Dutch broadcaster NOS recently decided to stop using the Dutch word "blank" to describe white or Caucasian people, instead opting to call them "wit" or white in English. This decision resulted in an uproar on social media, and even parliamentary questions posed by right-wing populist party PVV.
Colloquially, the word “blanke” is an adjective that goes beyond “white” to give a connotation of “purity” or “untainted”.
The Dutch population will continue to grow in the coming decades to over 18.4 million people by 2060, according to the latest prognosis by Statistics Netherlands. The 18 millionth inhabitant is expected in 2031. By 2040 almost a quarter of the Dutch population will be elderly, and by 2060 just over a third will have their roots in the outside world, according to the stats office.
A police officer in Rotterdam turned to the College of Human Rights to fight the ban on police officers wearing a headscarf or hijab with their uniform. The woman argues that this is differential treatment based on religion, NU.nl reports.
The woman works mainly in an administrative post at the Rotterdam police. The police leadership allows her to wear her headscarf while doing administrative tasks, but she has to take it off when she has contact with the public in her uniform.
Of the 700 aspiring police officers who signed up at the Police Academy this year, 25 percent have a non-Western background - double compared to 2015, Peter Slort, head of diversity at the National Police, told the Volkskrant. The new figures match the police's goal to become more ethnically diverse. Currently only 7 percent of Dutch police officers have an immigration background, according to the newspaper.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and director of diversity David King will personally contact a woman who fell from a flight of stairs in Amsterdam after being pushed by an Airbnb landlord on Saturday, King said to broadcaster NOS. He called the incident "repulsive" and "unacceptable".
National Police chief Erik Akerboom decided to maintain the ban on headscarves with police uniforms for the time being. He is shocked by the uproar caused by Amsterdam police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg suggesting that headscarves be allowed in an effort to boost diversity in the police, the National Police chief wrote in an internal memo, AD reports.
An Amsterdam community police officer raised quite a few eyebrows on Saturday by wearing a headscarf while on patrol in Osdorp. The officer is not a Muslim herself, but wore the headscarf "out of solidarity and because she is for a diverse corps", PvdA city councilor Sofyan Mbarki said to the Volkskrant.
The Amsterdam police is considering allowing Muslim officers to wear a headscarf, of hijab, in an attempt to recruit more minorities, Amsterdam police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said to newspaper AD.
In 2011 the police's national code of conduct was adjusted to state that symbols of belief - such as a crucifix, headscarf or yarmulke - can not be worn with the police uniform. Visible tattoos and piercings are also banned. "But I see that this is shifting", Aalbersberg said to the newspaper. "We now allow tattoos on the arms, a few years ago that was still unthinkable."
National Police Chief Erik Akerboom wants the police force to be more diverse. For that reason 13 extra positions will be created in the police leadership this year for "diverse" talent, he said in an interview with the Volkskrant.
"The police must be recognizable to everyone. The outside world changed enormously, and the police is not changing with it", Akerboom said. He wants the culture in the police to change quickly.
Schools in the Netherlands need major improvements in their integration education, according to the Education Inspectorate, ANP reports.
According to the Inspectorate, Dutch schools are failing wit attempts to teach students about typical Dutch values, despite the fact that schools are required to pay attention to what it means to be a citizen of the Netherlands. Dutch schools' attempts to do so are too unfocused - activities seem unrelated to each other, there is no systematic approach and schools don't formulate what they want to teach their students.
A number of Amsterdam organizations decided to actively spread the message that “diversity makes us human”. The organizations call on everyone to discuss the message at work, school, church and anywhere else they are with other people. The message can also be spread on social media using the hashtag #020diversity, the Telegraaf reports.
Political party DENK wants a police team set up specifically to act against racism and discrimination. A thousand officers should be in this team, politician Farid Azarkan said on Pauw.
Thousands of people took part in an 8 km march through Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon. They were demonstrating for a diverse Netherlands united as one, along with new movement Ieder1
Getting some diversity into the mayors of the Netherlands seems to be a nigh on impossible task. Most of the 390 mayors in the country are white men with an average age of around 57 years. Only four are of an ethnic minority and only 20 percent are female. And these figures have been the same for years, according to data from the Dutch Association of Mayors
The number of women appearing in television programs on public broadcasting has decreased over the past 5 years. Women are heavily outnumbered, especially in the big daily talk shows - De Wereld Draait Door, Pauw and Jinek.
The Cabinet has signed a deal allowing healthcare insurers to choose whether or not to insure healthcare providers who are not under contract, a law which will be introduced per 2016. Previously, this was mandatory. Coalition parties PvdA and VVD signed with opposition parties D66, ChristenUnie and SGP, De Volkskrant reports.
A 31-year old man who was shot dead on the Nesserland in Amsterdam Noort has been identified as Charlton 'Challa' Wondel, member of the known rap group Tuindorp Hustler Click (THC).
