“from the IND, with love”

In this country everybody is welcome.
Maar waarom ben je hier? Why are you here?
First question that comes to mind when you’re a newcomer in strange lands.
Faced with endless lists and bullet points to track and measure their demands.
Just to prove you’re worthy to come here with your dirty empty hands.

But as I was saying…In this country everybody is welcome.
Maar ben je goed genoeg? Are you good enough?
Tell me what you are. Are you an immigrant? An exchange student? A refugee? A spouse?
Or maybe an expat? What a funny word to call someone. It’s basically what white immigrants call themselves to say they’re “different”, to say they’re “the good kind”, the “desirable kind”. Tell me: Is dat goed genoeg?

Well…In this country everybody can be themselves!
Just not too much, just not that way, just not so loud, just not that proud. Okay?
Remember who is in charge. Remember who allows you to live this large.

Zo waar kom je vandaan? Where do you fucking come from anyway?
The quicksands, I answer, that’s where I was born.
Or do you want more details just to spice up this inspirational porn?
Do you want me to point that on a map so you can see if you guessed it wrong? Tell me.

Oh yeah, in this country everybody is welcome.
Homemade propaganda, loaded with lies. We don’t buy that.
We don’t need to play this game to know what losing feels like.
When you’re bombarded by the disappointments of society
You learn how the world sees you in reality.

Dan waarom ben je hier gekomen? Then why have you come here?
Simple. I wanted to imagine a version of myself trauma free.
The opportunity to exist with pride, to not have to hide, to take back that freedom that was once mine.

Because when you live your life as a punchline…
It’s dangerously easy to engineer smallness within you.
it’s dangerously easy to erase and mute what makes you the real you.
For what else is out there if not other flavors of oppression.
So you turn to brainwashing yourself to continue on a leash with these questions.

Goed! Je bent niet zoals de anderen…You are not like the others.
And that’s what they like.

Because they want it diverse just when it leaves no traces,
they love ethnic cultures from non-ethnic faces,
they would sympathize but never switch places.

And so we learned that what they said all along was incomplete.
They’d just never admit it, they’re just too discrete.
Because…in this country everybody is welcome.

Just remember to NOT overstay your welcome.

from the IND, with love