After repeating my very simple order--espresso with hot water on the side-- at least 8 times, customers began to yell "This is Deutschland." I told them Germany now is a globalized society, and more people than white Germans live here. The cashier then proceeded to over charge me and began yelling when I corrected her. The cashier then threatened to call the police and refused to serve me (after I had already ate/bought soup here). This is a prime example of not just racism, but how implicit bias leads to racist behavior. I called the police myself and will file a report, which will undoubtably be ignored. The police operator then proceeded to yell at me, because he is also uncomfortable being confronted with racism, and said he has never heard of racism in Berlin. Ok. I explained to him that is probably because you don't live around any black people or have black friends. Silence. From there on, he pretended not to understand English anymore and became very difficult.
It's very interesting that it is internationally understood that whenever a white person finds a minority "difficult," the police are used to threaten and intimidate, thereby insuring white supremacy. When white people grow uncomfortable minorities, you call the police on us, refuse service or treatment, arrest us, or simply shoot us extra-judiciously. White fragility is not my problem, this is something you must deal with as a white Germans living in a globalized German society, where people have different cultural repertoires and expectations for how to be treated. This is not 1943, and Germany does not live in a bubble. People of all ethnicities, cultures and languages live here. If you don't like it, that is not my problem. People assume in Germany that racism is only when there is physical violence, or racist words are used. Denying a black person service, threatening them with the police and asking them to leave--because you don't feel like serving them--while you continue to serve white customers is racist. Telling someone "This is Deutschland" does not promote an inclusive global society. These young white German cashiers felt no real threat by me--I sat their for 30 minutes further waiting for the police--they just wanted me to leave the register and stop insisting on my order being correct; I require the same patience and care a white German would automatically be afforded.
Officers Griedel and Burmow came. At first they did not understand, but when I showed them a soup receipt from 2 hrs earlier, they understood that I had been there for 2hrs without any trouble at all; it was only when I tried to buy a coffee I was verbally attacked by customers and the cashiers. read more