I am haunted by the song White Christmas. The lyrics in this supposedly innocent song rang deep within my head when I witnessed a blackface Sinterklaas parade after moving to the Netherlands in 2019. Though made two years later, this video work is grounded in that moment of surreal culture shock on the winter streets of The Hague. 

In 2025, I had the opportunity to write about this experience in full. The European Race & Imagery Foundation published this project in their 10th Brand and Product Study. Across three interconnected essays titled The Song. The Shock. The Skin., a series of ordinary encounters become an unsettling meditation on whiteness, belonging, and the politics of looking. Blending memoir with cultural critique, I ask what it means to witness the “innocent” traditions of others through the eyes of someone never invited into the celebration. These essays explore the fragile line between performance and reality, revealing how identity is shaped not only by the stories we tell ourselves, but by the worlds that refuse to see us. 

The Song. The Shock. The Skin. & the rest of ERIF’s study can be read here