Ida Does
Born in Suriname and based in the Netherlands, Ida Does is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and journalist. Her powerful documentaries explore themes of art, culture, colonialism, and social justice - telling stories that challenge and inspire. Before becoming an independent filmmaker, she worked in Dutch television as a reporter and editor-in-chief. Her films have been recognized internationally, earning awards in Canada, the Netherlands, and Trinidad & Tobago.
Everyday Racism: Forty Years On
This powerful documentary celebrates the leadership and legacy of Philomena Essed, whose groundbreaking book Everyday Racism challenged the world to confront racial inequality forty years ago. Once seen as controversial, Essed’s work has since become a defining reference in the global fight against racism.
Essed herself and allies such as Gloria Wekker, Marion Bloem, Princess Irene, Anja Meulenbelt, and Hellen Felter reflect on the debate of the past and draw connections to the present. For instance, recently, Sohra, Lakiescha, and Veronika, students in their early twenties, successfully took the lead as activists to integrate discussions on racism and discrimination into education. What qualities does it take to address this issue as a female scholar and pioneer, and what motivates one to persist with it for decades? What wisdom does Essed impart to the younger generation, and what wisdom do the youth return to her?
Philomena Essed
Philomena Essed is a professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Leadership Studies at Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change and an affiliated researcher for Utrecht University’s Graduate Gender program. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Pretoria (2011) and Umeå University (2015). Her research and teaching transcends national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries. Well known for introducing the concepts of everyday racism and gendered racism in the Netherlands and internationally, she also pioneered in developing theory on social and cultural cloning in the early 2000s. More recently, she introduced the concepts of entitlement racism and racism knowledge.
Extended reading. "Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory" Philomena Essed (SAGE Publications, Inc, 1991) [Link]
Published in 1990, six years after 'Everyday Racism,' Essed’s Understanding Everyday Racism analyses the lived, daily realities of racism as experienced by Black women. Drawing on more than 2,000 reported incidents from higher-educated Black women in the United States and the Netherlands, Essed shows how racism is embedded in routine interactions - often subtle, coded, and enacted by members of social “elites.” She examines how Black women identify covert discrimination, how they accumulate practical knowledge about navigating it, and how they respond and resist in ordinary settings.
Interweaving macro- and micro-sociology with social psychology, discourse analysis, race relations theory, and women’s studies, Essed offers a robust interdisciplinary framework that challenges comforting national myths - puncturing Dutch narratives of tolerance and the American idea that racism is largely past. The result is a landmark study that clarifies why dominant groups often deny racism while those targeted perceive it acutely, and it equips scholars and practitioners across the social sciences with a precise language and lens for understanding, researching, and addressing contemporary racism as it is lived day to day.
This event has been organized by the BA Business Administration program as part of the Black History Month in Europe initiative.