Self-organizations of Black and African people as well as postcolonial initiatives protest against their exclusion in the preparation of the current Senate concept for coming to terms with Hamburg’s “colonial heritage”. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Defining power
Edewa’s statement on the abolition of the N-word
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.
Lüderitz goes to Namibia – and stays in Munich
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.
Children’s Book Debate
A heated debate on children’s books has been raging in Germany for a few weeks now: By discussing what we want to read to our children, the discussion is about what image of the world and of oneself should be conveyed. Leading media like DIE ZEIT demonstrate effectively and with racist imagery: The white majority society should continue to have the power of definition over which stories are told and with which words they should be told.
The debate about the use of the N-word is a very central one, not least because it makes the mainstream’s current understanding of racism clear and, at least to some extent, open to question. Unfortunately, in most cases this happens through reproduction and thus stabilization of racism. Continue reading