WHITE INNOCENCE AND COLOR-BLIND RACISM IN THE DUTCH HIRING PROCESS

This inductive qualitative study focused on racism in the Dutch hiring process, using semi-structured interviews. Specifically, it examined how the racial theories color-blind racism and white innocence of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Gloria Wekker, respectively, were present in the Dutch hiring process. The data was collected from 11 interview participants. This study specified the different hiring processes and elaborated how the participants examined the job applicants. Moreover, this study examined how the participants evaluated racism within the Dutch labor market. The results showed that the participants evaluated racism in an individualized form that is present in other people and not in themselves. They were ignorant to the systemic and institutionalized form of racism, and therefore they could push themselves away from any accountability and responsibility. This unawareness/ignorance towards the structure of racism in combination with the ‘innocent’ self-positioning is what I refer to as ‘white hypocrisy’. This can be considered as a combination of the theories of color-blind racism and white innocence.