In White Innocence Gloria Wekker explores a central paradox of Dutch life—the passionate denial of racial discrimination and colonial violence coexisting alongside aggressive racism and xenophobia—to show how the narrative of Dutch racial exceptionalism elides the Netherland's colonial past and safeguards white privilege.

First published in March 2001, this work was the first and only book of its kind in the Dutch intellectual landscape, and it rapidly became a classic for multigenerational audiences with an interest in intersectional theory and praxis. By zooming in on the issues that Black, migrant, and refugee (BMR) women placed on the feminist and multicultural agenda of the late twentieth century, the writers in this volume highlight the exclusionary practices BMR women encountered within Dutch institutio...