21 January, 2006

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...

4 comments:

africakidandtheworld said...

Sad. People reveal themselves by their words and actions...(just like in a Flannery O'Connor story! couldn't resist adding that).

Betsy said...

You've had me thinking about Flannery O'Connor for a while now! I dug out my copy of her complete works and plan on reading through it again sometime soon. She was my favorite author for years! I even named one of my cats after her... :-D

Z said...

Hey Betsy, I like your blogs. I kinda resonate with your observations ... life thru the eyes of an expat. Racism shows up in so many ways & your examples sound overt. I don't know what's easier to deal with - the overt or the covert kind?

Betsy said...

Thanks!

I've been thinking about it, though, and I don't know how these people react when they are face-to-face with a Moroccan or a Turk. Schoolkids tend to be painfully honest, but I think adults hide their views behind a veil of polite indifference.

But for some disturbing reason they don't lump me in with other "foreigners"-- when I remind them that my children and I are also foreign they laugh patronizingly and say "Yes, but some foreigners are more desirable than others."

Which bothers me on so many levels...