Living as a "disgrace" in a society and not accepted by your fellows - how is that?

You are out there, visiting a supermarket which has many visitors, when you suddenly notice so many eyes on you. The guard is keeping an extra eye on you. The people around you are keeping an extra eye on you. Your employer thinks you are just like every other Dutch Moroccan (who are mostly known for radicalism, crimes such as drug deals and destructions in The Netherlands). They think you are just a regular Dutch Moroccan who lacks of any knowledge and talents, and are here to terrorise the country.

It’s The Netherlands. I am a Dutch Moroccan. I was born in The Netherlands, however my parents were born in Morocco. They arrived in The Netherlands when they were my age (maybe even earlier). This most likely occurs in more countries though, with other communities.

I don’t see myself as a Moroccan, nor do I see myself as a Dutchman. I don’t even speak Arabic since my parents never taught me it. I still do have the mark on my head: Moroccan. Why? Because I look like a Moroccan.

My own life

I studied. I have recently passed my final exams. I love how live will be going now. I am going to university, hopefully pass it and then get to work or set up a business for myself. Especially the field I am interested in: cyber security and network engineering. From my 16th I have been busy with it almost every single day (although I started earlier with programming).

To be honest, I probably don’t look like an average Dutch Moroccan in terms of knowledge, interests and so on. When you would say in classroom (on high school) for example that you have built a C++ application this weekend for the sake of practising, they would laugh — Moroccans apparently don’t expect this kind of “behaviour”/interests from their fellows. Or, when you tell them you learnt programming by yourself by trying out yourself and talking with your uncle about it, they would say that you did not have anything else to do in your youth and get marked as a “nerd”/“someone who has nothing to do in his life” by your fellows. Somehow, gaining knowledge without going to university is not marked positively by my fellows, but marked as “nerd”/“someone who has nothing to do in his life”, but when you somehow get money, and when you are rich, it’s all awesome, it’s all approved and you get praised. Knowledge is not praised. Money is praised. Like, for real? That is probably why our community of Dutch Moroccans is mostly known for these crimes.

Moving on

I still feel myself a disgrace in this society (because people base their opinions on how I look, and that will never change), although I moved on and did not adapt my lifestyle to it. In classroom, I was always asked what my opinion was on terror attacks that occur(ed) in Europe (by teachers mostly, and it’s only me). Why? Do they want a confirmation that I am not radicalised? Why does my opinion matter or differ from the others?

I remember my own teacher saying that I should shave my beard before I start with the exam. “Are you joining ISIS? Make sure you don’t come like this on the exams.” — ended with a chuckle.

What life lesson did I take from this? Move on with your life, achieve the goals you want to achieve and don't stay in the “victim role” — as most politicians say in The Netherlands. Move on and go achieve the things you want, although it might be 15 times harder than a normal Dutchman: go work for it. That’s what my Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently said. I don’t remember when though, probably a few years ago.

I'm sorry!

This is a pretty weird post from me as my profile is meant for posts related to cryptocurrency, cyber security, inspiration and so on, but I think this would be a pretty good addition for my recent post on introducing myself in this community.

Make sure you follow me for inspiration, awesome posts on cryptocurrencies, cyber security and most likely tutorials related to these topics as well!

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