Realm of the SCENSCI

What is it about the structural racism in German culture that facilitates human degradation and human suffering?

The below is written in the spirit of all the “Why do they hate us” rants, think-pieces and videos about Muslims and Arabs, that we have been bombarded with for over 20 years now.

Germany has banned and actively represses rallies in support of Palestinians (often organized by German Jews) for being anti Semitic. Some German schools have banned the keffiyeh and any gesture of solidarity for the Palestinians. Of course, most EU countries are terrible and hypocritical on Palestine, but Germany always goes above and beyond. The oft-repeated, cliched and ultimately wrong reason that is given for this is that given Germany’s horrific treatment of the Jews, anything related to Israel is sacrosanct in Germany and the overwhelming feeling of their guilt forces them to behave as they do (equating Israel with Jews is itself anti-Semitic but lets leave that aside).

However, I believe the cliched reason is not true. I rather believe there is, and perhaps always has been, a strong structural racism in the German culture that facilitates human degradation, humiliation and suffering. Earlier they degraded Jews but later they couldn’t do that anymore so they had to find new victims. Those victims are the Palestinians and other brown skinned people.

I write the above lines as someone who grew up as an internationalist, having spent my childhood in the mid 80s to early 90s in a foreign land, China, where both at my international school and also where we lived, I was exposed to all kinds of cultures. Furthermore, having been blessed with socialist parents, the equality and brotherhood of all human beings was a constant refrain at home. However, despite all this all-embracing humanity and so forth, and despite having lived in more countries than most people I know, I was in for an acute culture shock when I moved to Berlin at the end of 2017. I simply could not understand the people who would on the one hand treat you rather coldly, but on the other hand on finding something you did disagreeable, that coldness would turn into sizzling racist heat. Is the German culture racist by nature perhaps because “it knows the truth”, as Tolstoy had said? If so, what is that “truth”? Maybe an anecdote (the most blunt of many such) would shed some light.

There is a famous cinema in Berlin, the Babylon near the Rosa Luxemburg Platz. One day we went to see the premier of Padmavat a Bollywood movie which had been organized by the German-India relations committee or something of the sort. Most Desi people had brought their children who before the show were running about, shouting and creating a ruckus as children do. The organizer, a tall German man, standing on the platform with a microphone in hand, asked the parents twice or thrice to control their children. His pleas were not successful. This was when the cold robot disappeared and out came the racist fascist who knew what had to be done. He shouted into the microphone:

“THIS IS NOT INDIA! You cannot do this here. Control your children”.

WHAT? This is not India? This is not India? All that was missing was the Nazi salute. Silence ensued. Nobody said anything. I can bet my life that in that gathering there must have been at least some Modi loving Bhakts. But those otherwise fire breathing, hate spewing, jingoistic cowards also remained quiet. I saw some white German, yoga loving women, who didn’t have the courage to say anything to their fellow German. And to my eternal shame, apart from grumbling something, I too kept quiet. I am not Indian but I am from the same land, and more importantly, some sort of a pretentious, internationalist humanist after all. I grumbled a bit but didn’t say anything. I regret my cowardice to this day.

Why did that guy turn into a racist, dare I say, fascist asshole? He was not a guy off the street. He was part of a committee aimed at promoting cultural ties between India and Germany. How could he, of all people, say that? The answer is simple: he knew the truth. Despite all social niceties and so forth, he knew that brown people are inherently inferior. Inferior not genetically of course, even Germans don’t believe that sort of thing anymore. But inferior culturally. Yes, they might be good software engineers and so forth, but they still need to be civilized. It was this knowledge that allowed, nay compelled, him to inform them that this after all was not India where such uncivilized behavior could fly (Rosa Luxembourg must have turned in her grave).

In the same vein, the racist German culture knows now that Israel must be supported as the Palestinians are inherently inferior. And to do that it will undertake whatever racist, fascist measure is required. The racism inherent in German culture allows Katharina Guenther-Wuensch, the Berlin Senator for Education, Youth and Family, to order Berlin schools to ban anything which may be construed as being sympathetic to the Palestinians, with no counter conditions on gestures that support Israel. Earlier, when that racism was directed to Jews, I am sure that Frau Katharina’s spiritual grandmother in her day would have issued a similar proclamation against the Jews: “No star of David, kippah and other such disturbances. Ja mein Fuhrer, ja, ja, ja ja, ja“.

It is not guilt but rather the racist “knowledge” of the “fundamental truths” about human beings that compels Germans to degrade and humiliate others. I might be wrong of course and German attitudes might have other causes. Therefore, I request all non-racist Germans to firstly condemn their racist culture and then report back with answers to the following questions: If its not racism then what is it about German culture that facilitates human suffering and degradation, and why do Germans hate us?