In Germany the topic racism always entails a rat-tail of bad emotions because our history still remains in bad memory. The German democratisation after World War II taught us to keep in mind what Germans had done. In reaction it is still frowned upon to be proud about anything that has something to do with our nation. The football world championship in Germany 2006 ironically opened a gap in that locked door – using the German flag for sport- events after crossing the bridge of guilty conscience.
In Germany the topic racism always entails a rat-tail of bad emotions because our history still remains in bad memory. The German democratisation after World War II taught us to keep in mind what Germans had done. In reaction it is still frowned upon to be proud about anything that has something to do with our nation. The football world championship in Germany 2006 ironically opened a gap in that locked door – using the German flag for sport- events after crossing the bridge of guilty conscience.
If you ask young Germans nowadays, racism and discrimination is still a big issue. Everywhere in kindergardens and schools a growing part of children and youngsters has a non-German background. But how does this change in society change the German attitude towards their own understanding of who is German and who is not?
Especially older people seem to keep an archaic understanding of who is a German member and who is not, ignoring the permanently growing part of people with a different nationality.
Since the early sixties Germany’s society is mixed up by so-called guest workers (“Gastarbeiter”) from Turkey, Greece and Italy, followed by migrants from Poland, Russia and a growing part of people with an African background. But even decades later, most Germans did not even see the need of integration, closing their eyes of global changes like shrinking of time and spaces, migration and structural changes within grown cultural and national contexts, initiated by globalisation.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, a western German state, now more than 20 percent of the population are immigrants if you keep in mind the national background of their parents. This shows us the direction of our future-society. We are all getting mixed-up more and more. So the question about who is German and who is not becomes more relevant day-by-day.
I have asked some children in the age of six to ten who take part in a weekly activity called “Afrikanissimo – discover the diversity” during their holidays, that is organised for the first time from a local association, that aims to convey cultural diversity and sustainable development in cooperation with young students from Africa.
The answers were clear: It is still not as easy for young people with a foreign background to become a fully accepted part of society. Especially black children are often victims of discrimination and disadvantage, even when they were born here. The different cultural background seems to clash with an inflexible school-system, that outlasts the last century.
What they tell me underlines my suggestions: the education of our children is not able to prepare the young generation on the defiance’s of their future: demolition of national boarders towards a strong European union, the importance of being aware of cultural differences in behaviour and global understanding, strong mutual dependence in economic, ecological and social aspects.
Only the combination of pointing-out the richness of other cultures, that are getting mixed up with our own one, as well as identifying problems in the origin countries like the missing of secure circumstances like economic poverty and social inequity, opens the track for open-minded integration face-to-face, that undermines racism and discrimination.
If you open your eyes, the young Europe is very colourful and filled with cultural richness. Letting it grow together seems to me the best answer against the old burden of racism.
By Stefanie Alles
