Now I'm sounding like a racist!

I suppose I should probably clarify my last post. We like living in Belgium-- so much so that even after having moved away we actively worked to return here. I've learned to speak fluent Dutch and have our kids in a great local Flemish school.

S is on the village football team and we might have even decided to send him to scouts here if they didn't have regular sleepovers in the house of a registered pedophile. (but that's another story...)

So the phrase that's spraypainted on buildings around here "Pas je aan of ga weg" (integrate or leave) does not apply to us.

BUT I have become increasingly distressed at the open racism I keep encountering here. People in my neighborhood from the architecht to the shopkeeper have no problem talking about "foreigners" as the scourge of modern Belgium. And the term "foreigner" is reserved primarily for Moroccans, although anyone with a dark complexion is likely to fall prey to their gossip and wrath.

There was an affluent muslim family that lived around the corner from us. They were quiet, kept to themselves and maintained a spotless garden. Yet we have actually heard neighbors gossiping about them stealing things from yards in the neighborhood.

When M pointed out that the guy must have a good job to be able to afford a house of that size he was almost patted on the head for his naivete.

Oh but you know how those people are-- they might not steal themselves but they invite their friends and relatives over and what do you think they do after dinner?

Half-African children of a friend of mine have been tormented mercilessly at school recently, with epithets that can only come from language used freely at home. Because they are blond, my sons, though foreign, have been spared teasing. For that I'm thankful as well as a little guilty.

I keep reminding myself that this open hatred is the product of life in a small town and not of a diseased view of the citizens at large. We have been welcomed by many open-minded people here and I am grateful for the experience. But some days it is easier to remember this than others...