, you go for a drink
and you get talking, they soon make remarks or crack jokes
because they feel they're entitled to.
While they don't know how I feel or what I think about it.
Particularly when I'm applying for a job, a job interview
so I call them, give them a ring.
When I arrive for the interview itself and then there is this:
Oh, a bit of a shock, look twice.
Perhaps they're not shocked but it's: I wasn't expecting you...
you to have a slightly tinted skin.
I was on the train the other day and the ticket collector made a strange remark.
He checked my ticket and my friend asked him whether I had checked in.
He said: Are you saying that because she's black?
There were four of us. We all looked at him as if to say: Sorry, what?
Then he said: I can say these things
because I have a bonus child with your skin colour.
It's at moments like this that I do feel discriminated against
or at least, it wasn't very pleasant.
I've learnt to live with it. It's more...
because you're faced with it so much and so much happens to you
you create a layer around yourself. You learn to accept it
but you know that it's not okay, really. But still...
Sometimes you think: that's going too far. Or: that was so unnecessary.