I was raised, just as all children with a migration background
that you must do exceptionally well
because if you don't, you'll be penalised exceptionally hard.
Why are equal opportunities so important?
About two years ago, I was looking for a graduate internship to finish my studies.
I wrote 15 to 20 letters to various organisations.
After two months, I had two rejections and not a single reaction beyond that.
That's when I started to wonder: How is this possible?
How come I don't have any invitations? You start to doubt yourself.
Aren't my letters any good? Is it my photo? Should I put a different photo on my CV?
Is it my name? I had no idea, I simply didn't know.
What I did know, is that I'm a better talker than a writer.
And people often said to me: Oh, your Dutch is excellent.
So I had to find a way of orally getting people to invite me to an interview
so I started shooting videos.
I sent my videos to various organisations, five videos in total.
After two weeks, I had five invitations. Everyone wanted to see me.
On the one hand, I was enthusiastic.
On the other hand I was very... sad, is the right word.
I didn't succeed with a letter, but with a video I did.
That's when I realised
that a lot of people are prejudiced, often they're subconsciously prejudiced.
No, I've never felt that I don't get treated equally.
Because I don't accept being treated unequally.
But I wouldn't think it was strange
if somewhere I am systematically being treated unequally
but that it's in such a insidious way
because racism and discrimination are very insidious issues
that I don't even notice it, that's definitely possible.
It's possible that I'm not invited for a job interview because of my surname
but I don't see it that way.
I went out in a village next to the village where I lived.
I arrived at the club. There were bouncers at the door just like at any other club.
One of the bouncers came up to me: What are you doing here?
I've come for a dance and a drink. Then he asked where I'm from.
Where are you from? Morocco or are you Turkish?
No, I'm Columbian, but I'm adopted. I'm Dutch, I explained and that's it.
There is always this kind of excuse or story.
It's empty or it's full or you can't wear sneakers. Those pants won't do.
Or you need to bring a lady. Things like that. There is always...
They know it's wrong, but there is always this kind of general excuse
to justify it.
Finally, I was allowed in.
An hour or so later, this security guy doing his rounds grabbed me by the neck
and dragged me outside. He dragged me by the scruff of my neck.
I asked him: What's the matter? He said: You're coming with me.
Where am I going? You're going home.
There was no explanation, I was just sent away like that.
Later, not much later, a few weeks later, I went again and the same thing happened.
At a certain point, you're done with it and you don't want to be there anymore.
When I was 17, I worked for a promotion company.
I worked on a tablet. During my lunchbreak
I put the tablet down beside me on a bench in the street.
When I went to stand up, my tablet was gone. I thought: Oh, no.
I called my boss and I said: I'm sorry, but my tablet has been stolen.
He said: No problem. Come to the office and we'll give you a new tablet.
A day later, I was called into the office. So I went.
At the office, he said very specifically: It's not because of your headscarf
but you're very suspicious, so we have to let you go.
At that moment, I thought:
Is it really necessary to say it's not because of my headscarf?
You've just made it clear that it has everything to do with my headscarf.
I didn't know how to deal with it. I was 17 and I thought: No, there goes my job.
But after I had given it some more thought I found it very scary.
And a bit sickening that his prejudice caused me to lose my job.