WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

VIDEO: WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

EVERYDAY RACISM, POSITIVE RACISM , RACIAL PROFILING

Where are you from?

No, where are you really from? At birthday parties, job interviews, in schools and everywhere you go as a BiPoC in Germany….

“I bet you can sing well?”. “Wow, you speak good German!”

Everyday racism has many faces.
People, nations, ethnicities, cultures and/or constructions of racism – everything has to be pigeonholed.

Othering – people are divided into groups: “us” and “the others” – negative evaluations. “They are uncivilised, they are different.”

It is important to name everyday racism. Positive racism also plays an important role.

Positive racism is strongly influenced by stereotypes. From a psychological point of view, we know that humans have many drawers in their heads.
These drawers make our lives easier. When I pick up a pair of scissors, I don’t have to think about what movements I have to make to cut. I just cut away at it. In the same way, stereotypes and prejudices are “mental drawers”.

From the age of about three, children begin to divide people into groups, mainly by external characteristics such as gender, hair colour and skin colour. Even at this age, the particularly familiar group of people to whom one belongs is judged a little better. After all, they are like oneself, similar in appearance, food, rituals etc.. In studies, researchers show that the regions in the brain for fear and flight are particularly active when participants see pictures of people of other ethnic groups. These activities do not occur with members of one’s own group.

A stereotype generalises and simplifies. For example: Germans are always punctual, men love football and cars, women only think about shopping.

Whenever we meet people, we think in such stereotypes and categories. This facilitates perception – and is basically nothing negative. The problem is that negative evaluations are usually added to the stereotype. This leads to preconceived opinions. This puts ‘others’ into pigeonholes from which it is difficult to get out.

Positive racism is the attribution of racist ‘positive’ prejudices. Examples of positive racism include attributing special mathematical skills to Asian-read people or special rhythmic skills to Black people. This Positive Racism affects many areas of the lives of those affected, ranging from intelligence to sexuality. There is a structure of discrimination behind this form of racism. Many also feel a great deal of pressure to live up to the expectations of the environment. Sometimes individual interests are not pursued because of this. For this reason, it is extremely important to name racism, regardless of the “intention” behind such a supposed compliment.

Another stereotype-based form of racism is racial profiling. Profiling means the targeted categorisation of people. Categorisation is the assignment of people to groups such as gender, age, social class, ethnicity, subculture, social role, sexual orientation etc.. Many institutions (social, governmental, ecclesiastical institutions assigned to a certain area) use this method. One example is the police. There it can look like this: People are classified according to various criteria such as ethnic origin, national origin or religion, and on the basis of this, are increasingly controlled and treated differently. Anyone familiar with the topic of police violence, racism and racial profiling knows that institutional racism is by no means harmless, but very dangerous. At this point at the latest, it should be clear that racism is a social structure that cannot be individualised.

VIDEO: RACIAL PROFILING

TEST YOURSELF

Which of the following statements is not racist:

ABOUT OUR REFEREE

I have been active in the Global New Generation Berlin eV association since 2009. I started as a child acting in the musicals and workshops. Racism has been a stable companion in my life from the beginning. Participating in the offers of the association, convinced me and showed me many ways about how to deal with it and how to defend myself. At the age of 22, I wrote my first project and learned how to use my skills to help other people. The most recent project was one that addressed the issue of racism and raised awareness. I have experienced a lot of racist violence myself and also an incident that went to court. I have contacted newspapers, given interviews on German and Turkish television on this topic, given lectures and also written my own articles. My motto is: never keep silent, because if you keep silent you have already lost. Today I am proud to sit on the board of this association and can actively help.