oscillates between privilege and racism It is Saturday morning, 9 clock. I walk on the Zeil in Frankfurt. In the right hand I hold a Starbucks coffee, the left hand swings back and forth quickly, I run tight. On the way to the Main river I stand before the Romans stand and look a bride and groom at. Suddenly I see a black man who comes to meet me in 200 meters distance and I yell over the entire Roman court: "Black Man" The attention is no longer the fresh marriage, but the blacks. Other people, including the bride and groom agree with a "black man". I feel like it is the Black unpleasant to get as much attention, but I do not care. Cautiously I approach him. I have to touch it. His skin is determined differently. I spilled a drink from my coffee, but it was worth it. It's not a color, it really is black. Once again, I'll call him "Black Man" behind and now he is bent around the corner.
Such a history can be thought of not in Germany. Finally, this is racist! In Ghana, I
with "Obroni" bin-Call (white man) every time when I go to the streets in the town, on the market and in the school faced. But unlike Germany, this is not racism. In Ghana, one speaks of the privilege to be white. I am invited by many GhanaerInnen to eat, sit at events in addition to the Chiefs and elders without the village and the people know and have on average more money than the GhanaerInnen available, because I'm white. The money is the reason why dass ich eine hohe Aufmerksamkeit bekomme. Ich werde von zahlreichen Fremden angesprochen. Die einen grüßen nur freundlich, die anderen wollen meine Handynummer und meine Freundschaft. Manche laden sich bei mir zum Essen ein, wollen mit nach Deutschland genommen werden oder betteln um ein paar Cedi. Das Schlimmste aber sind die Obroni-Rufe. Ich fühle mich nicht wohl dabei, dass die GhanaerInnen meine Hautfarbe sehen, mir demnach den Namen geben und die Person dahinter ausblenden. Ich bin nicht Torben, sondern der reiche Weiße aus Europa. Nicht nur, dass es mir sehr unangenehm ist so genannt zu werden, auf dem Markt und in den Taxis bekommen wir fast jedes Mal höhere Preise genannt. Diskriminierung? Rassismus? Privileg?
Ein Privileg is a privilege that a person or group is granted. Racism is a ethnicised group formation (eg white / black), the devaluation of a group and the associated power to generate a difference in treatment.
I'm from Europe traveling in, wherever I want and have enough money. I have a privileged position in contrast to most GhanaerInnen, for a visit to Europe would be unthinkable even for budget reasons. I have the privilege to be white.
I'm white. The GhanaerInnen see my skin color and take me as an individual no longer true. And since many GhanaerInnen see it that way and cost me under my skin color, is the social inequality generated. Racial discrimination takes place at my place at the level of individual non-recognition and discrimination.
then I be a beneficiary of white privilege, or be victims of racism?
I have to worry about money here, so I eat enough, a roof over their heads (usually) running water and electricity. I am a rich man from Germany is sponsoring me. I feel I am a beneficiary of the privilege.
The moment where I go on the road, I feel discriminated against by the attention and Obroni-calls. I feel uncomfortable, strange and impossible. But you can not see into the minds of people. How should I know, which picture the GhanerInnen in mind when they call me "white man"? If it is neutral or judgmental? For me personally it is the latter. I feel like a victim of racism. But of course you can not equate racism with the Jewish propaganda in the Third Reich or of segregation in the United States. I bear no physical damage.
privilege and racism are intertwined apparently. Everyone must make up for themselves, for when he feels discriminated against or preference. One can not generalize and find only one answer to the question "privilege or racism." In Germany, blacks in the public rather ignored here happens to me the most attention.