Can you believe this week’s cover of Dutch news magazine Elsevier Weekblad?! (“Not a penny more to South Europe”). 3 Nordic blonds running around in their work uniforms, while dark South Europeans drink coffee & wine, play games & music, sunbathe + take selfies. #repugnante.

And no, this is not some kind of crazy obscure alt-right tabloid. According to Wikipedia, it's “the Netherlands' most popular news magazine” with “a circulation of over 68,000 copies as of 2018”. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the readers that agree with this shit are the >

> the same people that frequently fly their privileged white Northern asses to South-Europe on one of their multi-annual holidays to get cheaply served by multi-generational Southerners that work their asses off at the cost of health and family just to be able to survive.

I was alerted to cover by a Portuguese friend who asked me to verify “whether the Dutch really think about us in this way?”. Could I ask people who read this to confirm that this cover does *NOT* represent how “we” (Dutch or other North-Europeans) think?

As Dutch-Portuguese hybrid, I am too often confronted with this stereotype of Northern hard-working protestant morale versus Southern lazy Catholics with their sun & siestas. The stupidity & inaccuracy of this stereotype has always annoyed the hell out of me ever since >

> since I was a teenager visiting Portugal, seeing how e.g. lawyers & doctors would work evenings, or how both parents would work full time, while in the Netherlands it seemed to be the norm to be home before 6 o’clock dinner time & at least one parent works part time.

The false stereotype often manifests as “an innocent joke”, and it would not surprise me if people dismiss this newsmagazine cover as being just that, but we all know how long and persistent institutional racism and sexism can hide underneath supposed harmless humor.

When the stereotype starts poisoning much needed European solidarity and policy in a global health crisis and billions of Euro’s are at stake to save people from starvation… the joke is not so funny anymore.

For those who still think that there is some economy truth to the stereotype, here is just one interesting statistic

Or those who argue they have nothing against South-Europeans but that it is "those governments that are so corrupt" + that we hardworking & hard saving Dutch should not be paying for mistakes of South European governments, perhaps also have a look at this https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/04/08/revealed-netherlands-blocking-eus-covid19-recovery-plan-has-cost-eu-countries-10bn-in-lost-corporate-tax-a-year/