The Purchasing Cooperative of Antiracist Resistance (Edewa) is following up on the debate earlier this year about racism in children’s books by celebrating the abolition of the N-word in solidarity with Black communities in Germany. The statement can be found here.
In recent days, both a colonial racist broadcast series and a racist commercial have been shut down. While it’s not entirely clear what prompted Pro7 to discontinue the Reality Queens of Safari broadcast series, extensive criticism from NGOs and many others certainly contributed, in addition to low ratings. The campaign against the show even managed to be mentioned on Spiegel Online. In the case of the Ferrero commercial, the matter is clearer. Media such as Neues Deutschland, taz and Stern reported on it, but above all there were many letters from readers and a storm of criticism in “social networks”. Even if insight could look different than explaining to us conceptually dumb people that “[b]y the current advertising […] it is a question of the representation of a product variation of Ferrero Küsschen with white chocolate” and that “[a]lle statements […] thus refer solely to the white chocolate [beziehen] – of course without xenophobic ulterior motives”, Ferrero has decided to revise the advertisement due to the “critical voices […]”. The video clip was withdrawn and the slogan “Germany votes white” is no longer on any advertising posters.
In Nambia, two towns and a stretch of coastline were renamed last week by President Hifikepunye Pohamba. The names Lüderitz, Schuckmannsburg and the Caprivi Strip thus disappear from the map.
In Germany, on the other hand, colonial street names remain despite a variety of protests. In Munich, for example, the city council rejected a request by the Foreigners’ Advisory Council to rename streets named after colonial criminals and mass murderers. An alliance of civil society organizations and initiatives is now calling for a responsible decolonization of Munich’s street names.
Current exhibitions on colonial street names and the resistance against them can be found in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.
In Berlin-Hellersdorf, the citizens’ initiative Marzahn-Hellersdorf defends itself with T-shirt imprints such as “No to the home” and the dates of the pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen against a planned home for asylum seekers in their district. In Berlin-Reinickendorf, tenants have hired a lawyer to enforce that children from the neighboring home are no longer allowed to play on the playground in front of their house. In Aarau, Switzerland, the city council prohibits asylum seekers from visiting the local swimming pool, sports facilities, library and churches.
At the same time as these racist actions, ZDF is launching the show “Auf der Flucht – Das Experiment” (On the Run – The Experiment), in which German celebrities are to set off “to the countries of origin of asylum seekers in Germany” and thus “experience first-hand [erfahren] what it means to be on the run”. Instead of letting refugees themselves have their say, German state television prefers to produce a program full of racist assessments and descriptions. Nadia Shehadeh has written an open letter to the ZDF television council. It can also be signed here .
Incidentally, RTL and Pro7 are currently broadcasting similarly problematic series: Wild Girls – Mit Highheels durch Afrika and Reality Queens of Safari. The latter has now been discontinued due to low ratings and extensive criticism from NGOs and many others. Not unreasonably, a commenter on africaisacountry wonders “What’s wrong with the Germans?”
The website of the development policy volunteer service weltwärts has been completely redesigned. Not only has the layout changed, but a realignment in terms of content has also been announced. In the follow-up process of the evaluation, it was decided to delete the much-criticized slogan “Learning by actively helping” without replacement. From now on, Weltwärts sees itself as a learning service rather than an aid service.
The first glance at the new homepage makes it clear that the helping discourse is still very much present: if no longer in the slogan, then almost more prominently in the interactive banner that dominates the home page, but also all the subpages. Individual actors of the program have their say here and almost everywhere there are formulations that describe an active, helping role of weltwärts volunteers in their host countries:
Corinna W., Bolivia: “In Bolivia I learn many things for my life that I would not learn at university. I’m doing something meaningful and discovering a different culture at the same time, so I don’t regret my decision at any moment.”
Stefan Beutel, Managing Director of DRK Soziale Freiwilligendienste Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: “I am thrilled about weltwärts! The volunteers support the outreach projects and also learn a lot about the culture and people of the outreach country.”
Lourdes Jibaja, Asociacion Cultural Estrella del Sur, Peru: “Volunteers are making a difference in the remote communities we work with that have been neglected by the state.”
Andrea P., volunteer seminar leader: “We are one of the oldest volunteer service organizations in Togo and are committed to intercultural exchange between local communities and weltwärts volunteers to promote sustainable development.”
Gerónimo Vera, Asosiacón de Usuarios de Manglar Cerrito de los Morreños: “In the Gulf of Guayaquil, we jointly implement projects for better health care, waste disposal or drinking water treatment.”
On February 26, 2012, Neighborhood Patrol Coordinator George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a black teenager. A few days ago, Zimmerman was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter charges by a Florida court. The ruling has sparked outrage and great incomprehension in the U.S. and around the world, reactivating a debate about racial profiling and institutional racism. The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has launched a petition to the Department of Justice that has already been signed by over half a million people in just a few days. The petition can be supported here:
bell hooks anticipates a description by Zimmermann in her 2000 book, All about love:
“White supremacy has taught him that all people of color are threats irrespective of their behavior. Capitalism has taught him that, at all costs, his property can and must be protected. Patriarchy has taught him that his masculinity has to be proven by the willingness to conquer fear through aggression; that it would be unmanly to ask questions before taking action. Mass media then brings us the news of this in a newspeak manner that sounds almost jocular and celebratory, as though no tragedy has happened, as though the sacrifice of a young life was necessary to uphold property values and white patriarchal honor. Viewers are encouraged to feel sympathy for the white male home owner who made a mistake.”
In Germany, the Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD) and the Campaign for Victims of Racist Police Violence (KOP) have currently launched a campaign appeal “Racial Profiling Costs.” All people who experience or observe racial profiling are encouraged to raise their voices. A form for a letter to the Federal Police Headquarters in Koblenz can be found here.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation has recently published an e-book to provide arguments in the discussion about gender relations. The authors Regina Frey, Marc Gärtner, Manfred Köhnen, and Sebastian Scheele explore individual accusations against gender studies and present arguments on how to counter them. Discussed are e.g. the ideology accusation, the unscientific accusation as well as the application of double standards. These are also common defense mechanisms, avoidance strategies, and accusations against people who work on other power-critical issues, critiques of racism, and postcolonial theory. It’s worth taking a look at the publication!
In the last few months, two new, interesting publications have appeared on the subject of school partnerships. Luise Steinwachs from Berlin Postkolonial analyzes in the study “Personal Encounters in School Partnerships” which influence South-North student exchanges have on the identity development of students in Germany. In doing so, it comes to the following conclusions, among others:
1. personal encounters in the context of school partnerships can reinforce prejudices and stereotypes.
2. in a large part of the school partnerships that participated in the survey, the developmental embedding of the partnership is not sufficient to see through global contexts. Therefore, simplified explanatory patterns are resorted to.
3. the period of personal encounters of about three weeks is not sufficient to actually dare to take steps in uncertainty and incomprehension. The explanatory patterns of the young people serve primarily to reassure themselves and little irritation is allowed.
Another bilingual German-Spanish publication of KATE contains interviews with different actors of school partnerships. The brochure stands out positively due to a large number of power-critical questions. Rather than sticking to the classic tone of intercultural communication, Claudia Schilling of the ENSA program, for example, addresses issues such as privilege, unequal partnerships, and the question of defining power. In a world of school partnerships, which is often more of a world of school sponsorships, where helping and development are two common motives, this is a new language. However, it should be noted here that, especially in the ENSA program, these new perspectives have been or are accompanied by protracted discussions, exclusions, and reproductions of racism.
Press Release No Humboldt 21! of the Campaign Alliance (Initiative Black People in Germany, glokal, BER, Africavenir, Afrotak, Berlin Postcolonial, Artefakte/Anti-Humboldt)
Campaign calls for moratorium on Humboldt Forum in Berlin Palace
The FAZ recently published a biting article on the volunteer service industry that sends Germans to the Global South. However, the commentator does not seem to be particularly critical of the idea of development aid per se: always send mechanical engineers from Ilmenau to Ghana. By the way, the readers’ comments on the article are interesting and informative.