Ezra Jack Keats is a white U.S. Jewish author who wrote and illustrated children’s books as early as the 1960s that centered their plots on children of color. As a representative of multiculturalism, Keats intervened with his books in the canon of “classic” children’s literature. With his character Peter in “The Snowy Day,” the first Black protagonist in a children’s book published in the U.S., the author created an identification figure for countless African-American children. The plots are set in urban areas of the USA and tell realistic stories from the everyday life of children. Even today, many of…
Author: glokal e.V.
Colonial perspectives and actions continue in Germany and are expressed in all areas of society. Black perspectives, among others, thus find little access to knowledge archives and are misappropriated in media, political, and academic discourses. An apparently objective order of the German knowledge (science) system is thus preserved. The volume Afrokultur by Natasha Kelly “brings Black German history, its present and future into a global context through the biographies of Black scholars and activists W.E.B. Du Bois, Audre Lorde, and May Ayim, thus continuing an intellectual tradition.” Book description of the publisher Afroculture separates itself from racialized assumptions, acknowledges Black…
In his study “Afro-German Activism,” Stefan Gerbing examines the scope for action and intervention of Black people in Germany in the conditions of a structurally racist society at the time of the Kaiserreich. “After the end of World War I, it was not only in Europe that power relations were renegotiated and borders redrawn. While in Germany first the empire and then the revolution failed, the first German republic was founded and soon destroyed, colonized people from Asia and Africa took part in renegotiating colonial power relations. In Paris, London, and Berlin, voices of colonized people grew louder, seeking to…
For the umpteenth time, public television broadcast racist content in an entertainment format in a prominent broadcasting slot. During the show “Verstehen Sie Spaß”, which was broadcast on ZDF on 29.10.2016, racist blackfacing was part of a sketch. In the run-up, there had been protests from the population at the discriminatory broadcast content, especially from the black communities. In his post Why I can’t laugh at the black man as a nasty surprise on the website uebermedien, Ali Schwarzer comments from a concerned person’s perspective on why denigrating black people on the show is hurtful and infuriating.
In an open letter on October 28, 2016, the Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD) called on Südwestrundfunk (SWR) to refrain from broadcasting a sketch as part of the program “Verstehen Sie Spaß?” on ZDF. In the show, host Guido Cantz uses the racist practice of blackfacing as part of a so-called loading: Statement of the Initiative Black People in Germany on the planned broadcast “Verstehen Sie Spaß?” on 29.10.2016 The fun stops where racism begins! Dear Mr. Boudgoust Dear Mr. Hauser, The initiative Black People in Germany has been committed for years against the still common practice of blackfacing…
Trollbar ‘Sgladschdglei! is a blog by Ali Schwarzer from Neuland, so he writes about himself. On Trollbar you can read texts that are written from a Black critical perspective, and under categories such as work, racism, Leipzig, sexism, or media, take a look at the immediate as well as the wider living environment of the author.
Decolonize Mitte is a racism-critical alliance that wants to advance a decolonization of Berlin’s past and present through diverse actions and interventions. Part of the merger are: AfricAvenir International Afrika-Rat Berlin-Brandenburg, regional association of African associations in Berlin-Brandenburg Action group M Street Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag (BER) – Berlin State Network of Development Non-Governmental Organizations Berlin Postcolonial Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD-Bund) Among other things, Decolonize Mitte vehemently advocates for a renaming of Mohrenstraße in Berlin-Mitte and demands a removal of colonial racist street names in the African quarter in Berlin-Wedding.
“Awakening the Horse People” provides writings and resources for people of European descent interested in decolonization. These are about “healing whiteness,” but not about white supremacy, white nationalism, or fascism – but about decolonization, connecting with past ways of life, and redeveloping a place-based identity. “People of European heritage are often called hungry ghosts because we don’t know ourselves. This trauma of disconnection is profound, causing us to constantly grab for anything of spiritual meaning – even if it does not belong to us. This taking leads to cultural theft and appropriation, spiritual materialism, and the silencing of authentic native…
“Because the Others are demonic and unbridled, we are empowered to protect ourselves from them and our prerogatives.” From the description of the publisher This perhaps shortest analytical formula of the broad perception of ‘others’ who have fled and migrated to Europe underlies the critical contributions of the anthology by María do Mar Castro Varela and Paul Mecheril. The starting point for the contributions in the anthology, which contradict the aforementioned thesis from different perspectives, is the treatment of flight and migration in the media, in politics, and in everyday life, which would have made racism, which is open in…
In her poem “Brutal Kindness”, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti speaks of boundaries, of self-evidence, of respect, of human dignity and respect. Brutal Kindnes We welcome you in our nation Our borders open only to a few We ask for nothing in return, except That you recognize the deepest wisdom That when in Rome you do as the Romans do Therefore, you must speak our language admire our deeds adopt our dreams obey our laws embrace our values praise our intelligence like our food fulfill our expectations mimic our behaviour contribute to our economy aspire to be like us commit to…
Fatima El-Tayeb, Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies, argues for new visions of the future and new narratives of Europe’s past in the volume “Undeutsch”. Europe’s current stumble from crisis to crisis reveals the consequences of a one-sided reappraisal of history, the author says. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, post-fascist and post-socialist narratives were combined to form a Western capitalist success story, while at the same time the country’s own colonial past remained unnoticed. Fatima El-Tayeb illustrates the effects of this process using the example of German identity: “Regularly racialized groups-especially blacks, Roma, and Muslims-are produced as ‘un-German,’…
“Es ging Tag und Nacht, liebes Kind” by Katrin Seybold and Melanie Spitta is not a film about Auschwitz, but a film with people who had to suffer Auschwitz. During the Nazi era, hundreds of thousands of Sint_ezza and Rom_njia were deported to the death camps in Germany. There they were victims of brutality, cruelty and death. In the film, Sinte families make the long journey to Auschwitz and talk about their visit to the camp and what was done to their relatives there during the Nazi era: “For us, our dead are not dead at all, they live in…