About us!

We are AK UniWatch and our name is our game!

In June of 2009 a group of People of Color, Black and white students came together and formed the student initiative“UniWatch: Fighting Racism in our Spaces!”. Our goal: to actively and collectively resist acts of everyday racism at german universities.

The catalyst for our work was a racist incident that occurred at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin during the summer semester of that same year. Over the course of our resistance in response to this episode we realized that as a group of students, with all our combined energies and potentials, we are taken more seriously than when we act alone as individuals in the fight against racism. Prior to the foundation of AK UniWatch, there was no forum at the university in which students could show their solidarity and network with people affected by racism. We would like to fill this deficit and use our collective voice to demand the equal participation of People of Color in academic spaces as well as in the production of knowledge at an academic level.

Different sociopolitical positions, collective goals and demands!

To be concise, racism is prejudice plus power. In German society, as well as in other “western” societies, racism is a white problem. Within a structurally racist society, there is no such thing as a neutral position in regards to racism. This fact is often overlooked or ignored even by self-described leftist or anti-racist activist groups in Germany. In this way, a myth of equality is created in which the asymmetrical power dynamics and thus, the overprivileged status of white people and the disadvantaged status of POC are not discussed or reflected upon. We believe for this reason, that positioning ourselves within this racist structure is an essential political act that must form the basis of every anti-racist movement. Through this self-positioning, we want to open a multidimensional discourse within our group as well as within the wider community in which we live, work and study. We are still working on achieving our goal of equal representation within our group. Equal representation among our members is at once a challenge and at the same time a wonderful opportunity for learning from our diverse perspectives. We strive to work together as a group of students with different sociopolitical positions towards our collective goals without losing sight of the power distribution that occurs in conjunction with this diversity.

We want a university free from racism!

Racism manifests itself in the very structures of the German university system. Only a small percentage of all professors and teachers are not white. The contents of our classes are shaped by white perspectives and the white power of definition. The classes which are offered and the lists of recommended literature celebrate and reproduce white hegemony without questioning or reflecting upon this praxis.

Therefore, we are demanding:

-  more professors of Color at German universities

-  the full and equal recognition of POC and Black discourses

-  the discussion of and marking of white positions, privileges and racism in all academic disciplines

-  implementation and enforcement of non-racist, non-colonial language in all courses and academic literature.

Our strategy: Intervention – Communication – Documentation

Intervention

We will intervene there where the voices of People of Color and Black People are oppressed, there where our professors and peers reject discussion about racist incidents and instead render such discussions taboo.

Together we are stronger! We will give impetus for a discussion directly in the classrooms where racist incidents occur and we will support our peers with constructive criticism and concrete arguments. A part of our strategy of intervention is building awareness in our communities. We will do this by providing information on our Blog as well as by hosting workshops in which we will attempt to bring about a greater sensitivity to racism in academic spaces and stimulate discussion about critical whiteness.

Documentation

By documenting racist incidents on our blog, we increase transparency in regard to everyday racism that occurs on German campuses. It is a priority for us to ensure the anonymity of the reporters of these incidents unless we are explicitly requested by the reporters themselves to do otherwise. We would like the main focus of these reports to be the POC and Black perspectives, which are all too frequently ignored in predominantly white spaces. By doing this, we would like to provide a space for the articulation of all the feelings (anger, hurt, helplessness…) and thoughts that shape the experience of any racist confrontation.

In regards to the documentation of racist incidents, we cooperate with the Antidiskriminierungsnetzwerk Berlin, a project of Türkischer Bund Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Brauner Mob e.V.

Communication

We communicate with each other at the university as students, and within the general public about the racism that we experience and hear about on structural, discursive, linguistic and everyday levels. We also want to communicate with the responsible professors, students, faculties and administration about racist incidents in order to demand statements from the departments, consequences for aggressors and new policies which reduce racism on our campuses and protect those who are confronted with racism daily. To realize a truly racism-free university, activism must occur“top-down” as well.

We appreciate your comments, feedback and support, because together we are strong against racism in our spaces!

In solidarity,

AK UniWatch