Black is not back

On the advice of my German teacher, I decided to stop into the local Turkish market for vegetables this afternoon. Germany has the largest population of Turkish residents in the world outside of Turkey itself, so Turkish groceries, mosques, and donors abound.

Why hadn't I thought of this earlier? I wondered. The market was great. A ton of variety, fresh produce and cheap! From the start, the grocery situation here has been a little depressing. Fruit flies thrive and it's hard to tell how long some of the meat has sat around, so it was a relief to find such a gem.

I was reveling in my great find when someone on the street yelled to the grocer standing on the corner, "Gehen nach Hause!" Huh? I breathed in a quick breath. That woman just told the shop owner to go back home to Turkey. How rude. How awful. I quickly grabbed my food and headed home.

The drive back got me to thinking about how we are perceived here and how similar the Turks (and other minorities) are treated in Germany as many African-Americans (and others) are treated in the States. In the comfort of your own country, you tend to think that yours are the only ones that matter. The only place where injustice and inequality exists. As ex-pats, we're learning alot about global perceptions--those we have and those that others have about us. In Switzerland, we were disturbed to see signs marketing their new immigrations policies which depicted three white sheep KICKING a black sheep over the Swiss border. It doesn't get anymore clear cut than that. Black is definitely not back.

With that said however, we've kind of let our guard down a bit. It's clear that we're not perceived like "those Africans" or "Turks" or "Middle Easterners." We're considered to be Americans first and colored second. In fact, right before hearing the hateful yell, the butcher asked me in rapid succession whether I was black (yes), whether my parents were black (yes), which one? (both), and then why my skin was so light (ahh, can't tell ya, sorry). Everywhere you live, it seems someone trying to put you in a category. Black (check), American (check).

So, we're learning about bit about the universal aspects of human behavior and our innate desire to implement class systems. The optimist in me hopes we can collectively get over all of this infighting and focus more on what unites rather than divides. But for now, we'll do our best to be as inconspicious as two black people can be in a very white country. Who knows? Maybe we'll learn something to change our own judgements and misperceptions in the meantime too.