Dutch | Mollucan
My name is Imani van Gils and I am a twenty-year-old mixed-race, straight, young- female. I am 50% Moluccan and 50% Dutch. My Mom originates from the Maluku, but she is born here in Holland. My Dad is fully Dutch. They met at high school at the age of 15. I grew up in a town named Zaandam where I went to middle school. After that I spend my teenage years in Amsterdam for school.
I think I was around the age of six when I first began to understand I was of mixed ethnicity. I found out that there were a few words in Dutch I didn’t know, but only in the language my mom speaks. That was really strange and confusing.
My friendship group is very diverse. I have a lot of homosexual friends and a lot of friends with different origins. Race or culture does not play a role when looking for a partner. I haven’t had a lot of boyfriends, but the ones I had were all different origins.
I don’t think there are still bias attitudes or stereotypes towards mixed-race people. Everyone is so different in Amsterdam and everyone that I know excepts everyone, I never had any trouble being mixed raced.
A positive about being mixed is that I have had the opportunity to educate a lot of people about my culture. A lot of people don’t know the right story about the Moluccans so it’s a beautiful thing to educate people about it.
If I was to be born again I would love to come back as a mixed of many different cultures. I love to have knowledge about other cultures.
I think that mixed race will develop in a positive way in the future. In Holland almost everyone accepts each other. I think that that will continue.