Who is Iso?
My name is Ismaël den Boer, but most people call me Iso, I was born in Rotterdam on 24 June 1990 and this is my story.. *cue sentimental music.*
Calum Scott - You Are The Reason (Official)
Logic - 1-800-273-8255 ft. Alessia Cara, Khalid
I am my parents only child, my father was born in Suriname and came to Rotterdam when he was six years old, my mother was adopted into a Dutch family and was also raised in the city of Rotterdam.
Iso with his father
After 20 years of living their lives they found each other and made the decision to create new life hence I was born.
My parents separated when I was 5 years old. This made me be alone a lot while my mother was out working.
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you”
This taught me to be independent at a young age. I used to climb the counter to reach the microwave to heat up my dinner. I put myself to bed and left for school while my mother would return from work in the morning.
Iso as a little baby and parents
Throughout my younger years we kind of lived a nomad lifestyle. We were moving from place to place and living in different countries. This allowed me to meet a lot of different people and have friends that I am still in contact with today.
Can you tell us a little bit more of how you grew up?
I was a quiet introverted kid (a character trait from my dad) with a lot of humor (a character trait from my mom).
Adorable Iso with his mother
Even though my mother an I went through tough times. From having no place to sleep, to my dad suddenly passing away when he was 34. Even when my mom got sick and passed away at 43, our humor remained the same. It kept us going. As a character in a famous Dutch kid show always used to say: “No matter what happens, always keep smiling’’ is something we lived by and I still do.
Iso and his editing skills to brighten up your day
What is your favorite quote and why?
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you” . It was the Golden rule that my mother always used to repeat to me when I was little.
I used to find it super annoying, because she would say this every time I got caught doing something bad. As I got older I started understanding it more and actually started living by it.
I am sure I will annoy my own children with the same quote on day.
What is your favorite movie and why?
Lion King is my favorite movie (and musical), because It had a impact on me when I was young.
As weird as it sounds I always sympathized with Scar because he got bullied, rejected and was unwanted. Even though killing Mufasa was a d*ck move (and I always skipped it.), he might not be innately evil. This was a big eye opener for me as a kid.
The African feel of the musical I enjoy because of the nostalgia. Seeing Simba going away and then returning to his place of origin is something I can relate to.
You are known as the MEME master. Your memes are very artistic how do you come up with them?
I am a person that likes comedy and I love making people laugh. Creating funny images stems from that. I picture a funny situation and with the magic of Photoshop I can make these funny or interesting images.
An Iso edit of @aflanis in Black Panther chair dropped in the Facebook group Afrovibes 18+
Stephanie and Janet the Founders of Melanin Wonder are in there. Can you spot them?
Have u ever been insecure about yourself?
I have been insecure in the past about physical traits like my big ears or my awful clothes. We did not have a lot of money so my mom got me clothes I could grow into..
I had jeans that where rolled op 6 fold, jackets win which the sleeves would have been rolled up 6 times and to top that of my mom gave me sandals. This made me look like a miniature Moses.. it sounds funny but during that time I would have rather wanted the sneakers with air that we all believed would give you the ability to jump higher like the rest of the kids.
iso den boer
Becoming the best version of myself
I have also have been insecure about life. I grew up religious, but growing up and feeling that we were created just because by some higher power wanted to be worshipped was not a meaningful life in my eyes.
Also knowing that life came to be with essentially no real purpose was depressing to me and felt meaningless. I got over this ‘eventually’ by seeing the beauty in the complexity of life and the different people in it. I want to see everything there is to see. Experience all the things that this life offers me. Life itself may not have a purpose. But we are still able to live a purposeful life.
Even though killing Mufasa was a d*ck move
Iso den Boer and his friend Gerson
Do you have other hobbies or crazy habits?
My hobbies are playing videogames on the ps4, fitness and MMA.
A crazy habit of mine is that I am curious. I can go on the internet to find information about a topic, what leads me to another topic and another.. and before I know it I’m learning Nordic languages at 4:00 AM in the morning and reading about the Annunaki..
What are some of the most important things in your life?
Becoming the best version of myself; meaning to keep on learning and experiencing new things and training this vessel that carries me around.
Every night before bed I ask myself “what did I do today to improve myself?” it can be just learning one new word that day. Even that is an improvement.
Freedom is also something that I find important; freedom to explore the world, meet different people, experiencing different cultures and use that to grow.
In the long term I would like to pass on this wisdom (makes me sound like a 300 year old wizard), to my children and leave the world a little better then when I entered it.
What does Melanin mean to you?
Melanin is what determines your skin- , hair and eye color. It protects you from UV radiation from sun we all share. Because of this the word ‘melanin’ gives me a sense of solidarity with the rest of my fellow homo sapiens. Even though people have variable amounts of melanin it is something we all have in common. No matter where you are from, we all have melanin.
At the same time it does give a sense of ethnicity and can be linked to where your closest roots are.
I am a ‘mixed’ black male. So part of my roots are in Africa ( 48,3% Yoruba, 5,1% east Africa), Europe( 43,5%) and Asia( 8,1%). This gives me sense of identity and pride to know and learn more about the language, culture and society of people that are the closest to me on not just a genetic level, but also in appearance.
Ismael den Boer
Do you think a Melanin Wonder Platform is necessary?
I believe it can have a positive impact. Throughout history we have been indoctrinated to think less of people with more melanin.
A big part of this is colonization, slavery, the notion that races can be ranked from inferior to superior.
Even though much of this is in the ‘not-so-distant’ past, there are still lasting affects through later generations. You can see this in black people that bleach their skin to look lighter and studies that have shown that it even reaches children from a very young age to have a negative bias towards darker skin. We are still living in a society where dark things are devalued and white things are valued.
Seeing positive images of black people like in the recent movie Black Panther and platforms like Melanin Wonder that celebrates the melanin shows that people can be proud of their color. Seeing people of color achieve things like becoming a model, a movie star, a doctor, the president of a country etc will show them that they can achieve what they want and that their color is beautiful even thought maybe their present environment may tell them otherwise.
We heard you speak fluent Japanese, how come?
まだペラペラじゃないよ笑
I started to learn Japanese because I was bored at school. After getting my marketing degree I thought why not build upon that! so I started International business Asia with a focus on Japan. Fast-forward a few years and I’m studying business and Japanese in a private university (Sophia University) in Tokyo.
This was where I picked up and learned most of my Japanese.
Studying, working and living in Japan improved my Japanese. It even made me forget Dutch words.
Now that I am back I actually have the opposite. I tend to forget some Japanese.
Throughout history we have been indoctrinated to think less of people with more melanin.
What person do you look up to in this world?
I don’t really have a role model per se. But I pick specific talents or traits of people that I admire and aspire to have. I do this because a role-model can make a wrong decision or fail. Separating the person from the traits that you admire make their bad lifestyle decisions less important.
A short list of people that have skills that I admire are:
Lious Farrakhan – Besides to trying to teach black people about economic independence. This man’s ability to debate, stay calm in a hostile environments and still keep a smile on his face is admirable.
Farrakhan
Neil degrasse Tyson – I am a big fan of science especially astronomy. I find it fascinating and humbling to see how much is out there. Neil is a black astrophysicist who explains astronomy and the research behind it to the public.
His way of explaining complicated subjects into easily understandable language in an exciting way is something I admire too.
Neil degrasse Tyson
Elon Musk – This South African entrepreneur/inventor is the CEO of billion dollar companies like Tesla and SpaceX. As mentioned before I love astronomy, so a company with the goal to colonization Mars and functions as a private space transport business is something that really sparks my interest.
To pursue such an ‘out of the box ‘ ideas shows willingness to pursue your passion and a high risk tolerance. These are some traits I love about him.
Elon Musk
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I have a really strong grip with my toes and can use it to pick things up like a cup of tea.
ISO:
“I sound super serious throughout this interview, but I promise I also have a funny side! So check out my comedy channel
@WeIsoFunny on Instagram so I can prove it or just follow me normally on IG, Snapchat, Facebook and all that good stuff on
‘@Iso5314’ (end of shameless plug)”
