NICK SCHUERMANS

Afdeling Sociale en Economische Geografie

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)

Nick.Schuermans@ees.kuleuven.be

Celestijnenlaan 200E

B-3001 Heverlee

Belgium

Geography textbooks and the reproduction of a racis t and ethnocentric world view among young people in Fland ers

Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the A.A.G.

Las Vegas, 22-27/03/2008.

Draft only. Please do not cite without permission.

Comments are more than welcome.

Abstract The final attainment levels of Flemish secondary geography education

stress the importance of respect for other societies and the specific way of life of

other people. As a consequence, contemporary curricula focus more than ever on

topics such as the global north-south divide, migrations and the multicultural city.

Drawing on the analysis of about fifty Flemish geography textbooks, this paper

critically addresses the way in which these topics are presented. The study reveals,

in the first place, that an emphasis on racial differences has been largely replaced by

a focus on cultural differences. The representation of these cultural differences is,

however, very polarized and appeals only to students with Flemish roots. Conflicts

between autochthons and allochthons are, for instance, said to be unavoidable

because of the concentration of foreigners in cities, their different way of life and their

different culture. Because of the strong focus on cultural otherness, the one-sided

explanation of cultural conflicts and the manifest silence on discrimination and

xenophobia, it has to be concluded that the textbooks reproduce the racist and

ethnocentric world view of young people in Flanders.

Keywords : Textbooks, Diversity, Racism, Whiteness, Flanders

Acknowledgements My PhD research on fear of crime in suburban Antwerp and

Cape Town is funded by a PhD grant of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation

through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen). I would like to thank

Maarten Loopmans, Henk Meert, Bruno Meeus, Etienne Van Hecke and Dirk

Vanderhallen for their comments on earlier versions of this paper published in Dutch

in Agora (2007) and de Aardrijkskunde (2007).

"The presence of too many foreigners threatens my way of life" (in %)

25.7

38.8

56.8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Vlaanderen

Wallonie

Canada

"I have no trust at all in people of a different ethnicity" (in %)

6.9

22.3

41

0 10 20 30 40 50

Vlaanderen

Wallonie

Canada

1. Introduction and scope

International comparative studies conclude that the Flemish youth is on average

more racist and ethnocentric than their peers in other European countries (Claes et

al., 2006). Survey research demonstrates that young people in the Flemish speaking

north of Belgium are more intolerant of foreigners than their compatriots of the same

age group in the French speaking south of the country or youngsters in Canada. In

Flanders, more than fifty per cent of the 16 and 17 year olds consider the presence of

too many foreigners as a threat to their way of life. As much as 41 per cent of the

Flemish youth has no trust at all in people of a different ethnicity. In Canada or the

French speaking Walloon provinces of Belgium, this amounts to only 7 or 22 per cent

respectively (figure 1, Claes et al., 2006; Heremans, 2006).

Figure 1: Ethnocentrism in Flanders: Affirmative answers to two questions related to

ethnocentrism among 16 to 17 year olds in Flanders, Wallonia and Canada (Claes et

al., 2006; Heremans, 2006)

This distrust is not the result of long-standing relationships between authochthonous

and allochthonous students. Flemisch schools are still strongly segregated along

socio-economic and ethnic lines (Peleman, 1997; Dronkers & Levels, 2007; Jenkins

et al., 2008). As such, it should not come as a surprise that as much as two third of

the young people in Flanders do not have a single friend from another ethnic

background (Claes et al., 2006). Because of this, the information they get from

indirect sources is crucial for their representation of ethnic minorities (Spruyt, 2008).

Recent studies show, however, that the news coverage of Western media dealing

with ethnic minorities, and with Muslims in particular, is skewed and inaccurate. The

fact that even immigrants with a Belgian passport are still discriminated sparks less

media attention than the gratuitous allegations of extreme right politicians about the

public security in neighbourhoods and cities with concentrations of Muslim believers.

Media researchers conclude that newspapers and other news sources still portray

allochthons, and Muslims in particular, as backward, irrational, fanatical and

dangerous (Shadid, 2005; Essed & Trienekens, 2007).

I think it would be unjust, however, to blame the ethnocentrism of young people in

Flanders on the one-sided media coverage or the propaganda of extreme right

parties alone. It is not only the responsibility of a select number of journalists and

politicians to fight xenophobia and discrimination. Flemish policymakers in the field of

education have clearly understood that young adolescents do not only use

newspapers, television shows or political pamphlets to build up their world view. It

goes without saying, indeed, that they also learn about other countries, cultures and

people at school, in geography lessons in particular. That is why the final attainment

levels of Flemish secondary geography education stress the importance of respect

for other societies and the specific way of life of other people. Contemporary curricula

focus more than ever on topics such as the global north-south divide, migrations and

the multicultural city.

Drawing on the work of Edouard Vincke in Wallonia (1985, 1986) and Ineke Mok in

the Netherlands (1995, 1999), I will critically examine the way in which these topics

have been addressed in Flanders (Belgium). Starting from a qualitative analysis of

about fifty geography textbooks, I will try to answer the question whether historical

and contemporary textbooks reproduce the racist and ethnocentric world view of

young Flemish people or not. In the next part of this paper, I will do this for the racial

classifications of the colonial era (1908-1960). Afterwards, I will discuss the cultural

classifications of the post-colonial era (1960-2009). In the conclusion, I will suggest

three different strategies to address the strong focus on cultural otherness, the one-

sided explanation of cultural conflicts and the manifest silence on discrimination and

xenophobia.

2. Colonialism and racial classifications

The division of humanity in different races was a self-evident component of most

Flemish geography textbooks from the first half of the twentieth century. The typical

classification at that time rested on anthropometry and physical appearance. Based

on skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, height and skull shape, most authors defined

three main races which were further subdivided into sub-races. Just like biologists

distinguished between white oaks and red oaks, anthropologists searched

meticulously for varieties and types within the white race, the yellow race and the

black race. It was popular, for example, to classify the white Europeans in three main

varieties: the Nordic variety, the Mediterranean variety and the Alpine variety (Halkin,

1937, p; 49). In Belgium, handbooks traditionally made a distinction between two

anthropological types. Obviously, it was the linguistic border between Flanders and

Wallonia that separated the “blonde families” in the Flemish speaking north of the

country and the “brown families” in the French speaking south (Roland, 1896, p; 42;

Halkin, 1927, p; 24). Nevertheless, the classification of humanity in three different

races always got the most attention. Pictures, maps (figure 3) or drawings (figure 2)

illustrated the lengthy descriptions of the three races, as exemplified below:

Figure 2: The classification of humanity in three races (De Procure, +/- 1950, p. 41)

‘1.) The white race, which we belong to, has a white skin, usually wavy and curly hair

and a strong beard. It has produced a lot of scholars, which we have to thank for their

great inventions: the art of printing, telegraphy, railways, steamers, airplanes. It

inhabits Europe, America, the western part of Asia and North-Africa.

2.) The yellow race includes all people with a yellow skin colour. They have a flat

forehead, slit-eyes and little beard. They are very active and very patient. Their

clothing and their houses differ completely from ours. The yellow race mainly inhabits

Central and East Asia.

3.) The black race, or Negro race, has a black skin, thick lips, frizzy hair, but little

beard. The Negros are generally less active than the other races. Because they live

in warm countries, they wear few clothes. They live in huts. The black race populates

Central and Southern Africa and a part of Oceania and America.’

(De Procure, +/- 1950, p. 41)

Figure 3: The geographical distribution of the races (De Procure, +/- 1950, p. 48)

Reading this quote nowadays, it is striking that it does not only present a triple

classification of the inhabitants of the earth, but also a profile of the different races. It

shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, though, that the authors wrote about the skin

color, the thickness of the lips or the growth of beard (apparently women did not

count), as these physical characteristics are inherent in an anthropometric

interpretation of the racial doctrine. It is surprising, however, that, even after the

Second World War, psychological characteristics are attributed to the different races.

The textbooks write, for example, that the white race has produced a lot of scholars,

that yellow people are very active and very patient and that black people are

generally less active than the rest of the world population. The accompanying

illustration speaks for itself as well (figure 2). The white man is wearing a suit, the

yellow man a colorless shirt and the black man a straw skirt. The white man has got

the time to admire a bird’s-eye view of his town, while the yellow man is busy trading

and the black man is trying to meet the most elementary human needs: hunting,

picking and eating. The drawing shows, in addition, that white people live in orderly

cities with cathedrals and grand mansions, while the yellow and black people have to

survive in chaotic, overpopulated streets with wooden houses and in tiny clay huts in

the middle of the jungle. The conclusion of the students is rather predictable: the

white race is the most civilized; all other races are relegated to lower rungs on the

ladder of civilization. Up to 1960, this idea was shamelessly propagated by the

textbooks themselves:

‘Nowhere on earth lives a race which equals the intelligence and the ingenuity of the

white’” (Heylen, 1922, p. 231)

‘Of all human races, the white race is the most civilized’ (Roland, 1896, p. 279)

Without doubt, these statements had a political agenda. The classification of

humanity in three different races justified the European colonization of Africa. The

stereotypical description of the Congolese in most Flemish handbooks had to proof,

for example, that the Belgian colonization of Congo was not just desirable, but also

possible (Vincke, 1991, p. 65). If the white race was the most civilized indeed, and

the black race the least, than it was the moral obligation of the members of the white

race to introduce civilization in Africa, wasn’t it? If the Congolese were so

underdeveloped, according to the quote below, that they could not invent or improve

things, than it was the duty of a developed nation like Belgium to link up with them,

right? In the end, the colonization of the black races would be successful anyway,

because they had the precious talent that they could quickly imitate what they had

seen demonstrated, wouldn’t it? And if the Congolese were born traders indeed, as

the textbook literally said, than it was justified to plunder the country of all its mineral

wealth in return for some cheap clothes, wasn’t it?:

“1. The Negros are underdeveloped. They are caught in old habits. They cannot

invent or improve things. For centuries, there have been skilful smiths, experienced

potters and fine braiders in Congo. The population remains crazy about simple music

and savage dancing, for which uncomplicated playthings like gong, tam-tam and all

sorts of drums made from tree trunks are used. The Negro never had any exercise,

nor has he linked up with more developed nations. He has not used written books.

That is why he has stayed very much behind. His memory is short, except for normal

things. His imagination is strong and jumps into exaggeration easily. His intellect

declines fast with the years.

2. The Negro is a born trader, gifted with the best exchanging and selling skills. He

likes to travel to far-away public markets to sell something or to buy the essential

clothing items.

3. In addition, he has the precious talent they he can quickly imitate what he has

seen demonstrated. He learns all sorts of crafts easily and becomes gradually

amenable to higher civilization.” (Heylen & Sieben, 1939)

It would be a lie to say that nothing has changed since 1960. The holocaust and the

decolonization made the racial classifications undesirable and unnecessary. Because

of the holocaust, terms like the Jewish race or the Nordic variety became simply

unacceptable. Now that most African countries had been decolonized, it was also

less essential to invoke the superiority of the white race to justify the colonial project.

As a consequence, there is not a single handbook maintaining nowadays that black

people cannot invent or improve things, that they are the least civilized and that they

are lazy. In stead of writing about the ‘simple music’ and the ‘uncomplicated

playthings like gong, tam-tam and all sorts of drums’ (cfr. supra), textbooks now

elaborate on the ‘originality of the instrumentation’ of African musicians (Geogenie 3

& 4 ASO, 2002, p. 33). The fascination for the bodily markers of race seems to be

over as well. The attention that a textbook in 1982 called to the skin color, the hair,

the nose, the lips and the skull shape of a group of photographed Bantu children,

meanwhile, seems to be a scandalous relict from a shameful past (figure 4).

Figure 4: “The Bantu children looking at you from figure 9 with mixed feelings, have

some characteristics in common: the skin colour? The hair? The nose? The lips? The

skull shape?” (Debulpaep, De Roeck & Tilmont, 1982, p. 17)

Nevertheless, all elements of the racial doctrine have not disappeared completely.

The teaching material is still referring to the white race, the yellow race, the black

race and different mixed races, especially in the portrayal of societies outside of

Europe. Racial characteristics still play an important part in the description of Latin

America, for instance (figures 5 and 6):

“The European colonists intermingled with the Indians and the imported Negro slaves

so that Latin America is characterized by a large group of mixed races: Mestizos

(European x Indian), Mulattos (European x African), Zambos (Indian x African)”

(Werelddelen 4, 1997, p. 120

Figures 5 (left): “Mullatos, mestizos and zambos: cross-breeds” (Melkebeke & De

Meyer, 1978, p. 36)

Figure 6 (right): “The distribution of races and languages in Latin-America”

(Werelddelen 4, 1997, p. 121)

I believe that it is not advisable, however, to discuss such biological aspects of

supposed racial divisions in geography textbooks. The terminology stems from an era

when social scientists were limited to the determination of the skin color and the

measurement of the skull shape (Houzé, 1882). The present use of these

anthropometric classifications thus ignores all scientific progress in the field of

genetics and comes down to the acceptance and reproduction of racist ideas of

nineteenth century anthropologists. As such, I agree with Vincke (1991, p. 70) that

school geography should catch up with the progress made in biochemistry, as it is

being taught in other classes. Textbooks have to demonstrate, indeed, that it is

impossible to classify humanity in a limited number of pure and unchanging races,

sub-races and mixed-races. If we really want to classify people in the twenty-first

century, we should not rest the divisions on anthropometry and physical appearance,

but on genes and genomes. It is clear, however, that the genetic variability between

people cannot be reduced to a limited number of races (Reardon, 2004). Genetically,

there are differences between people, but these have to be seen as differences

between individuals, and not between groups of individuals (figure 7). The conclusion

is thus blatantly obvious according to a thirty year old geography textbook (!):

“Biochemical research strongly relativizes the meaning of anthropometric

classifications and the importance that can be attached to them from a scientific

perspective” (Debulpaep et al., 1977, p. 25)

Figure 7: “Average number of different nucleotide pairs in the DNA as a consequence

of mutations: a.) between parents and their children; b.) between two random people

of the same sub-race; c.) between two random people of two different sub-races”

(Debulpaep et al., 1977, p. 25)

3. Multiculturalism and cultural classifications

3.1. ‘Our’ culture and ‘the other’ culture

Because of this conclusion and the immigration of guest workers from countries like

Turkey and Morocco, cultural traits such as religion or language came to the fore.

That is why the focus of the geography textbooks partially shifted from supposed

racial differences to cultural differences. For the manuals, the arrival of immigrant

workers did not create a multiracial society, but a multicultural one (according to the

classical racial classifications, Berbers, Arabs and Turks were whites anyway). This

multiculturalism has, however, been silenced in geography lessons for a long time.

Even in the 1980’s, textbooks were published without any reference to immigrants

(Vincke, 1985, p. 105). Contemporary curricula, however, focus more than ever on

topics such as the global north-south divide, migrations and the multicultural city. In

this section, we will critically analyze the new teaching material, starting from two

quotes:

1.) ‘Recently, we can find cultural elements in our urban landscapes which are a bit

strange to us: inscriptions which we do not understand and buildings whose function

we do not know well. In some neighborhoods, we encounter people with their own

neighborhood life. We can tell this from the people themselves (costumes, language,

social life, religion) and from the shops and services (groceries, bakeries, butcheries

and cafés)’ (Geogenie 1 & 2, 1999, p. 73)

2.) ‘In the streets of mainly urban municipalities, the migrants from Morocco and

Turkey catch our eye. In some city quarters of our big cities these migrants catch our

eye because of their different culture, which rests on Islam, as revealed sometimes in

a different costume and different customs than we have. Their different culture can

count on the respect of the Flemish youth’ (Wereldvisie 1, 1998, p. 65)

It is only too obvious that both quotes focus on the visual otherness of the migrants.

The two textbooks point, for example, to ‘different’ customs and ‘different’ costumes

and use words like ‘strange’ and ‘catch our eye’ to stress this. The shameless

fascination for the bodily otherness of other races (figure 4) seems to be replaced, in

this way, by a determination of characteristics that are visibly connected to the body

too. In both textbooks, the students are encouraged to gather the cultural differences

straight from the body, from the language people speak or the clothes they wear

(figure 8).

Figure 8: “Ethnic neighbourhood in the north east of Paris” (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p.

49)

This bodily otherness, the student learns, is part of a larger dichotomy between ‘us’

and ‘them’, between ‘our culture’ and ‘their different culture’. Both quotations present

a polarized representation of cultural relations in which ‘they’ and ‘them’ are the direct

opposites of ‘we’ and ‘us’ and in which ‘different customs’ cannot be identified with

‘ours’ (cfr. Mok, 1999, p. 348). In this way, the students must get the impression that

there are two main cultures in Flanders: ‘our’ culture and ‘their’ culture. In the way of

thinking of the textbooks, there is no cross-fertilization between cultures, just as there

was no intermingling between different races in the racial doctrine. In the line of the

textbooks, you are born in one culture and you will die in the same culture. Nobody

lives in between two cultures.

Figure 9: GEO 3 ASO, 2001, p. 6

This polarisation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘our’ culture’ and ‘their culture’ is further

deepened by a spatial component in the division of the world in cultural regions

(figure 9). Such a cultural region is defined as a ‘part of a continent in which the way

of life, the development and the culture are more or less the same’ (GEO 3 ASO,

2001, p. 6). ‘Between these cultural regions, the cultural elements are much different’

(GEO 3 ASO, 2001, p. 6). The textbooks mark out about eight cultural regions:

Anglo-Saxon America, Latin America, Europe, the Islamic World, Black Africa,

Russia, South-East Asia and Oceania. That explains why Turks and Moroccans are

said to ‘catch our eye because of their different culture’, while the migrants from Italy,

Spain or Greece don’t: Morocco and (most of) Turkey are part of another cultural

region, but Italy, Spain and Greece aren’t.

It has to be noted that this approach excludes students because words like ‘we’ and

‘us’ do not apply on all classmates, but only on those students that have been living

in Flanders (or in Europe) all their lives together with their parents and grandparents.

Just like the exclusive we-perspective in the old textbooks (‘the white race, which we

belong to’; cfr. supra), the current teaching methods stigmatize people with an

immigrant background because of their supposed ‘strangeness’ and ‘otherness’. After

all, for quite a lot of students some of these ‘different customs’ might not be that

‘strange’ at all. They might know the function of some of the buildings the textbooks

refer to, they might go to the groceries, bakeries and butcheries that they write about

and they might be able to read some of the inscriptions mentioned in the books. By

saying that these buildings, shops and inscriptions are ‘strange’ and ‘different’ than

‘ours’, the textbooks do not speak to allochthonous students at all. In order to involve

them in the classes, it will thus be necessary to drop the exclusive we-perspective

(Mok, 1995, p. 28).

3.2. ‘Migrant neighbourhoods’ and ‘neighbourhoods o f autochthons’

A second spatial aspect of the same dichotomy can be found at the scale of the city.

For the textbooks, multiculturalism is only an urban phenomenon. It is discussed

under headings such as ‘Brussels, multicultural capital’ (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p. 44)

or ‘ethnic and social differences in large cities’ (GEO 2, 1998, p; 44). The two

citations quoted above placed the ‘cultural elements’ ‘which are a bit strange to us’

also ‘in the streets of mainly urban municipalities’ (Wereldvisie 1, 1998, p. 65) and ‘in

our urban landscapes’ (Geogenie 1 & 2, 1999, p. 73). Within the cities, the textbooks

discuss an ‘ethnic neighbourhood’ (figure 8), a ‘guest workers’ neighbourhood in

Brussels’ (figure 10), ‘living neighbourhoods for migrants’ (figure 11) and ‘working

class neighbourhoods of autochthons’ (Geogenie 1 & 2, 1999, p; 85).

Figure 10 (left): ‘Guest workers’ neighbourhood in Brussels’ (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p.

52)

Figure 11 (right): ‘Living neighbourhoods for migrants’ (Geogenie 1 & 2, 1999, p. 84)

This approach is not only problematic because it distorts the truth – there is no

neighbourhoods in Brussels or Antwerp where only autochthons or allochthons live

(Kesteloot, 2006) – but also because it confines multiculturalism to (a limited number

of neighbourhoods in) cities. In the textbooks, Brussels and Antwerp are multicultural

cities, indeed, but Belgium as such is not represented as a multicultural country.

Despite the policy to disperse asylum seekers (Blommaert et al., 2003) and despite

the migration of poor Moroccan and Turkish households into inexpensive houses

outside the cities (Kesteloot, 2006; Van Criekingen, 2006), the countryside is still

depicted as a completely monocultural area (cfr. Schuermans & De Maesschalck,

2007). As such, students from rural and suburban municipalities are not encouraged

to contribute to a multicultural and tolerant society. For them multiculturalism is only

relevant in the cities, not in the countryside. The simplified dichotomy between the

white countryside and ‘neighbourhoods of autochthons’ on the one hand, and

multicultural cities and ‘neighbourhoods for migrants’ on the other hand, thus

prevents them from seeing a more nuanced reality. This would show them that they

also have a responsibility in bringing about a better society.

3.3. From Yugoslavia to Borgerhout: The clash of cu ltures

The textbooks call places where autochthons and allochthons live together notorious

for conflicts. These conflicts are often attributed to cultural differences between two or

more communities. One textbook compared the situation in Belgium with war-ruined

Yugoslavia, ‘where people with a different language, culture and religion live together

in one country’ (GEO 2, 1998, p. 44). ‘If communities with a different language or

culture are living in the same country’, the textbook continues, ‘this can cause

conflicts’ (GEO 2, 1998, p. 44). Not only in Yugoslavia, but also in Brussels, people

with different cultures live together. According to the logic of Samuel Huntington

(1996)’s clash of civilizations, which is followed in the textbooks, this means that

conflicts can be expected in the Belgian capital as well. In this context, the teaching

material stresses, however, that it is crucial to distinguish between two groups of

people: ‘On the one hand, the immigrants from our neighbouring countries. Because

of their language, prosperity and way of life they differ little from most autochthons

and they do not catch the eye. On the other hand, Moroccans and Turks, joined by

some immigrants from Eastern- and Southern-Europe. Because of their different way

of life, language and culture, they come into conflict situations with the Belgians

sometimes’ (GEO 2, 1998, p. 44). Other textbooks confirm the proposition that it is

difficult to live together with Turks and Moroccans because they have a different

culture: ‘Under which circumstances can young people come into conflict with other

neighbourhood dwellers?’. The answer: ‘Especially in places where cultural

differences go hand in hand with less wealth, can tensions between allochthons and

authochthons arise’ (Geogenie 1 & 2, 1999, p. 85-87).

Some textbooks even insinuate that tensions and conflicts do not have their roots in

the cultural differences themselves, but in the presence of foreigners as such: “In

Brussels there are serious problems because of the large number of foreigners (…).

The concentration of Moroccans in Borgerhout brings about tensions with the

autochthonous population in Antwerp too” (Algemene Aardrijkskunde 5, 1994, p.

119). Another textbook sites the news magazine Knack, but comes to the same

conclusion: [During a shoot-out and subsequent protests of young immigrants], ‘the

underlying problems of the neighbourhood reappeared again. More than 60 per cent

of the residents are immigrants. As much as 38 nationalities can be counted, among

them numerous African refugees’ (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p. 52).

It has to be said that most textbooks consider other explanations as well, such as an

unsuccessful youth policy, the degradation of the built environment and housing

problems: ‘The bad living conditions and the high unemployment in these

neighbourhoods bring about tensions’ (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p. 52). Or: ‘In districts

with a lot of foreigners, conflicts can arise between immigrants and people from the

host country. (…) The key problem is that immigrants belong to the less well-off

section of the population” (standard Aardrijkskunde 3, 1995, p. 36).

Despite these references to living conditions, job insecurity and poverty, the general

message of the textbooks is clear: conflicts between autochthons and allochthons

are unavoidable and can be blamed on the large numbers of foreigners in cities, the

concentrations of Moroccans and Turks in certain neighbourhoods, ‘their’ different

culture, ‘their’ different languages, ‘their’ unemployment and ‘their’ poverty. For that

reason, it is no wonder that as much as 41 per cent of the Flemish youth has no trust

at all in people of a different ethnicity (figure 1, Heremans, 2006). Even for their

geography textbooks, the presence of foreigners is enough to expect conflicts.

4. Discussion and conclusion

The second section of this paper demonstrated that teaching material paid a lot of

attention to race in the past. Before the decolonization of Africa, the division of

humanity in different races was a self-evident component of most Flemish geography

textbooks. Most of them did not only present a triple classification of the inhabitants

of the earth, but also a psychological profile of the different races. A teacher stating

today that Africans are lazy and that Flemings and Walloons differ in skull shape, skin

colour and mentality would be sued for racism, however, and justifiably so. After all,

the racial doctrine stems from an era when social scientists were limited to the

determination of colours and the measurement of the skull shape. In the meanwhile,

it is clear, however, that there are genetic differences between people, indeed, but

that these have to be seen as differences between individuals, and not between

groups of individuals. Because the genetic variability of the world population cannot

be reduced to a limited number of races, it is my contention that the textbooks have

to remove all references to the biological meaning of race and replace it with a

refutation of the racial classifications based on the arguments of genetics and

biochemistry, as taught in other classes.

From the 1960’s, the attention for the racial doctrine dwindled, however. It is true that

references to race have never disappeared completely from the textbooks, but a new

focus on cultural elements like language, clothing and religion has replaced the

anthropometric classifications for the greater part. At first sight, this shift from race to

culture has to be applauded, but on closer inspection the cultural classifications are

as problematic as the racial ones. In the third section of this paper, we showed,

indeed, that the textbooks still impose an essentialist and polarized world view upon

the students (cfr; Kesteloot & Saey, 1981 & Peleman, 1998). In this world view,

Flemings and Moroccans or Turks living in Flanders are so different that they wear

different clothes, speak different languages and live in different neighbourhoods. The

Flemings live in the countryside or in ‘neighbourhoods of autochthons’; the Turks and

Moroccans in ‘migrant neighbourhoods’ in cities. Problems and conflicts in these

neighbourhoods are attributed to the concentration of allochthons, ‘their’ different way

of life, ‘their’ different language and ‘their’ different culture (cfr. supra). As such, the

current textbooks impose a worldview upon students that is not only polarized and

essentialist, but also narrow-minded and ethnocentric.

In the remainder of this section, I hope to show the reader that alternative teaching

material could, however, also challenge the racist and ethnocentric world view of

young people. Textbooks could encourage students, for example, to realize that

many apparently opposite terms, like black and white or autochthon and allochthon,

are actually closely intertwined. Furthermore, they could stimulate students to

understand that concepts like ‘white’, ‘European’ or ‘Islamic’, which seem neutral and

natural at first sight, do not have the same meaning everywhere and carry a history of

inclusion and exclusion. And while the current teaching material never confronts the

young readers with the pernicious consequences of their own stereotypes and

prejudices, I believe it is crucial to touch on themes like xenophobia, racism and

discrimination. By addressing non-essentialism, social constructivism and

discrimination in a theoretical and practical way, I hope this last section adds to

debates around the non-racist and non-ethnocentric geography education of the

future.

4.1. Non-essentialism

Starting with non-essentialism, it is important to note that we have demonstrated in

the third section of this paper that current textbooks present a bicultural society in

which ‘our’ culture is completely different from ‘their’ culture, in which ‘they’ and

‘them’ are the direct opposites of ‘we’ and ‘us’, in which ‘different customs’ cannot be

identified with ‘ours’ and in which ‘neighbourhoods of autochthons’ border ‘migrant

neighbourhoods’. Just like the racial classifications wrongly suggested that it is

possible to classify humanity in a limited number of pure and unchanging races

(figure 12), the division of the world in cultural regions implies that there is a limited

number of isolated and independent cultures (figure 13). And just like there was no

intermingling between different races in the racial classifications, there is no room for

cross-fertilization between cultures in the new division.

Figure 12: Essentialist categorization of race

For at least two reasons, such a polarized representation of cultural relations needs

to be refined. First of all, the definition of culture given by the textbooks is too static. It

does not leave any room for endogenous variations or exogenous changes. In the

line of the textbooks, everybody is born in one culture and dies in the same

monolithic culture. To understand the contemporary cultural relations and

hybridizations, it is, however, critical that, at any given moment, cultures are the

result of contact and exchange with other cultures. In practice, it is hard to imagine,

for example, that Muslims living in Belgium would not be influenced by the Flemish,

Belgian or European culture of the original host society, and vice versa. Secondly, it

is problematic that the dichotomous and over-generalized conceptualization of culture

denies the differences within the various cultures or cultural regions. Turks and

Moroccans are lumped together, for example, while the difference between Berbers

and Arabs is not even mentioned. In the same way, the division of the world in

cultural regions does not only overlook, for example, the million people who are not

Muslim in the so-called Islamic World (like the Jews in Israel, the Copts in Egypt or

the Christians in Sudan), but also the millions of Muslims in Indonesia, Bangladesh or

India.

Figure 13: Essentialist categorization of culture

It is my contention that anti-racist education cannot be based on such an essentialist

division of the world population in a limited number of invariable and fixed monolithic

cultures. In stead, students need to be confronted with a more complex and more

nuanced conceptualization of social differences that leaves room for dynamics,

variations and contradictions. Just like the description of the Congolese in old

geography textbooks could easily degenerate into racist clichés justifying the

colonization of Africa, there is a risk that the generalizations offered today might slip

into platitudes and stereotypes legitimizing racist and ethnocentric attitudes. As such,

we need to get rid of simplified classifications of human diversity based on race or

culture, and adapt a more subtle, non-essentialist view of the world (May, 1999;

Fuller, 2002).

4.2. Social constructivism

One way to accomplish this would be to focus more on the social construction of the

categories used in the textbooks (Larochelle et al., 1998). Race, for example, has a

long, and often painful, history in geography, but its conceptualization has moved

from a biological essence to a socially constructed category (Bonnett, 1996). Jackson

and Penrose (1993, p. 3) noted, for instance, that “many of the categories that we

have come to consider ‘natural’ and hence immutable, can be more accurately (and

more usefully) viewed as the product of processes which are embedded in human

actions and choices”. For geographers, these categories do not only include race, but

also cultural identities at different spatial scales (Natter & Jones, 1997; Sundstrom,

2003).

It is my contention that it is necessary to teach secondary school students the

fundamentals of social constructivism. Despite the apparent complexity, I am even

convinced that teachers will not need any extra teaching material to do so. They just

have to force their students to reflect more upon the existing material. If we look at

the way current textbooks present the racial and ethnic composition of the population

in Latin-America and in the United States, it should be obvious, for example, that

these are not natural classifications. In Latin-America, the classification is

characterized by a division in three races and three mixed races (cfr. supra; figures 5

and 6). In the United States, it is a simplified version of the categories from the official

government statistics, summarizing the ethnic and racial diversity in 5 different

groups: blacks, Indians and Eskimos, Asians and Polynesians, Hispanics and other

whites (figures 14 and 15; Werelddelen 4, 1997, p. 75).

Figure 14 (left): Composition of the population of the USA in ethnic groups or races

(Wereldvisie 4 ASO, 2002, p. 108)

Figure 15 (right): Composition of the population of the USA in ethnic groups or races

(Werelddelen 4, 1997, p. 75)

Thoughtful students should notice two things. First of all, it is strange that the

immigrated whites, blacks and Indians from Latin-America cannot be added to the

whites, blacks and Indians living in the United States already. Whether they are

white, black or Indian according to the Latin-American classification actually does not

seem to matter. Once they have crossed the Rio Grande, they are Hispanics

anyhow. Secondly, it is remarkable that these Hispanics are considered to be whites:

‘The Hispanics are the Spanish speaking immigrants from Latin-America. They are

mainly whites’ (Wereldvisie 4 ASO, 2002, p; 108). According to figure 6, however,

only a small fraction of the Latin American population is white. As such, it becomes

clear that genetic characteristics do not determine someone’s supposed race.

Working through such an example, students learn that human classifications are not

immutable representations of a given reality, but the product of human thought (cfr.

Jackson & Penrose, 1993).

4.3. Raising awareness of discrimination

This example makes clear, in addition, that even though race and ethnicity are said to

be social constructs without a biological meaning, their social significance cannot be

denied. The fact that a small group of self-proclaimed whites can distance itself from

a much larger group of so-called Mestizos and Indians in Latin-America, points, for

example, to the highly unequal power relations in these societies (De la Torre, 1999;

Vargas, 2004). Likewise, the tension between including and excluding Hispanics in

the privileged position of American whiteness uncovers the discord between

integration into the encompassing American identity on the one hand and a

confirmation of the discriminatory logic of the black-white dualism on the other hand

(Warren and Twine, 1997).

Flemish geography textbooks pay quite a lot of attention to the discrimination of

Hispanics and African Americans in America. According to one textbook, “there is still

racial discrimination [in the United States] and social inequalities remain high”

(Wereldvisie 4 ASO, 2002, p. 110). Similar issues in Flanders are, however, not

discussed (cfr. Carignan et al., 2005, p. 391). As we have seen above, conflicts

between autochthons and allochthons are attributed, for example, to the

concentrations of Moroccans and Turks in certain urban neighbourhoods and ‘their’

different culture (cfr. supra). Nowhere, they are blamed on ‘our’ intolerance, ‘our’

xenophobia or ‘our’ racism, not even partially. Flemish geography textbooks even

claim that ‘their different culture can count on the respect of the Flemish youth’

(Wereldvisie 1, 1998, p. 65).

.

In their discussion of the high ethnic and racial segregation in Flanders, the textbooks

use verbs like ‘end up’, ‘take up’ and ‘attract’ to explain why allochthons are

concentrated in the poorest neighbourhoods of Belgian cities: ‘The guest workers

from Turkey and the Maghreb countries ended up in the central districts and along

the former industrial axis characterized by its dated houses’ (Wereldvisie 2, 1998, p.

52); ‘The comfort they offer does not attract the Belgian population so that these

houses are consistently taken up by foreigners, guest workers in particular’

(Wereldvisie 5-6 ASO, 2004, p. 27); ‘The unoccupied and old houses attract

foreigners and poor people’ (figure 12; Wereldvisie 5-6 ASO, 2004, p. 28).

Figure 16: ‘Decay and poverty in poor neighbourhoods’ (Wereldvisie 5-6 ASO, 2004,

p. 28

Verbs like end up, take up and attract, however, disguise the inconvenient truth.

Allochthons do not consciously opt for those neighbourhoods with the worst living

conditions. They are forced to move into the cheapest, most disadvantaged

neighbourhoods because of their poverty (Kesteloot & Van der Haegen, 1997). Only

one textbook discusses the housing problems from this perspective. It writes that ‘the

socio-economic status in particular (…) determines the place population groups can

or have to occupy’ (Algemene Aardrijkskunde 6, 2003, p. 119). [Because of the

revitalisation of the city centre, ‘quite a lot of poor families are forced to move to the

poorest neighbourhoods in the city. A lot of allochthonous families are in this

situation’ (Algemene Aardrijkskunde 6, 2003, p. 120). Most other textbooks consider

discrimination in the housing market only to be an issue in other countries, the United

States especially: ‘Because of the arrival of ethnic minorities in Harlem, the white

inhabitants did not want to live in the north-eastern part of Manhattan anymore and

they moved. The minority groups, for their part, are not welcome in other

neighbourhoods. People, for example, refuse to rent their houses in other

neighbourhoods’ (Werelddelen 4, 1997, p. 117).

It is problematic that the textbooks silence discrimination and xenophobia in

Flanders, while projecting it on other countries. Just like the confinement of

multiculturalism to cities prevents rural and suburban students from seeing that they

also have a task in the creation of a truly tolerant society (cfr. supra), writing that

some Flemish do not want to rent their houses to foreigners would make classes less

racist and ethnocentric. If so-called allochthons are supposed to be integrated in the

Flemish society, we cannot accept, indeed, that autochthons do not know about the

repercussions of their own stigmatizing and stereotyping. Integration will not be

achieved, for example, if allochthons do their best to get a job, while autochthons do

not want to employ them. This means that an element of self-examination is required

to understand both sides of the discrimination medal (Sleeter, 1996, p. 147 in Cicetti-

Turro, 2007). It is true that getting an awareness of racism and ethnocentrism is

extremely difficult from the privileged position of whiteness that most teachers and

students hold, but I am convinced that it is necessary to be confronted with one’s own

stereotypes in order to appreciate that the making of a multicultural society requires

an effort from autochthonous Belgians too (cfr. Howard & Denning, 2000)

Recapitulating, it has to be concluded that the current Flemish geography textbooks

reproduce the racist and ethnocentric world view of young people in Flanders.

Because of the strong focus on cultural otherness, the one-sided explanation of

cultural conflicts and the manifest silence on discrimination and xenophobia, the

textbooks do not only talk the students into a negative image of cities, but also into

an implicit approval of their own racist stereotypes. For this reason, I would like to

end this paper by calling on academics to explicitly engage in primary and secondary

geography education. For too long, university level geographers have withdrawn from

active involvement in the teaching of geography in primary and secondary schools

(Bonnett, 2003). It is not only allochthonous and autochthonous youngsters that have

to create a tolerant society, however. This paper has clearly demonstrated that

academics can develop educational strategies to combat racism and xenophobia too.

5. References

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De Meyer, I., Pauly, J., Van de Poele, L. (2004), Leren voor de problemen van

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5.2. Geography textbooks 1906-1985

Debulpaep, C., De Roeck, M., De Jaeger, R., Tilmont, J. (1977), Taken-

aardrijkskunde 5, Sociale geografie, Wesmael-Charlier, Namen

Debulpaep, C., De Roeck, M., Tilmont, J. (1982), Taken-aardrijkskunde 2, De wereld

waarin je leeft, Ad. Wesmael-Charlier, Namen

De Procure (± 1950), Atlas Leerboek Aardrijkskunde, Door kaart en beeld voor de

tweede graad, De Procure, Brussel, Namen

Halkin, J. (1927), Leerboek van aardrijkskunde, Derde deel: Aardrijkskunde van

België, Grondbeginselen van Cosmographie, Ad. Wesmael-Charlier, Namen

Halkin, J. (1937), Leerboek van aardrijkskunde, Ad. Wesmael-Charlier, Namen

Heylen, L. (1922), Aardrijkskunde van Europa, Joz. Van In & C°, Lier

Heylen, L. (1935), Algemeene Aardrijkskunde, Joz. Van In & C°, Lier

Heylen, L. & Sieben, A. (1939), Belgisch Congo, Joz. Van In & C°, Lier

Melkebeke, W., De Meyer, L. (1978), ’n Kijk op de werelddelen 3, Standaard

Uitgeverij, Antwerpen, Amsterdam

Roland, J. (1896), Tweede leercursus natuurkundige en staatkundige aardrijkskunde,

Ad. Wesmael-Charlier, Namen

Schuiling, R. (1906), Onze aarde geschetst naar haar natuurlijke landschappen, II

Europa, Thieme & C°, Zutphen

Troch, A. (1955), Aanvankelijke aardrijkskunde, Joz. Van In & C°, Lier

5.3. Geography textbooks 1985-2009

Algemene Aardrijkskunde 5, 1994, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Algemene Aardrijkskunde 6, 2003, Pelckmans, Kapellen

GEO 2, 1998, Wolters Plantyn, Deurne

GEO 3 ASO, 2001, Wolters Plantyn, Deurne

Geogenie 1&2, 1999, Standaard Uitgeverij, Antwerpen

Geogenie 3&4 ASO, 2002, De Boeck, Antwerpen

Geogenie 5&6 ASO, 2004, De Boeck, Antwerpen

Standaard Aardrijkskunde 3, 1995, Standaard Uitgeverij N.V., Antwerpen

Visie op leefruimten in de Sowjetunie en Amerika, 1986, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Werelddelen 4, 1997, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Wereldvisie 1, 1998, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Wereldvisie 2, 1998, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Wereldvisie 4 ASO, 2002, Pelckmans, Kapellen

Wereldvisie 5-6 ASO, 2004, Pelckmans, Kapellen