Seen and Not Heard: Examining the repertoires of resistance employed by Moroccan-Dutch boys to escape criminalisation in Kanaleneiland, the Netherlands

Abstract

While previously dismissed as an exclusively American issue, in recent years the unequal policing of ethnic minorities has increasingly been recognised as a European problem too. Indeed, in the Netherlands ethnic profiling has become a matter of serious concern, discussed by television hosts and academics alike. Yet, despite this recognition, collective claim making against the use of ethnic profiling in the Netherlands has been minimal. Responding to Tilly and Tarrow’s call for further research to be undertaken on the ‘oceans of apathy’ found in democratic regimes, this research investigates this contradiction. Based on an ethnographic exploration into the everyday interactions between Moroccan-Dutch boys and the police in Kanaleneiland, this research argues that for the boys in this study, criminalisation has become the norm. This is reasoned as a symptom of the move towards a culture of control. While not resisting this criminalisation through the democratic repertoires outlined in the contentious politics framework, I argue that the boys are not apathetic. Rather, they are angry about the injustices they face, yet lacking faith in their potential to effect political change, they dismiss the repertoires expected to be utilised by citizens living in democratic regimes. Instead, they adopt everyday forms of resistance that bare greater resemblance to resistance found in non-democratic regimes. While this phenomenon may deviate from the contentious politics framework as set out by Tilly and Tarrow, when taking into account the boys’ unequal experiences of the State and, with this, their perceptions of Dutch democracy, it makes perfect sense. I thus argue for the need to reassess and update the contentious politics framework to consider both citizens’ asymmetrical experiences with, and perceptions of, democracy.