Red Light District : The Black-Only Zone in Dam
Just for a night, I flew to Amsterdam for a girls weekend and although there were many highlights to this trip, there was just one thing that left me in a haze, a bitter taste in my mouth.
We were in the middle of all the buzz and the hype. That famous ‘Bulldog’ strip where everyone goes to get their weed and smoke it. I was still getting used to the fact that they drove on the other side of the road having to look both ways, behind, diagonally, to even look up lol just to not get run over. I couldn’t just enjoy the walk. Way too many people were out walking that night and I was just thinking , is this what i’m gonna have to look forward to when Sadiq Khan makes Oxford street a walking-only zone? Fuck that shit. Anyways, that’s another topic.
It was cold and most places were packed with no where to sit and chill so we started walking further down to see what else was about. I believe the road was called, ‘Oudekerksplein Centrum’, I quickly typed it in my phone out of disgust and anger. Now on this “hidden” road it seemed like nothing much was happening; we couldn’t hear any music or see any shops, it was dark and quiet. Then as we carry on I see a red light similar to the lights we saw near Bulldog which were to signify the Red District Light windows for sex workers. I was a little shocked initially to see it in person especially since it was in the middle of everything, could say, the heart of the action. The women were all dolled up, some in lingerie , what you might expect to see if a pop-up on your laptop screen came up asking you to dial 0800-babestation. People were walking past them casually or walking up to them in excitement. There was a red lit ATM to draw out money specifically to pay these sex workers for their services. Quite the set-up, very easy access.
However, this particular road {Oudekerksplein Centrum} was quite the opposite in terms of where it was situated. A more…dim experience. So when I saw the lights, I noticed immediately the difference to the other women we saw earlier. They fit the description very well of; big breast, big butt with more curves and weight. To me and my friends’ surprise, this entire street was explicitly just black women in the windows. Cornered off on a dingy side road with minimal traffic.
This didn’t sit well with me. I mean, it felt like the exact ‘equality & diversity’ game these white corporations play with their employees. Just because you just about meet the mark by hiring a certain amount of black people in your all-white company doesn’t mean you are fulfilling equality and diversity. Correct me if I’m wrong but some companies give the illusion they are being fair and diverse in their hiring but keep black people in low-income and low-skilled positions for years. Senior positions come and go but are consistently given to non-black candidates. Are we not capable too? Of course we are.
I felt in some ways this issue mirrored what was going on here in Amsterdam. Whilst prostitution is not legal in the UK, it is in Amsterdam and I didn’t understand a couple of things. One, why the black women were deliberately separated from the non-black women. Two, why they were isolated to a street that felt like it was off the grid. I wouldn’t have even known it was there if we didn’t continue walking further and further. I’m not saying i’m an advocate for prostitution but in a country where it is legal, black sex workers should receive the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts. It seemed like they were pushed to the side to show they were less “valuable” and better left hidden away. I also got the vibe that it was also about fetishising them, like ‘hey if you want an “Ebony” to live out your fantasies at night, come to this street where you’re less likely to be seen in public.
As a black woman, even in that moment of walking past them felt like shit. Literally 5 of us , all young black women a few feet opposite, living opposite lives and being able to identify the bold face injustices that we would never be able to fully relate to or understand but could emphasise with. Looking outside in.
Before I wrote this blog, I tried researching this same topic to try and find anything at all to get the perspective of a black sex worker living in Amsterdam but came up short. So i can only really talk from how I saw things myself. I don’t know whether they fought for their own street to begin with due to being blocked from working. I’m sure there was a time when there were no black women allowed at all. But…just because it’s legal, it doesn’t make it right to humiliate and discriminate.
