Description: In White Innocence Gloria Wekker explores a central paradox of Dutch life--the passionate denial of racial discrimination and colonial violence coexisting alongside aggressive racism and xenophobia--to show how the narrative of Dutch racial exceptionalism elides the Netherland's colonial past and safeguards white privilege.
Review Quotes: "White Innocence explains why white Dutch people seem unable to grasp the racism of Zwarte Piet: Assured of their own social progressivism, they can a priori think and therefore do no wrong. . . . Wekker concludes her work with a plea for 'another "embarrassment of riches,"' for acknowledging the racism staring us in the face. In the United States, we might start by recognizing that there is, and always has been, no more audacious identity politics than white identity politics, as Trump and his white-supremacist ilk gleefully demonstrate. At least the illusion of innocence has been stripped away. Or perhaps not?"
--Nick Barr Clingan "The Nation"