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This article explores the reflections and problematisations of Dutch Preventing and Countering radicalisation and Violent Extremism (P/ CVE) policymakers, focusing on racialisation and the masking thereof. It analyses their reflections on changing contexts, effects versus origins of policies, and the influence of their organisational position and role, using a conceptual lens of race, religion, and masking. The findings show how discourses of security, liberalism, and secularism masking racialisation coexist with conscious efforts to counter racialisation. They imply a level of institutionalised racialisation within P/CVE policies that allows for an openness to change, as long as existing organisational contexts and frameworks remain the same. Based on the findings and analysis, this article suggests the potential existence of self-perpetuating mechanism strengthening existing policy foundations, which could explain the coexistence of racialising patterns and efforts to counter racialisation. Considering the strategic position and proactive role of the Netherlands in P/CVE policy formulation within Europe, and Dutch resistance to using the term race explicitly, these insights are relevant for research on other European regions deploying P/CVE policies and/or contexts where race is not explicitly discussed, but discourses masking racialisation may be present