Berlin Is NOT a Multicultural Wonderland!
Everyday Racism Is Real in Berlin
Like the American melting pot myth, multikulti (slang for multikuturell, multicultural in English) attempts to whimsically sweep away all that’s different between us.
Multikulti promises racial equality, agency, plurality, and a genuine automatic acceptance of feelings, thoughts, experiences, disparate narratives, languages, and ways of doing from all people.
Yeah, this is not the Berlin I know.
Flippant and chic with ooh lá lá cache, multikulti cheats the lived Black experience of everyday racism in Berlin. White Germans define it. It’s looks-by-number, and cultural erasure. Multkulti upholds White supremacy.
“Wait! Berlin is racist?”
Everyday racism is rampant in Berlin. White Germans deny the self-reporting of racism because:
a: They have no black friends, or ones willing to discuss it.
b: They “never see it” and reject claims a priori — if not physical violence, or witnessed racial epithets — , and
c: shame from the Holocaust makes them uncomfortable discussing it.
Dear Germans: Racists no longer sport Springerstiefel and Glatze (jackboots and skinned heads)!
Service denial, unsubstantiated police calls or threats, over attention (following in stores and staring), racial profiling (No, I’m not a criminal!), unprovoked impatience, or refusing to speak English when capable is racist. “This is Deutschland!”, “Speak German!,” “You’re a guest here!,” and “Stay in your neighborhood!,” are short flights from “Go back to your country!” Hmm…sound familiar?
Over the last year, everyday racism has accelerated.
My power is in telling my story.
Service Denial at a Schoeneberg Bar
Blacks loitering without patronage is a common stereotype that’s led to over attention, unsubstantiated arrest, police brutality, and murder (think Eric Garner).
“GET OUT!” yelled the White German owner as he ripped my computer chord from the outlet throwing it on me. “You don’t buy anything, so get out!”
Waiting three minutes to order was evidently forbidden. To him, I was the black WIFI bandit stealing precious White resources.
I called the police reporting discrimination. “I’ve never seen him here before,” he told them. Of course the police didn’t understand what was racist about that.
Upon entering the bar he asked, “Can I help you?” like I must be lost or something. Over attentive customer service in Berlin? Really? My entrance stopped him dead in his tracts, and sadly it was not my good looks. I thrust him into a state of hypervigilance.
(Cue silent chants of THROW HIM OUT!)
The sight of an unknown Black man in his White neighborhood bar made him anxious and impatient. He threw me out like trash. He didn’t care about alienating a new regular, or my probable anxiety as the only Black person there. Maintaining his White supremacy mattered most.
Racist service denial often causes US businesses to repent. The senseless arrest of two Black men in a White Philly Starbucks prompted a no purchase necessary seating policy. Many German establishments lack a racial social conscience. To them, it was my fault for being different than what they expected.
Would a White blonde haired blue-eyed German guest have provoked the same response? No, of course not! They would fit the cultural norms of the bar, and the look of their patrons.
“Stay in your Neighborhood!”
“This is Deutschland!” barked a customer after hearing me clarify my coffee order in English. I explained — in my best Deutsch — that Germany is now a globalized society, and other people live here besides White German’s (Deutschland ist jetzt globliziert, und mehr Leute dann weiße Menschen heir leben).
“GET OUT or I’ll call the police!” shouted the cashier withdrawing my coffee from the counter. I called myself. “Berlin is multiculti, I’ve never heard of racism,” the operator said. “That is because you most likely don’t live around black people and have no black friends” I explained. Silence. “You can wait until the police arrive Mr. Brown!,” he retorted before hanging up.
I took to Facebook about my experience. The customer involved replied to my Facebook review:
“Recommendation: Stay in your neighborhood!”. (Emphalung: Bleib einfach in Deinem Kiez!).
(He probably wants to ‘send [me] back’ to my country too.)
A Black user replied with a Nazi era poster reading:
“The inhabitants of this location don’t want to deal with Jews.” (Die Einwohnerschaft des ores wünscht keinen Umgang mit Juden.)
What has changed since 1939?
Grocery Shopping while Black
Grocery shopping while Black can be fruitless. I’m called a thief when shopping with my reusable bag, however White customers use book bags with abandon. Racial profiling at its finest. Upon complaining to a popular chain, they swiftly fired their security company, and posted their reusable bag policy in the window.
I applaud them. Baby steps.
Implicit Bias in Medicine
Black patients demand the same standard of care as White patients. Unconscious racial bias in medicine is deadly. White Physicians ignore us when sick. I attest to being swiftly dismissed left to suffer from an easily treatable deficiency by my general practitioner. I filed with the Berlin Doctors’ Council (Arztekammer). I encourage others to do the same.
Physical assault by Landlord
No longer their tenant, my landlord has stopped speaking English — although capable — and refused to return my deposit. Their maintenance company physically assaulted me when moving out, the house manager refused to take my keys, and she took pictures of every non-existent speck of dirt she could find in their ancient apartment.
No, I’m not the only one. Facebook groups and organizations such as Each One Teach One tell me all Black people face similar experiences. ALL!
Racism is “endemic” in Germany
After visiting Germany in 2016, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated:
Finally during the UN Decade for People of African Descent (2015–2021), an unprecedented EU referendum addressing racism against Blacks was passed on March 26, 2019. For years Blacks fought for this recognition. Did you hear about it?
Of course not. Mainstream White media never covered it.
They don’t see Us
Black people are not White people with a sexier skin tone.
We speak, act, move, and think differently. And that is good.
Deep in the White German habitus is the assumption that all people will conform to you regardless of their cultural narrative. This is selfish White supremacy.
Kept voiceless, Berlin’s milieu of races and cultures co-exist more harmoniously than Germany at large. Yet, refusing a racial census insures that those who don’t count aren’t counted. Black Germans push for a racial census because they want to be valued.
Through the choir, only White voices are heard.
Antiracism unpracticed
German antiracism laws and practices are ineffectual and disingenuous.
although the [German] constitution guarantees equality, bans racial discrimination and enshrines the inviolability of human dignity, these principles are not put into practice. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 2016)
Promised are inaction and no commitment towards fighting racism. The State anti-discrimination agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes) is not helpful. Useless — like artificially flavored, sugary, high calorie marshmallow peeps — they don’t investigate, enforce the law, or seek a resolution on your behalf.
Unless you’ve got thousands of Euros to sue, discrimination is a free for all.
the lack of an independent complaint mechanism at federal and state level fosters impunity.
Why does racism require White Certitude?
Self-reported racism isn’t believed prima facie. Certitude is required from judges —ailed by White fragility and their own racism — who lack awareness of the Black lived experience. Secret racists happily thrive under Datenschutz privacy laws, protecting them from video surveillance, and social policing.
That’s right! Victim of racism and want to prove it? Put down the camera or be sued! Rely on White Germans to bear witness, who will likely feign unawareness of any impropriety. Besides, it’s YOUR FAULT anyway Black man!
White people can’t be trusted to know what is everyday racism. From my experience, they remain silent during racial assaults. Police and politicians are equally mute.
Assimilation: Mission Impossible
Multikulti normalizes whiteness. It denotes otherism, not assimilation.
In a country where immigration advocacy is still deadly, non-Whites seem forever foreign. Generations after immigration, citizens aren’t considered German.
Germany is being forced to challenge its racial identity. Begrudgingly, it has quickly become a country of increased heterogeneity, however gaining cultural membership is still tough. Out-groups (non-White German’s) are expected to adopt the dominant (White-German) cultural repertoire.
Eramus prizewinner and Harvard Sociologist Dr. Michele Lamont defines cultural repertoire as all the information we send out about who belongs and what is valued. Efforts to “play by the rules” still leave many benched.
So what’s the threshold for German cultural membership? [Answer: Being White German.]
How do you feel?
If you are White, and have read this far, you may feel angry, shame, agitated, and defensive. I feel you. This will pass. At your expense, everyday I feel the same. This will not. When Black people experience racism, why must we accommodate your feelings by smiling and gagging ourselves?
In her book titled White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism, Robin DiAngelo says:
Confronting racism isn’t about the needs and feelings of White people.
We’re not lambs forced to placate White sensibilities.
“But I’m a GOOD White person! I don’t need to think about racism!”
A world without unconscious bias and racism is fantasy. Self-proclaimed “good” people impede social justice more than flagrant Nazis. Multikulti blinds one from racisms reality. It proliferates.
Multikulti is crack for the conscience of neoliberal White Germans. Stop fashioning its definition to your liking. Learn to accept — not just tolerate — different cultural narratives. Listen. Listen. Give people of color agency in feeling. Let them decide when they’re accepted. WE KNOW! We alone decide what’s racist through our lived experiences. Embrace us with empathy when we report it, for I assure you, it hurts us more than it’ll ever hurt you.
Multikulti weaponizes White fragility against the Black experience of racism in Berlin.
It’s a kernel from which racism grows. Sanction this word, and those who plant its seeds of hate through denial and silent indifference to racism.
The word multikulti depends on complicity in White supremacy.
Will you keep using it?
Noted conductor, educator and social justice advocate Brandon Keith Brown seeks to engineer society from the podium by decreasing the racial stigmatization of underrepresented minority classical musicians. Brown is a prizewinner and the audience favorite of the 2012 International Sir Georg Solti Competition for Conductors, and guest conducts prominent European orchestras including the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester-Berlin, Badisches Staatskapelle, members of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Jena Philharmonie among others. Upcoming debuts include the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, WDR Funkhaus Orchestra Köln, Cape Town Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. He is a student of David Zinman, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur and Gustav Meier. Initially trained as a violinist, he attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music studying under Roland and Almita Vamos.
For more information: www.brandonkeithbrown.com
For speaking engagements: info@brandonkeithbrown.com
Instagram: @brandonkeithbrownconductor
