This term has long been used to describe a racial identity, based on skin color, and usually describes certain groups of Europeans and their emigrant population across the world. The term is associated with the racial sciences of the 18th and 19th centuries. As an ideological category associated for example with Europe’s imperial expansion, White has come to connote progress, sophistication or cultured. Since the latter part of the 20th century there has been sustained critique of the social construction of Whiteness as norm, arguing that it is an identity category that emerged to justify or reinforce discrimination against non-White people. Within the Netherlands, in addition to increasing critique of Whiteness are discussions about whether one should use the word Wit or Blank as descriptor (see also “Blank”).