Tag Archives: Racism

Not all that glitters is gold! – Rusty and Golden Radiator Awards leave a bitter aftertaste

Announced today, December 10
SAIH – The Norwegian Students and Academics International Assistance Fund
 announced the winners of two international awards: the Rusty Radiator Award for the most damaging fundraising video and the Golden Radiator Award for the most creative fundraising video. Much media attention and more than two million clicks on the satirical video “Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway” released a year ago have encouraged SAIH to take new actions. The awards were accompanied by a new video clip “Let’s save Africa! – gone wrong”, in which the young black Michael shows us common patterns in fundraising. He makes Western expectations his profession: “Every time these filmmakers come to us in Africa, I’m the first person they call. I’m incredibly talented. Wait – this is sad Africa.”

The short film successfully problematizes in a satirical way how charity commercials are shot. From reports of filmmakers who have been involved in such shoots, we know how people are literally trained to look sad, women have to take off their jewelry for the shoot, or children have to exchange their school uniforms for dirty rags – sometimes despite the objections and incomprehension of those photographed. It does not make the situation any better that many aid organizations have long since switched to shooting their commercials and posters in Europe and casting Black people and People of Color here for their purposes.

Thanks to the Radiator Awards, the discussion about problematic donation advertising in the run-up to Christmas has also made it into Germany’s leading media. On “Let’s save Africa! – gone wrong”, for example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung has published an article. The racism researcher cited in it, Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard, has her say in a lengthy interview on Deutschlandradio Kultur and comments on the clip as follows:

Continue reading →

Anything but knorke!

The Berlin band Knorkator advertises their latest record with racist motifs and the slogan “We want Mohr”. We heard it on radioeins, saw it in Berlin’s streets and couldn’t believe our ears and eyes, but did nothing. Fortunately, not everyone has remained inactive: for example, the Initiative Black People in Germany has written a statement and the blogger Atif Hussein has exchanged letters with radioeins – rbb.

Repeated police violence against trans*of color – a press release from LesMigraS and GLADT.

On October 23, 2013, one of our employees was arrested together with three other protesters at a rally against police violence and arrests of activists of the refugee protest camp at Oranienplatz (Berlin-Kreuzberg). During the police custody, which lasted about an hour, the police officers behaved in a discriminatory and violent manner towards our colleague. In the process, his basic rights, which any state and executive authority is obligated to uphold according to the Basic Law, were strongly disregarded and violated. Continue reading →

1. International Day for Reparations Related to Colonialism / Journée internationale pour les réparations liées à la Colonisation

On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived in the “New World”. The date marks the beginning of conquest and exploitation. A coalition of organizations and initiatives worldwide is calling for the first “International Day for Reparations Related to Colonialism” in 2013. glokal has signed the appeal. Here is a short excerpt from it:

Colonization is a global phenomenon: there is hardly a country in the world that has not been colonized, a colonizer, or both, such as the United States. Colonization is one of the phenomena that has most disrupted humanity. It has left a deep and lasting impression on all continents and the consequences of this are

  • demographic: there are millions of people who have been exterminated, deported, or sold into forced labor.
  • political: in Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania, cities, kingdoms and empires have disappeared. Traditional communities were gradually disrupted and subjected to European domination.
  • economic: the entire economic fabric of societies was brutally dismantled. Crops were looted and famines became more frequent. Dispossessed of their own wealth, those who were colonized were permanently immersed in a state of chronic poverty.
  • cultural: colonization destroyed many civilizations, languages, cultures and religions. Those who were colonized often lost their roots and their identity. The social image of the non-European was degraded and this has facilitated the development of racist theories, which has fuelled violence and discrimination of all kinds.
  • ecological: the introduction of technologies in the service of profit and productivity focused visions caused the ransacking of millions of hectares of forests, the wasting of natural resources, the pollution of whole regions and it has made the environment fragile and deteriorated public health. It has also helped to disrupt ecosystems and, of course, the most devastating effect of colonization from an ecological aspect is the increase of global warming.

Agitation against Marika Schmiedt – resistant Roma positions are criminalized

The Pariah considers solidarity with Marika Schmiedt essential, because with her the entire Roma freedom movement is criminalized. Der Paria is particularly outraged about the complicity of the chairman of Austrian Roma Rudolf Sarközi with the Hungarian nationalists, which is why an open letter was written to Sarközi. Click here for the article by Der Paria.

The Big Five as dangerous as ever: German development cooperation, colonial-racist imagery, and civil society’s response

In response to the various statements against the BMZ poster campaign “The Big Five”, we have written an article that is intended to present a self-critical review and to make the debate accessible to an English-speaking audience. The article has been published in the journal Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices. We hope it is helpful for the further discussion about racism and power relations in DC. The article can be downloaded here.

Statement on the feature “Musical Missionization. Baroque music from the jungle”.

On August 30, 2013, Deutschlandfunk broadcast the feature “Musikalische Missionierung. Baroque music from the jungle”. Lena Böllinger has written a letter in response to this, which we would like to make public herewith. Several organizations have signed it, including glocal.

Addendum: Judith Grümmer wrote a response for Deutschlandfunk, which you can find here.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I heard your August 30, 2013 feature “Musical Missionization. Baroque Music from the Jungle” on Deutschlandfunk. I am deeply appalled and outraged by the way colonialism and the related missionary activities of the Jesuits have been addressed. At no point in your feature is there a critical reflection on the connection between missionization, colonial history of violence, and racism. Instead, the feature attempts to whitewash and legitimize missionization as “soft colonization.” In doing so, it updates and reproduces colonial-racist stereotypes and white[1] superiority fantasies. Continue reading →