Bule: The White People's Burden?

In Europe and in the Anglosphere we make a big deal about “racism”. The ‘R’ word is on everyone’s lips, and not a day goes by that, by courtesy of the mainstream media, we aren’t reminded of the horrors that dwell in the darkest recesses of our subconscious.

It is not easy to keep up with the ever-growing list of forbidden words, when words that used to be harmless become taboo overnight. It is therefore no wonder that our over-sensitised Westerner may feel frustrated by the Indonesians' obliviousness to our basic rules of political correctness.

If you are a white Caucasian person and you happen to find yourself in Indonesia, you will, at some point, be singled out by your fellow humans with darker skin tones, and called the ‘B’ word:

“Bule!”

Congratulations: you have officially become a victim of racism! Or have you?

Is “bule” a racist word?

The simple answer is no. If you are of European descent, being called bule (pron. /boo-leh/) is part of the normal, healthy experience of walking the land of a thousand kings.

As a half-Japanese person, I believe that I have experienced something eerily similar, if not virtually identical. In Japan, we have a word for foreigners: “gaijin” 外人, literally “outsider”. If you are a gaijin, you will rarely ever be seen as anything else.

The term “bule”, much like the term “gaijin”, does not stop at racial boundaries: Africans, East Asians, Arabs, Indians, etc. can joint the club too! Occasionally, Indonesians will say stuff like “I met a Japanese bule”, which candidly demonstrates that Indonesians don’t discriminate people based on their appearance, no: if you don’t look Indonesian, you can all be equally bule!

So here’s the catch: “bule” mostly means “foreigner”, much like the word “gaijin” 外人 in Japanese. It designates someone who is perceived as not belonging to the indigenous gene pool.

But what is the actual/official meaning of the word? This is the definition of “bule” given by the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language), one of the most important authorities on the Indonesian language:

bule : adj bulai. bulai : n white all over, body and hair.

“Bule” means “albino”, or someone white, and can sometimes be used for non-whites.

(Dela) I’ve seen people lament that they have become victims of racism for being called “bule”, but for Indonesians like me the whole diatribe is utterly baffling. “Bule” is just a word that we Indonesians use for foreigners.

(Alex) Fair enough: if you look different, you will be labelled as someone who looks different, and there is nothing intrinsically wrong about that. This follows the natural tendency that people have of defining, through words, the environment that surrounds them. It’s the consequence of living in a world that relies on complex language to communicate.

A little bit of history now.

(Dela) According to what my grandfather told me, the term “bule” emerged during the colonial era. My Dutch great-grandfather lived, together with other Dutchmen and Dutchwomen, in a luxurious area called the boulevard, while the indigenous Indonesian people lived in the surrounding, “poorer” areas. “Bule” is then an abbreviation of “boule-vard”.

The boulevards were known as the areas where the élite lived, with their pomp and might. This could have been an attempt, by the Dutch colonial government, to actively discriminate the locals and maintain the occupier’s prestige. Or it could have just been the topographical manifestation of the natural tendency within humans, of any race and culture, to stick with their own.

(Dela) Where I live in Malang (East Java), we have one such boulevard, called Boulevard Ijen, where you can still see European names stamped on the façades of big colonial buildings.

These proud buildings and facilities in Boulevard Ijen have survived to this day: neat footpaths, biskop (cinemas), public parks, magnificent Churches, the stadium, schools and the station, all contrasting with the indigenous facilities which are far simpler, and the local forms of entertainment that mainly consisted in traditional dances and performances (that still exist today).

This leads us to the next topic, namely: how the term “bule” can be connected with negative stereotypes of Indonesians.

Maybe as a result of 350 years of Dutch colonialism, some Indonesians cultivate a certain inferiority complex toward foreigners, who they see as superior. Some Indonesians may even ask a bule to pose for a picture with them.

Being marked as a “bule” will grant you certain privileges. For example, your company will be sought and valued more than it should! If you are the vane and narcissistic type, you might enjoy and even become addicted to this kind of attention.

(Dela) Personally, I am not fond of the attitude that some Indonesians have, whereby they have excessive respect for someone just because he or she is a bule. At the same time, I think that it’s silly of a foreigner to get offended by the use of this word, and that it’s not a big deal. I guess that virtue stands in the middle, as the Latins used to say!

(Alex) You may argue that it’s racist, and I’m with you: “bule” is a term that singles out a specific demographic, and as such it is technically racist. But we are not technicians, we are people, aren’t we? This is not bad racism, the kind of racism that is loaded with malice and xenophobic hate. No. We are talking about something innocent and benign, that originates from feelings of friendliness and sympathy, and at worst from complete indifference.

In conclusion…

…if you hate the word “bule”, get over it.

And if you love it, get over yourself!

Dela & Alex