The Politics of Dutch Tolerance
Tolerance is perhaps one of the main mythical characteristics of Dutch society. Mythical in the sense that it is a sacred narrative concerning how the Netherlands and the Dutch people came to have their present form. It can be traced back to the Dutch golden era, the 17th century and is still an important issue in debates and the relationship between different people. The discourse on tolerance however is blinding us for structural differences and forms of exclusion, in particular in a time when the idea of tolerance is transformed, from something that a dominant group is able to give to a minority group, to something the dominant group demands from the minority group.