Ideas on Facebook Twitter and detailing. The perception that germans are why the head in blue ice has never been true and will never be two its an. People always ask me where im from its not possible to be german and black. From the moment i get up and leave the house in the morning im confronted with racist views images and styria types of people. As a child alice wanted to have white skin because ive heard bed being black and not being able to blend in and i was kind of sticking a hold of the group and being you know different than the rest i didnt want to be different. I am traveling around germany to talk with other black people about oh experiences with racism my first stop this hammock thats where i was born into. I had absolutely wonderful parents and that helped me a lot in difficult situations. I mean i always had a lot of friends about what i do remember. That we played these funny games like whos afraid of the black man and tender little girls thats called in german so and i remember that sometimes they ran after me and said yeah nothing can hurt me in Something Like younus an african man as an african and the problem is that african men something bad. I first met sammy did. When i was a teenager and have today hes one of germanys most successful rap us and hip hop on. The voice make it might. Seem like shit but make could prove any moment he died. With a lot. Look theres always a little zone thing. Ive come to see semi in this dont know as you. Say the way it was this had a number of top ten hits and its sold over a million records just. Like today he also produces other musicians. But as a kid i wanted to be white and cute. Yeah as a kid white and as a teenager i really wanted to be black. Thats nice only still needs to not have this ambiguity it seems so clear cut like on the white side and white people just knew who they were black people did to me i felt like i was in the middle i grew up in a white family in a white neighborhood it was definitely a challenge. And challenge of really does its mission for me the feeling of being caught in between a something imposed on you from the outside i mean people always say dont you see tall until conscious black and wide which do you feel. It affect this yourself i dont find it unusual why should i have to choose sides inflicted by me against you one thing that caused me a fair amount of confusion right from the start was that i have straight hair on justice by me and was of a machine and when shooters and when she could sneak going on top of the stand in grade school if some kid called me the n word and i reacted defensively or aggressively theyd say yes and hey hows that youre not really a nigger because your hair is straight with me so for me that was like ok im dark enough to get called the n. Word but my hair isnt frizzy or curly enough for me. You have the right to get upset about it and that was the first contradiction that was imposed on me from the outside world thats evoked a song flee a sound about humans didnt you its a song i wish to share it so i told him i wrote the song in two thousand and eight at the time i was reading a harry potter book to my son in the evening at bad times and one night he said he wished he were white and because then he could be like his friends in the moment and all you have to do is paint that thing on his forehead and wear around glasses and hed look like harry potter and it could be love thats in the also you harry potter and. That made me realize that theres an acute shortage of dark skinned superheroes so i wrote the song and made a really nice video to go along with it. Of musicians with us would. Have. Advised you to. Think that kind of. Thing that if i went there. For that. I might as well like you and i know why i dont like that song was written by the last guy. Was just like a long time thats a long maybe a long long time so really dont like. Much money like. Right now i think i get it right. Its a high i can remember when i was thirteen i was into novena and thats when i started going to potty stuff and the other kids would say vanna you why you listening to that and the should be listening to black music i did and i liked it more and then it was the best music scene whatever that means hip hop and r. And b. Album from the school on down and is a c. In the and then all of a sudden yes a big person a part of the majority of im up on my own. And then with these positive associations its whos its evil us its who got us a club with us fell from a single i think thats one of the main reasons i became who i am and its of the going with this rep thing this yes to the rap was the first thing that gave me a Home Court Advantage so to speak im for tight houses i just had to let my pants hang a little bit lower paying less in this case my cap to the side and move like this. And everyone was into it it looked authentic and it fit well with my exotic status those clothes if i did graffiti deejaying collected records started producing rasping and and beatboxing all the hip hop disciplines except breakdancing that was too much work so youre telling me i. Just body type of it. Only with words. As a journalist i dont have a Home Court Advantage. When i decided to become a journalist and when i became an anchor i was actually i think the first female black anchor and germany i didnt have any role model is. Not a big deal of it. For me its really important that children you know when this watch on the t. V. That might see me and think oh quite i can be on t. V. And read the news and i dont have to have a job which was filled to the face the stereotypes for me that would be great if i could help bring dump areas in that sense. That people have been living in germany for four hundred years today they numbered about one million from me in cologne off come to see. Do you support them yeah. He was born in one nine hundred twenty five been brilliant. Well why did your father come from cameroon to germany back then come a one by you had to tell the room was a german colony. The one for you. Just as people used to dream of going to america. At that time many Young Africans wanted to come to germany. This was there was no such thing as what we know called racism. At least not as we know it today. You see it only started to take shape when the Young African started asserting themselves for instance by marrying german women oh. And the reaction was there taking away our women. In quincy in the name onset the following way. Sammael you appeared in ethnographic exhibits also known as humans zeus what was it like stans affordably imagine human being those of us being exhibited like objects literally exhibited earth present from what they supposedly represented of namely africa with vast skirts and drums dancing saunas. Didnt and the idea was that people under splay were foreign exotic. And more showing spectators what their homeland was like this and. Basically it was just a big show. As good and going to good numbers as show evidence how crazy istead us a german was supposed to imitate this will perceive. Africa i was just such a huge continent. And hes a consummate. Widow had tryouts i was and im a black man so of course i should be able to do that thats how it is its in my blood and lets talk about the nazi era its so hard to imagine because black people would obviously attract attention in every genre there were so racist thats right mom both to kind and. We didnt need to wear yellow stars. Everyone could see we were aliens. Did you know a lot of other black people in germany. Who through or everyone knew everyone and there were some one colonial films made back then that many of us would meet up as part of the cast. Yet thats me. This is mine and thats my closest and dont like the fact of the shot a close up of me. And everyone who was in black was in that film. And it. Is a good thing i was sixteen at the time. And it struck me that my god were all here together. He can take us away without anyone noticing or not us as they did that and that thought weighed very heavily on me this. Is good thank god i never came to paris but in the we were too few in number to matter to the nazis that. When i die oh you know all contact with white women with the fellow i mean horrible whom. I would have been sterilized to live. And i might also have been charged with racial defilement being the passenger and. You say that you took great care not to get too close to white women girls. Was it like having all trying to become invisible how can we imagine that while it is us that see men the sleestak thats the right word invisible we could be counting on the of course with a face like this i could never completely disappear. But i tried. I think of sense i really did. And skipped as i and the main thing was to keep your head down can your mouth shut. I made sure i did that as well. To the point that i started to start on this. Yeah i started turning away. Ive been understood listening to the difficult often horrible things you experienced. How did you find the strength to go on what. The w. C. Well i have to say with gods help. I became a religious person the league as i mentioned above. Then. Thats what well go. To you know one year michel always says theres nothing in the german constitution that states what the german is supposed to look like but some people havent gotten the message for them we asked the exciting. When i was a child complete strangers would touch my hand say it feels like a birds nest. Right oh my god oh my god its good to see you sort of thing i watch breakfast t. V. Every morning i turn on the set and think its like an afro german woman on german public t. V. Be as were so proud of you. Oh youre just such a wonderful job just good doesnt do much the story but to your mate look at your hair and to talk about that yes we do. That well work in some coconut oil. Like me. Thanks a lot to you got to have somebody that is enough i love your curls ok and then i would always wake up this movies a look these are the hurdles. But now im really happy to be talking to s. That dont call out the founder of cause a local cully hamner thats how sometimes i think that black peoples has really politicized its like a political statement whether you have to have done it naturally the stereotype is that they have its messy and wild that doesnt go all the but in the professional. Afro hair just isnt acceptable. Our Society Still doesnt comply with our ideals of beauty. Look at beyond saying shes a black woman shes a performer of the shes the embodiment of empowerment but she still wears a straight blonde weve. Met women who work in law offices in places like that we get into trouble if they wear their hair naturally that kind. Of. Can you tell us about the natural Hand Movement does is this sort of fell into it. Its about allowing people with afro textured hair to wear it naturally without causing a fuss or having to feel selfconscious. Thats what life is about accepting yourself be a good set of names as absence of times. Change and. Just be comfortable in your own skin thats the goal but its not so easy. I think the problem is that if you see all these stereotypes about africa about tribes about being primitive of that barrier a native underdeveloped. It hits you. Part of the problem of the images from the days of colonialism and the lin dance to streets named after german nice and colonialists. And berlin in one thousand nine hundred four that european nations had a conference when they carved up africa and to colonies. It was. Bought. By me at a street festival aimed at forcing the city to change the name from the us. And here was just a crazy akins political scientist an activist why its important for you to remain districts the term is one of the oldest german words. The person box should look at the root of the term it has a latin and the greek groups morris and morris and guess that means dark or black but it also means stupid heathen and primitive and so we see already in the origin of the work that there is this idea of black inferiority but then we look into the history of the street name if we see that the street was named quiet its name in the context of the brandenburg involvement in the transatlantic and slave meant and to prize how would you say to us germany to deal with this colonial history i think as a huge problem. A lot of aspects of german korean history are not widely known we cant even begin to understand National Socialism without looking at the colonial and to see this because we find that they are ideological political but also personal continuities linking german colonialism and National Socialism. Please and i set off to uncover some of the traces. Soft colonialism in the german capital. Ok i think i moved to berlin ten years ago but this defers time im seeing this fresco can you explain what im seeing so we had the house and this here shows us the trail of tobacco so you see and slaved african men harvesting tobacco then enslaved African Women packaging the tobacco and it is sorted and weighed you know as a white overseer and then its package further its made ready for shipment and you see one of the white overseers is already lounging and having a smoke but then you see the ship departing for them not releasing its burden because you see the silhouette of the german and the french dont so this clearly explains the source of the wealth that was used to build this place right but of course it also implicates the people that frequented here and the suffering that is also depicted here. Black people are often defined by this skin color so when known south african artist robin wrote place with the stereotypes he experienced apartheid in south africa now hes been living in berlin for fourteen g. s. I. Could tell you this year i could see you working on a new p. C. s. I have a work in process and its a world guy some knowledge in this is about myself african i did thirty. Of course the african is a strong some bull its interesting that he chose here of course i can identify with that but let us i mean look at what role of detail at a for have played for you he became a way to to classify a place been sold to a place through he to. Who did you pick to kind of the stand and before the racial category. Saying that if they go through my head they say its f. I have i am exactly black on the public categorized as colors has colored always mixed race. So if the goal waned we invidious find you here because you guys as white how were you classified as on the farm classified as scarlet as if it is a person of mixed race and so on might be and so my grandparents and. In many ways my cultural background is quiet complex because i know you know we dont associate ourselves with black and neither white. Sorry but i know you view it as black. German content what i think is in the german gone pics im viewed as out of oh really so thats actually pretty interesting. I use off as a way to subvert but also to to play with. And on the valve will watch these kind of cultural labels off. This particular piece reading speed of mental bathing everything needs to be defined it needs to be categorized and im trying to knob explore the notion of something that is completely in this something that is completely undefined. I was born in one nine hundred eighty one and in the early ninetys we had a serious of lootera vases to take see in germany and also and highest to get it and so willing it must be backed by stan the stephen king. During the attacks. It was really heartbreaking to see and it frightened me so much as a child. And i think thats something that is also very scary if you look at the recent vice and racist attacks on refugees in germany and so few of the people who take them were caught and put on trial and i think thats a very dangerous message to everyone who experience racism because it means ok you can be attacked but you know you can attack people but you can get away with it in that it gives us the message ok people can do to you whatever they want they wont be put on trial. And that scares me a lot. About us an apprentice roof working in the eastern german state of sex and the im hot he hasnt been living here for very long in two thousand and thirteen he fled book enough fossil for germany his job gives the twenty eight year old some stability was but otherwise his life is often difficult recently he will speak not by of right wing fuck i mean he send the town of war where he lives as a hero eight months ago you were beaten up right here tell us about that. Should get right i looked into the stall and saw a man and if with a woman and child. And he said in my didnt look at that he sure does using the n. Word for us to look at this black piece of trash when. I didnt say anything that. I went to the counter to pay this and he went like this. And i said this is what do you want from me and he says ill show you a school i went over there and he hit me three or four times like this and i yelled muzzle history of how bad the way you hurt when a boa list due to the i felt a lot of pain in my stomach and i come down the block for about two months. And were not holding. On but how does it feel when no one steps in to help you when youre being beaten up and often treated with hostility and its hard to get and im at how do you cope. With it in a culture so im always afraid when i go out now in a sort to see who can i go to work im afraid of what might happen along the way that people make just just like im going to cut your throat that is seeing and they shout go back to where you came from shocking people do that to me every day shockingly. This is the courthouse in the town of stand up its where the man who beat up he says on trial. How do you feel knowing youre about to see the person would take you as he has shown above and im not afraid. I cant wait to see him again and look into his eyes dizzy and fall saddam is you. The attacker who has a long criminal record was found guilty of assault and sentenced to ten months in jail but he appealed was just a reason for this hearing. The. Cameras arent allowed inside the courtroom. After a four hour last the conscience. And how was it for you today. I never expected it to go so well and yes im personally very pleased to hear mr. C. Ter. The conviction is upheld but the attacker intends to appeal again. Once you wake up in the morning and you switch on the radio or you switch on the t. V. Youre confronted with all these stereotypes about africa and. Its really difficult to talk about racism in germany because once i experience it when i talk about racism people say oh youre too emotional youre over reacting the comfy true im sure the person didnt mean it that way so they dont really take it serious and that its really hard because i feel like i am not taking serious but my experience its. Girls girls were new to the super. Nice girls racism without regret because it should all gives. And listening in the author of this play is the artist and writer. The story shes originally from particle but has lived for many years a billion. For me it took a lot of effort to Research Black german history had to go out because there was nothing that was presented to me in school for example what all of us silencing play in your ads i think in the last works that ive been doing im very concerned with this question of silencing and speaking and with the with the fact that its not that we have not been producing nodes or have not been speaking but we believe in a system that constantly silence or make these knowledge is invisible racism is really with the for equally for me a ghost that our society never took care of and never cared because we live in these very white Narcissistic Society that dont want to deal with it and then she said well thats me youre not black i dont think that you are like. That in a way as. Soon as doing me a favor when did you. Start feeling that no i dont believe this dominant narratives you just talked about when did you figure out this had no not this cant be it there must be something you know. I dont know if i can tell you. But i believe it has always been there. Now as a mother i when i am with my children and i hear them bringing the topic of racism even though they are two and four or five its just time five. It is still i see that up. Where that is not right and its extremely complicated to explain such a brutal history and this is the trauma of black people and people from many other than us for us who went through similar experiences collective experiences that you cannot explain and apply any logic to something that is so absolutely love illogical and not aggressive because this is aggressive i call i do not want to be. Lets now turn to a question that ive hurt more times than i can count how come your parents are white the and suck my biological father came from zimbabwe but actually the mother from germany directly after i was born in hamburg i was adopted by a german swedish couple. And for me they are my parents. This is indian our parish she too was adopted i grew up in best germany she grew up in the east but were inside an old guard tower from the days of communist east germany the war divided berlin until one thousand nine hundred eighty nine in the Us Biological father is from guinea he was studying at the university of light see when he met her biological mother but she was married and her husband was in jail nevertheless he said he could imagine raising the child. Star bunny but he didnt know that i was going to look the way i look at it as if that i would be a black child. Aunties a man who died. And this man was a hard core rightwinger. And. He got out of jail soon after i was born. It was obvious that i wasnt a white child. And had hired and he tried he attempted to kill me. And my left him with my biological mother saw him dangle. Me out the window bad so in all likelihood she said before the child is killed i will send her away. If he had and at some point she decided to put me up for adoption. Out of the hundreds of. Us who hired a law in the last move wardens i think that subconsciously in any case you never forget that you were abandoned by a biological parents you were born and were unwanted you take that with you to your grave is she in kin to me it still seems unfair to just give away a child like that. Barren kynde victim. Oh oh oh oh wake up in the eye works as a duck trainer and has adopted several neglected dogs. Weve asked and how was it for us to play school. Yard be problematic valar dustins thought one problem was the teachers who thought we shouldnt eat with the other kids two of it in an argument as. We were supposed to wash our hands really thoroughly as if something could rub off on the other kids. We have all complete seen for months and has moved. Into the country and we werent allowed to nap near the other children. A minute on board should see my parents did everything to protect us so. They gave up everything they had to be there for us kids right they fought for us they did what they could and i think it was the right thing that they may have to east berlin. And the hospital is another thing you hear so often oh adoptive parents can never be the real parents but that is complete nonsense you really see the love they have for the children just like any other parents. And the eight of them absolutely they protect you and do everything for you and your family whether someone gave birth to you are not absolutely for me blood relationship is meaningless. Behold new boots for on track for me too and for me its immaterial and fragmented and as my parents told me about how they drove to the Childrens Home in life to say where i was. And i crawled straight into my papas arms so for me it was clear thats my papa and thats really great but this might impact your and yard as well today as the tire churn and thats how it was until the end we were really close. Best resuming of ive been wrong. It wasnt until the age of seventeen that india met her biological mother. Jones and we had no one to go off. We went for a walk and she sat here and i didnt want you to turn out so black yes that was the very first sentence i heard from my biological mother. And. And i said. Ok well as of what to do expect. Talking with other effort germans about our experiences gives me strength thats one reason why im a member of the initiative both black people in germany every year the whole time and you know meeting this is the first time im attending. Normally by the buzz the crowd through the chef in the kitchen when zinah nests the pasta and so whole in the house and temperate too its a control issue its put off sharon to do it is holding us on taney is reading up as a sign around two hundred seventy people have come to the initiatives and the only thing i was the group was formed over thirty years ago. To get jealous and the steering committee. The diet you tell me how was the initiative found it. It was thanks to two happy coincidences the first lord was in berlin because im who was ok dont you know she was an American Writer from the black feminist movement in the us but she was teaching in berlin with because over the course of her time there she met a lot of black women who came to her readings and discovered that they didnt know each other. So she hit on the idea of connecting them so that they could exchange experiences and dont come she also brought out what i believe is the first book of stories told by black people about black people in germany. Trying to get. To mention in georgia i am a black man everyone is come to read aloud at initiatives me to you when i look at a white man i mean. Really. Knowing in the growing of the night when i think about it. This is the theme of this meeting is somehow meant in south korea doesnt mean. Because i can paul meant to mention empowerment means showing black people especially young people that there was a lot they can do with themselves up from that they can take charge of a lot of things develop themselves and establish new perspectives of self care within a society influenced by racism and entails ensuring that you as a black person stay healthy protect yourself and grow stronger in the mission its a mixture it involves politics but also drinking smoothies or doing yoga or sports or. Its a boon to speak us. Give it a somewhat. Go. And to two thousand and eleven he played in the German National team. If you could stick. A day in the life of someone. And give it in custody of us the very first black German National player and you were also one of the first i know. You started playing for germany in two thousand and one how was that give up us for distance i would have been positive i was not for the cost it was more half an hour what does it mean and how is my you know what i want to do. Lets just say i was the first really blackwaters was the first black africa and thats why. I felt it wasnt easy for me back then to decide what. I could have played for john and i was told off for going back to have decided to play for god the time of. The figure i was in uganda but then they didnt play much on the go i went back to germany and germany was very insistent and at some point i said ok ill play for germany it was very rewarding very interesting it wasnt easy but it was nice sure but it wasnt easy. And theres some people. Who dont want to accept us and that was my big problem and i want also to see you do something for your country but youre still the black i thought i was six heres an example i was team yourself after the world cup in two thousand and six we came in certain people accepted us and then suddenly a month later you get the food and call the neighbor during a match and that was a moment where seriously consider no longer playing for germany it hurt to have a little. Bit of a courtroom after hanging out this socalled get someone became a household name and today hes the minutes off psychist on the twenty eighth weeks he was going up in guyana. I have come back out of the norm from among five hours away from my uncle vic files and it was a small village where people didnt have much notice when after school we play soccer with balls made of socks thats what heights when i look at my such memories he has everything he doesnt know what to do with it with moneys worth and i had to struggle to get two square meals a day. So that was how i grew up and it affected me going to submit all that made me said goals and saying i have to give my all to achieve something buswell russian and i sometime over the coming where i honestly dont know if. I can no longer understand why as a child i wanted to be white even if it takes a lot of strength and energy to deal with racism and to hold your head up high i wouldnt want a different skin color but anything in the book. For me being black means something serious it means me that im seen differently but whats going on inside that something else. Is just me its nothing more than a skin color and i hope my blackness blooms and becomes my beauty and were all the same i look first and foremost im a person with a yes at my age i wouldnt want to change anything about who i have people about but ill tell you one thing lacks are pretty cool cool dont you think that they are. So wrapped up. In. Creative metropolis or live the sounds to this. Music. Welcome to berlin today is a collection of some of my favorite episodes which we filmed here in berlin. To fifteen a small d w. One the man is in the john nichol furnished house is the new movie. From the after the birth of the best disc on. To seek spits out. The best spots to physics. Is a. Thirteen doubling. Every journey begins with the first step and every language with the first word pushed in the. Rico is in germany to learn german why not learn a simple online on your mobile and free themselves from d w z e learning course nico speak german made easy. Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro says key opposition parties will