Posted on by queeranarchism

singingpeople:

bonghitz4jezuz:

cakeandrevolution:

queeranarchism:

60 year old historian Martin Bühler (who identified himself to the press, I do not identify activists without consent) appears to ‘photobomb’ a lot of media images of the G20 in Hamburg. In reality he is a long time observer documenting police brutality. In Hamburg he chose to cultivate the most non-activist ‘white bystander in a suit with a bike’ look he could manage and casually walked in front of police. As police slowed down or interrupted attacks and waited for the ‘bystander’ to get out of the way (being caught on camera trashing what look like bystanders is bad press after all), activists had time to regroup or retreat.

oh my god, what a fucking badass

Using white privilege in the best way

It’s not really white privilege, being white isn’t something special here.. He does his best to appear like a law- obedient citizen, basically the role model for a German man who worked hard all his life. Assuming his age & the way he’s dressed they will think he has nothing to do with the activists.
We do have racism here, a lot, like the refugee crisis showed but it’s not about being white.. here it’s about where you come from, your ethnicity and (for some) religion. Not about skin colour…
My cousin has an Afro-American dad who left to go back to the US shortly after she was born & I would have to ask her if she ever had any problems but from what I know (of course I could be wrong) it never really mattered…

Sorry but you are wrong.

The UN just released a report this year documenting structural racial profiling by German police (first source below).

The fact that ‘being white isn’t special’ in a majority white country doesn’t mean white privilege isn’t a real thing, in fact, the bigger the white majority the more taken for granted white privilege gets. White privilege, mixed with male privilege, class privilege, citizen-status privilege etc. all have their part to play in the kind of response

Martin Bühler could expect when he took to the street like this. 

And while modern racist groups in Germany tend to be heavy on anti-immigrant rhetoric and islamophobia, old-fashioned racism is alive and kicking as well and it doesn’t really take much effort to realise that beyond looking outside your own experiences. I did a little digging for you, focussing only on anti-black racism for this particular search. Here’s some reading for you, both by individual black Germans and by research teams: 

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