Dutch Immigrant Kids Demand White Classmates, Go Door-To-Door Looking For New White Students For Their Schools

Dutch immigrant families — their kids in particular — are taking to the streets of Amsterdam demanding white classmates in their schools, saying the need for more racially-integrated schools will help them assimilate into Dutch society.

As MSN reports, public schools in The Netherlands are becoming increasingly segregated. As immigrants from North Africa and parts of Asia flood into the country, they find themselves living in neighborhoods — and their kids going to schools — that white families have fled.

The Dutch government, on the other hand, encourages immigrants to fully integrate into Dutch society, according to Yahoo News. They’re expected to learn the native language, then take an “integration exam” to determine if they’ve assimilated into Dutch society.

Immigrant parents claim that that’s difficult for their kids if they have to attend “black schools” with very few native, white Dutch kids.

Diane Middelkoop, a spokesperson for two Amsterdam schools that have become particularly segregated, explains the problem.

“When, for different reasons, a school ‘becomes blacker’, it’s very difficult to reverse the trend. White children’s parents no longer want to be part of the school.”

In Amsterdam, Dutch immigrant kids are calling upon their neighbors to help reverse the trend. Wearing white shirts with the message “Is this white enough for you?”, kids and their parents marched through the streets Saturday. Some parents even went door-to-door, handing out fliers.

“We’re looking for white pupils.”

Eleven-year-old Aminata, who is an immigrant and is black, says she wants more white children in her school so her immigrant peers and the native Dutch white kids can share cultures. Her best friend since kindergarten, 10-year-old Annelies, who is white and native Dutch, agrees.

“It’s important for later. When we’re grown up we will have to deal with different cultures, we should already start learning to live together. At the moment there’s only one boy in our class who is 100 percent Dutch, although we live in a mixed neighborhood, it’s ridiculous.”

Some Dutch grudgingly admit that racism is a problem in their country, despite its reputation as being a beacon of tolerance. Eighty-year-old Joan, who watched the immigrant kids plead for white students in their schools with tears in her eyes, called the problem “shameful.”

“It’s shameful that it’s come to this, that children have to take to the street to go to school with white children. It’s racism and I’m ashamed. There was always a bit of racism in this country, but today it’s serious, it has to stop.”

The kids — immigrants and native whites alike — just want their neighbors to see kids, not colors.

“Don’t think black, don’t think white, don’t think black and white: think the colors of your heart.”