THE HAGUE - Dutch MP Sylvana Simons (BIJ1) says that the slavery history of the Netherlands can be seen in the allowance affair. Simons asked Parliamentary questions about this to State Secretary for Finance Marnix van Rij.
Research by the Dutch TV NOS previously showed that Surinamese and Caribbean parents were by far the most often victims of the allowance affair. Simons outlines that the colonial legacy is visible in this, because black people are more likely to be portrayed as fraudsters. In this form, anti-Black racism still lives on in our present, according to Simons.
To change this, Simons asks Van Rij to take the Black Manifesto as a guideline and also to make people from the Surinamese and Caribbean communities leading in the measures to be taken. In this way, Simons believes that "sustainable and holistic policies can be put in place to eliminate the life-destroying effects of our shared past."