Micro-politics and digital identity performativity: third generation Indo identities on social media platforms

Abstract

This thesis analyses the micro-political implications of third generation Indo identity through digital performativity, with the help of three digital case studies: the Facebook page “Indo’s Be Like”, the blog “Gewoon een Indisch Meisje”, and the blog “Hoezo Indo”. In the last decade there seems to be a rise in third generation Indo youth reclaiming their ethnic identity, due to the current socio-political landscape in the Netherlands where there is an increase in awareness concerning racial issues and whiteness. By interviewing three cultural producers, respectively the creators of the digital case studies, and by conducting a social media analysis of said platforms, an answer will be provided to the main question: in how far can digital identification among third generation Indo’s in the Netherlands be considered as a process with micro-political potential? The outcome will show that a multitude of different, highly personal Indo identities are performed as facilitated by the three platforms, making Indo identities translocational as I will argue. On all platforms, Indo identities were constructed which reclaimed their ethnic identity in the form of identifying with ‘non-whiteness’, thus going against the hegemonic Dutch identity. I will furthermore argue for the usage of the term ‘Indo identities’ in plural form, as the singular form does not cover the complexities and the execution of individual autonomy when performing identity.