#BlackInAmsterdamAdventures (Day 7)

Got an opportunity to visit the National Rijks Museum on today and boy was this an enlightening experience. Now the museum as whole is known as the Dutch National Art Museum. For all my art folks it houses some of the most well known art pieces from Frans Hals to Rembrandt's "The Night Watch". But what is not discussed, yet very visible is the Black presence in many of these pieces. It's not surprising the Blacks in the Netherlands have existed as more than just servants and enslaved persons, but also high ranking officials and dignitaries. What's unfortunate is how Blacks are either eroticized and made hyper visible or rendered invisible with no acknowledgement whatsoever. Take for example the picture on the bottom right, it is quite clear that there is a young Black child placed in the center. Yet the museum curator among others did not even realize his presence in the painting when asked who is the Black child?? hmmm... And then the other three pictures show Blacks as either Revolutionaries and/or dignitaries (i.e. one of the Kings bringing gold to 'baby Jesus' and Christophe Le Moor the right hand of the Dutch King at the time). So I find it very hard to disregard Blacks in Europe and to simply see them as economic wealth. ... And these pics are just a small taste of what is there, it's quite a handful. If I have learned nothing else since I've been here, it's to have even more pride of what my ancestors across the ocean did to survive and take positions of power despite the consequences! The courage and tenacity is quite amazing even if others do not recognize it.