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White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race by Gloria Wekker (review)

White Innocence makes a significant contribution to the field of critical whiteness studies by examining the role of race, especially whiteness, and the legacy of colonialism in the present-day Netherlands. Historically situating her analysis against four centuries of Dutch imperialism in the East Indies, the West Indies, and the Antilles, Gloria Wekker examines some of the profound paradoxes characterizing a nation that overwhelmingly sees itself as color blind and racially innocent. Like many white-dominated, formerly imperial European countries such as France and Sweden, the Netherlands tends to see race and racism as issues that first and foremost concern the United States. Next might come South Africa, and perhaps even Great Britain should be mentioned—but not continental Western Europe. As Wekker argues, the Netherlands in particular is marked by a white sense of self that insists, “We are a small nation, innocent; we are inherently antiracist; moreover, we do not have bad intentions” (Wekker 2016, 166). One might say that Wekker reveals the Netherlands to be a nation constituted by Good White People (Sullivan 2014). The paradox is that Dutch white goodness and Dutch pride in being a gentle, hospitable nation go handin-hand with racial oppression and colonial violence. Wekker begins White Innocence with three key paradoxes in Dutch white self-representation. The first is an aversion to identification with migrants book reviews