topic: | Racism |
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located: | Germany |
editor: | Abby Klinkenberg |
There are over one million Black, African and Afro-diasporic people living in Germany - but this figure is just an estimate. As a provocatively titled Quartz article declares, “statistically speaking, Black people in Germany don’t exist” since Germany (like 20 of the 38 OECD countries) does not collect any racial or ethnic identity data. While the legacy of the Holocaust and World War II has understandably led the German government to approach racial and ethnic categorisation with caution, its refusal to collect any such data obscures the extent of Germany’s significant anti-Black racism and, critically, keeps the country from effectively combatting it.
It is telling that the first attempt to measure the problem of anti-Black racism in Germany came in 2020 with the “Afrocensus.” The research, implemented by the Berlin-based Black community group Each One Teach One (EOTO) and Citizens for Europe (CFE) and supported by Alice-Salomon University and the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research, was funded by the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency. It surveyed 6,000 Black, African and Afro-diasporic individuals living in Germany about their perceptions and experiences of anti-Black racism in the country. Its results, released in November 2021, clearly emphasised that Germany’s official tactic of neglecting to collect racial and ethnic demographic data has done nothing to prevent anti-Black racism.
From the many revealing results of the 2020 Afrocensus, the report concludes that “anti-Black racism is widespread in Germany and entrenched in institutions.” Exoticisation was a particularly prevalent experience for respondents, 90.4 percent of whom shared that their hair has been grabbed without their consent. Further, 79.9 percent say they receive sexualised comments about their appearance or ‘origin’ on dating apps. In terms of respondents’ relationships with German authorities, 56.7 percent share that they have been checked by the police for no reason, while 85 percent state that they have faced discrimination from police officers ‘often’ or ‘very often.’ Overall, 42 percent of those surveyed felt discriminated against by state institutions and in everyday life in Germany. The report speaks to the country’s white-dominated cultural climate in that 93.3 percent of respondents shared that they have not been believed when they have brought up their experiences of racism.
These figures are staggering - and should inspire the government to take up urgently needed research on the nature of anti-Black racism in the country. These figures also spell out the need for census data to include race and ethnicity: only by collecting data on Germany’s Black community can policies targeting anti-Black racism be effectively developed and tailored. In a June 2021 report on the protection of Black communities, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights explicitly urges states to “collect and make publicly available comprehensive data disaggregated by race or ethnic origin… such data allows empirical evidence to be used to increase understanding of the magnitude of systemic racism in local contexts and of institutional responses and to monitor the effectiveness of policy measures.”
In Germany, white supremacist norms remain thoroughly entrenched in both society and culture, as reflected by respondents’ answers in the Afrocensus. Regular instances of discrimination against Germany’s Black, African and Afro-diasporic community speak to the pervasive and enduring nature of anti-Black racism in the country.
The Afrocensus report encourages Germany to launch advice centres across the country for those affected by anti-Black racism, university departments dedicated to Black studies, and community centres towards developing an effective empowerment infrastructure. To these urgent calls should be added demands to improve data collection practises, as the official recognition of Black, African and Afro-diasporic individuals and communities should be a priority.
Photo by Jana Leu