Racism in Netherlands
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On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake‘s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws. Parks’ prominence in the community and her willingness to become a controversial figure inspired the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year, the first major direct action campaign of the post-war civil rights movement. Her case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit Browder v. Gayle succeeded in November 1956.
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So I was going to take this tramvay đźš‹ the other day to get to my workshop. I think it was 12:25 pm on 4th Oct 2018. The 26 tramvay just started to move from the station in amsterdam central. Then a woman, probably around 45 years old waved at it. The tram stopped and the lady got on board. I also got on board that the driver said: woah woah. No, get off! I backed off a moment. Another black haired gentleman got on board that driver started to shout out at him too to get off. He pointed at the lady and said but she got on board! The driver started insulting and said some stuff in dutch. Showed his ass and drived the tram away..
It felt like the old stories at 1900s when black people couldn’t sit near white people in bus or train Or the famous poster of the bars which said: “Dogs and Blacks keep out!!”
It is really strange that in a touristic city like Amsterdam you experience anything like this. I could understand if it was happened in a village or small city with lack of education and such. Well anyway, this is one of my experiences with racism in heart of the Europe.
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