Man faces court for rejecting intern for being Black

The man who rejected an applicant last year because he was Black, will be prosecuted. The Prosecutor’s Office said that it was initiating a case against the 29-year-old Arnhem computer store worker for discrimination.

He gained notoriety in November last year when he mistakenly sent offensive remarks about an applicant to the applicant’s email address. Jeffrey Koorndijk, the 23 year old young man of Surinamese descent, had applied for an internship with the company. As response to his email application he received an email from the company, stating: “It’s nothing special; just a dark skinned Negro. And he also does not have experience.” That email had actually been intended for the owner of the company; it served to further fuel racial tensions that already dominated the news at the end of the year. Offended, the young man took to the press, prompting country wide outrage. The owner of the company said he would call him apologize, saying his company was not racist. The Prosecutor’s Office in east Netherlands said today though that it was still pursuing the case, because the email was racist in nature. “We are prosecuting the 29-year-old man from Arnhem for discrimination on the basis of race,” the office said. Hearings in the case are scheduled for the summer.