An Examination of Racism in Berlin Academia (german and english)

15. November 2011

17:00 – 19:30 Uhr

In this dialogue round, the question of which racist forms of inclusion or exclusion are practiced within Berlin academia will be closely examined. The following questions will be looked into: Who has academic authority? Which topics are discussed? Who is qualified to be cited? Whose expertise and language is academically recognized? Whose expertise is suppressed in the process? What forms of racism are found in the realm of scholars and academia, including „international“ study programs? Lastly, the topic of practical and effective steps toward change will be discussed.
Students, professors and all who are interested in sharing experiences and perspectives are invited to join.

Datum / Date: 15.11.2011
Kontakt / Contact_Yvonne Hylla, Katharina Kersten, Patricia Spina, E-Mail:muriel@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Ort / Place_Migrationsrat Berlin-Brandenburg e. V., Oranienstr. 34, 10999 Berlin
Veranstalter / Organisation_Studierendengruppe des / Student group of the “European Master in Children’s Rights”, FU Berlin

General Students Committee at the Hamburg University puts out racist video

The General Students Committee at the Hamburg University have put out a racist video.

Students at the university staged an intervention at the premiere of the film, taking the mic and voicing their opposition, which can bee seen here:

http://www.hwp-netz.de/studierende-erschreckt-von-rassismen-und-sexismen-im-asta-film

Join Uniwatch!

We are looking for new Uniwatch members.  If you are interested, please email uni_watch@yahoo.de

Congolese student expelled from Moscow State University after suffering violent racist attack

From the Youth Human Rights Movement:
“About Boris:
In the evening of May 9th Boris Desten, a Congolese student of the Moscow State University of Food Production, was attacked on the street by 8 young people when he was coming back from the official celebration of the victory in WWII to his dormitory. According to Boris Desten, he was being beaten up with the cries, which he considered humiliating to his skin colour. Boris called ambulance and the medical certificate from Botkin hospital in Moscow states that he had received abrasions of forehead and the back of the head. A Policemen refused to register his complaint because “it’s Friday and holiday and this is Russia”.
On May 12 Boris got to know that he expelled from the university for the reason of “participation in the incident on 9 May 2010, which ended up with a fight on the dormitory territory”. He was evicted from the dormitory at the same date. Till 29 July the security guard of the dormitory did not allow the student to access his personal belongings. Boris Desten did not possess of any other clothes, except clothes in
his dormitory room. Several days later he was robbed on the street and all his money, cell phone and even shoes were stolen. Visa, that provides Boris Desten with a legal stay in Russia, expires on 24 August, 2010.

He hadn’t any problems with the university administration till that incident and was considered to be a good student with proper marks. Boris had to ask for an asylum, financial and legal support trying to survive in Moscow and to get back his status of a student.

What can be done to protect Boris:

the official appeal can be sent from individuals and organizations on the address on the university;

to inform German universities which cooperate with MSUFP university about this case and to ask them to put a pressure on their partner in Russia;

to call to the university administration and to ask why Boris was expelled;

It will be great if you can inform me of my colleagues (stud-solidarity-desten@yhrm.org) about undertaken actions.

German partners of the university:

*******************

Hohenheim University, Stuttgart, Germany
Postanschrift
Universität Hohenheim
70593 Stuttgart
Telefon:0711 459-0
Telefax: 0711 459-23960
post@uni-hohenheim.de

__________________________________________________________________

Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Post:
TU Dresden
Dezernat 5
TUD-Information
01062 Dresden
Tel.: +49 351 463-37044
Fax: +49 351 463-37284
infostelle@tu-dresden.de“
___________________________________________________________

Protest Letter Template

GLOSSARY – Racism

Racism is the construction of hierarchically valued differences on the basis of racial identity combined with a historically, socially, politically and economically disproportionate power structure.

Racism is not the same thing as discrimination, racism necessarily includes a societal asymmetrical power imbalance. In her book “Plantation Memories”, Grada Kilomba defines racism as prejudice plus power. Racism often manifests itself in individual racist acts and thoughts, these individual instances cannot however, be separated from the system of privileges and discrimination that allows and encourages them.

GLOSSARY – Critical Whiteness

“white” does not refer to a homogenous group based on biological facts, as the categories of “race” and ethnicity are socially constructed. Despite this, all attributions resulting from racialization have real consequences and impacts on our lives in the form of discrimination or privilege.

Peggy McIntosh writes, that to be white, means to live your life with an invisible knapsack of societal privileges. These privileges are not earned, but rather ensured through violent structures of dominance. Among others, this “knapsack” holds the privilege of not having to think about racism and usually, not wanting to.

The feminist theologist Eske Wollrad explains that whiteness builds “the heart of racist hegemony”. It is a specific and alterable identity that can be fought for, given and lost. To create and retain this identity, white people constantly bring forth “the others”. This process occurs through multilayered demarcations and attributions with negative connotations. The goal of the creation and sustenance of these categories is the (re)production of white dominance within racialized power structures. In this way, white privilege and violence is legitimized. Through the constant labeling and marking of “the other”, whiteness, as the underlying norm and motor of this process, stays invisible and unmarked. White people appear to be without race and neutral.

GLOSSARY – Racism in Academic Spaces

Racism is, when….

…your professor is allowed to show a racist film, but rejects a discussion about it afterwards.

…not a single Black or POC author is present on your list of recommended literature, even when the class is for instance about cultures in African societies.

…the professor looks to a Person of Color when talking about China, just because the professor thinks the POC looks “sort of Asian”.

…white students don’t distance themselves actively from racist statements and actions of other white people and in this way participate in a white consensus.

…the same students use the terms “we” and “our” in their papers and presentations instead of identifying their perspectives clearly as white.

…white Scientists lay claims to a universal access to the “Truth”.

…in seminars, people repeatedly use the words “premodern, traditional societies”and“natives”

…upon informing your professor that descriptors like “premodern, traditional societies” are racist, she dismissively replies: “oh, THAT old discussion!”

…someone “praises” you by saying that “for a Turkish person your German is really good”.

…white students suggest to their POC-peers that they are reacting “too emotionally or over-sensitively” in regards to racism.

…you, as a Student of Color, are repeatedly asked “where are you frooom?”

…white students, on the other hand are not typically asked where they come from.

…white classmates reproach a Student of Color, by saying that because of hir position as a victim of racism, s/he can’t approach the subject of racism neutrally.

…the N-word is used in a lecture and the white professor tries to justify the use of the racist word by saying that in his youth it was very common.

to be continued…

> send us your sentences about “Racism in academic spaces”!

GLOSSARY – Critical Whiteness Studies

Critical Whiteness Studies began in the mid 1980′s in the USA. At this time, white authors and social scientists also started to write critically about whiteness. As Grada Kilomba points out, the examination of whiteness is by no means an invention of white people. On the contrary, the analysis and examination of a white psyche are and have been necessary survival tools for People of Color and Black people since colonial times.

Some of the first Black authors to critically write about whiteness are W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Toni Morrison and bell hooks. Critical whiteness studies differs from “regular” critical race studies in that the focus is changed from analyzing“the other” or individual extreme white supremacists, to an analysis of the (re)production of a white normalcy and the daily violence that accompanies it. It is a perspective reversal from the victims of racism, to the perpetrators (white people) and structures that create and profit from racialization.

GLOSSARY – People of Color and Black

The terms “People of Color”(short: POC) and “Black” are positive self-designations that are used to actively delineate distance from colonial and/or racist external-designations. They do not refer to the skin color or assumed “ethnicity” of a person, but instead serve as a political self-positioning and method of resistance against the marking of “not-white”by the majority population.

These terms became popular as politically charged self-designations in the world-wide freedom and civil rights movements of the 1960s and have grown considerably in popularity since the 1990s. The terms“POC” and “Black” stress solidarity among societal groups that are affected by racism. They refer to people who are seen as in conflict with the supposed white norm and marked as “other”, while white people on the other hand, remain unmarked. Homogenizing ethnic categories such as “the African”, “the Turk”, “the Muslim”or “the Asian”are racist constructions which serve white people in creating essentialist cultural categories used to purport white superiority. Through this praxis of ethnicization and racialization societal differences in Germany are constructed. Upon this basis, myths such as “civilized” vs. “uncivilized”and “us” vs. “the others” are produced and reproduced.

Identifying oneself as POC or Black works against racist strategies. As Kien Nghi Ha aptly describes: “By breaking the communal borders of marginalized groups, we allow for a synthesis of power and stronger political solidarity. In doing this, the white domination strategy of divide and conquer is undermined and the effectiveness of anti-racist interventions increased”

Original:‘Indem die kommunalen Grenzen marginalisierter Gruppen überschritten werden, finden eine Bündelung von Kräften und eine erweiterte Solidaritätspolitik statt. Dadurch wird die Weiße Dominanzstrategie des Teilens und Herrschens unterlaufen und die Effektivität antirassistischer Interventionen erhöht.’

GLOSSARY – Derailing

The term derailing refers to the conscious and unconscious Strategies that white people (and in other contexts, people with other forms of privilege) use to defend the invisibility and unmarked status of whiteness and avoid thinking/talking about racism. This defensive stance is frequently used when white people are called out on their own racist behavior or that of other white people (for example: that of a professor) or are confronted with their own privileged status. It is characterized frequently by aggressive opposition and a reversal of the victim-perpetrator perspectives. Derailing is white opposition to anti-racist resistance. Susan Arndt shows that this tactic is expressed in many different ways, for example accusations that the “other” is being oversensitive.

In the fight against racism evidenced in the structures, language and content of instruction on Universities Germany-wide, the protests of one student can however, doesn’t always, make big waves and even lead to greater sensitivity on the part of professors and peers. The opposition to direct criticism (for example, critique against the use of racist terms) can be quite fierce. The affected people and other critical voices are frequently subject to personal attacks and further marginalization by our peers as well as our teachers. A serious examination and reflection of the racist behavior unfortunately doesn’t take place. It is often declared out of place to breech the subject of racism and talking about it is made taboo. Through the mechanisms of derailing, racism as an object of discussion and analytical category is banned from our classrooms. Even (or perhaps especially) when there is a concrete racist incident that occurs in that same classroom.

Many students don’t dare to raise their voices in opposition at all because they are afraid that as an individual they will be rendered powerless in the face of the derailing tactics of a majority of their fellow students and teachers. People of Color and Black people are additionally disempowered through repeated accusations of being too emotional and biased on the basis of their experiences and therefore “unscientific” in their argumentation.