Today I took the train to Fürstenberg and visited Ravensbrück, a former nazi concentration camp. The camp opened in 1939 and was mostly for female prisoners. Many children were also born in the camp and very few survived.
The camp visit really upset me. Seeing the ovens and the narrow pathway that camp guards used to make prisoners walk down, and then shoot them in the back of the neck, really bothered me. All day I was thinking to myself about Donald Trump, and how he and his speechwriter Stephen Miller have dehumanized my people. I thought about Elon Musk and his “nazi salute” at the presidential inauguration, and how he is promoting and encouraging right wing parties, making life more dangerous for BIPOC.
I also thought about all the other racists on Trumps cabinet. this all really upset me. I thought about how the United States with their horrible, genocidal history, now just chooses not to teach the evil they have done, and tries to punish the teachers for doing their job.
As if the day wasn’t mentally and emotionally hard enough, on my way home I received a few dirty looks, and even was called a derogatory term by some teenagers, and almost got in a fight with another man before boarding my train. I guess somethings never change.
Maybe we should boycott them,Trump, Musk and any other nazi saluting white supremacists, who because they inherited their daddy’s money (a social construct) they think they can control the monopoly board of life, and invest and stick their dirty hands in anything they wish.
The so-called President (an accused of rapist) is the only person to serve office with a felony on his criminal record. The 47th president is also responsible for the deaths of at least five people during the January 6th 2021 Putsch on the U.S. Capital Building.
This president has now also pardoned those people involved in the coup, further emboldening other traitors to commit future crimes against government and showing that it will be permissible as long as he “their leader” gave the order.
Maybe we should build a organization for the groups that Trump targets, we should fight to strengthen the countries that the immigrants come from, cut ties with anything that comes from Trump and his associates. Maybe we should empower the Caribbean, and the Americas to break with the I.M.F. and rid themselves of U.S. predatory loans, and military bases. We should lift the embargo on Cuba, and help nuestros hermanos.
If the United States treats BIPOC like the way Donald Trump speaks of them, then we need to flip the script on him. He is the criminal, he is the rapist, he is the one that needs a mental evaluation (doesn’t seem competent to hold office) and the same applies to his nazi saluting financial backer/brains of the operation obsessed with V2 rockets or whatever he calls them nowadays. Personally, I have already quit his X or swastika or whatever he calls it now a days. I will never buy one of his products and will push others to think the same. This is class warfare!
I have Worked as a tour guide in Berlin for 11 years. I have met many white supremacists. I have met many from the United States alone. I always found it weird how infatuated many were with the nazis. They liked the uniforms and seemed really way too interested in the subject, and for wrong reasons, I would say.
This is why when this whole Donald Trump wave started, I could see how these racists were being catered to by something that had always intrigued and fascinated them. This is why racist presidents and their racist minions who do nazi salutes at the presidential inauguration do not really surprise me.
Genocidal History
It is well known that United States has always been carrying out nazi policies, even before the term “nazi” was created. If you study their history of genocide and slavery. Study their history of convict leasing, read about the Homestead Strike, the Haymarket Affair, and about the Palmer Raids, and their infatuation on crushing labor and the left. Read up on redlining, segregation, white citizen councils, Bombingham, study their history of forced sterilizations, study their racist immigration policies and quotas, and their continual wars against BIPOC.
I heard about a little BIPOC girl that cried yesterday because she was scared about the rise of the right-wing party here in Germany after the recent elections, and what it could mean, knowing these people’s history. Some of these people, especially these racist men, who constantly give you dirty looks and then quickly want to call the police at any sign of trouble, truly have no shame.
Hearing this story only angered me more than I already am. I will never forgive these people for all they have put me through in 13 years of living here. I wanted to start a Project to fight racism, but you see its almost 532 years of the same, and the arrogance of some of these people really bothers me. They show no shame. You tell them their history, and they will act like they don’t know, but reality is they could care less. There are several genocides going on at the moment, and people here seem more interested in their Euro Cup.
For the people that are allies, for the good white people (The John Brown’s or Viola Liuzzo’s types) that do fight injustice and go to protests and wish to fight for a more equal and just world, please continue fighting! Please continue to listen to people that are dealing with racial traumas and are suffering, please and if needed be “That Shoulder” but please do not start the racial gaslighting because then you are only hurting the person even more. JUST LISTEN!
I have lived in Germany for over ten years now, and I can honestly say I have never seen so much racism in my whole life, and that is saying something because I come from the so-called United States of America (a settler-colonial project of land theft and genocide) that somehow forgot to teach the kids the origins of that land and rarely discusses the original inhabitants.
I wanted to start this project to help people, but to be honest, I have grown very discouraged. I feel that some people do not want to change, and never will. They will always believe they are smarter or better than others, and their arrogance is something that infuriates me. Why should I waste my energy on them? I have better things to do with my time. These people clearly do not want the world to change since it works in their favor. They do not care about the physical and psychological damage their evil system of racism distributes against BIPOC people.
They don’t see the tears of the children because their parents get into heated exchanges with racist people trying to pick fights with them or insulting them on the street (knowing full well that their hands are tied.) I have come to feel that, this must be the German way of attack. They see you are at work and again have your hands tied, and that is when they choose to strike, push you or even threaten your life and insult you. I have come to the opinion that many of these people truly have no shame about their dirty history and their dirty present because if they did they surely would not continue to act this way. Maybe they should ask themselves, “Why are so many Germans living all over the world?” Where was your Xenophobia then? And what of the crimes committed by those German Settlers around the world?
I should have known it since the moment I first visited back in 2006 and they treated me like crap and me and an Asian-American woman were the only ones who were pulled to the side and reprimanded in a foreign language and had to listen to some scumbag voice his opinions about us angrily.
Why is it that so very few Germans in the western sector were castigated for the Holocaust? A very select few were punished for the evil that killed an estimated 11million people of which over 1.5 million were children. Why is that? Could it be because if they dug deep enough, they would find out the roles played by Robber Barons, so-called respectable organizations, and major corporations? Could it be that companies were “Too big to fail” in the midst of a Cold War, and therefore Germany needed to be helped back on its feet?
In regards to the Holocaust, I constantly hear people ask, “how could this happen in such a civilized society?” It seems people that ask this question are not aware or don’t bother to take into account the crimes committed in the German colonies of Cameroon, Togo, Deutsch Somoa, Tsingtao, German Southeast Africa, German Southwest Africa, among others. In German Southwest Africa (modern-day Namibia) alone one would read about how between 1904-1908 there was a genocide committed against the Herrero and Nama peoples. Also, you will come across information on how anti-miscegenation laws, already existed there. If you study further you would learn about how Germans transported people on cattle trains and had concentration camps in their German South African colony, the concept was not new to them, and they also had what is believed to have been the first extermination camp on Shark Island.
Another detail worth noting is the fact that German Universities and anthropologists, people like Eugen Fischer were already demanding skulls, and even whole human heads with the skin left intact as if some sort of trophy or something that they could display to others stating how different (meaning superior) they were to these people of darker complexion.
They Need to Teach Us More
I have read where Herman Goering at the Nuremberg Trials asked the French, the English, and the Americans “Who are you to try us?” I found this so interesting, and agree that those countries should tell the world their histories as well. These countries have all committed genocides and have all stolen land, and have all helped maintain white supremacy all over the world.
After learning about the pseudo-science Eugenics and having learned how Adolf Hitler was greatly influenced by people like Madison Grant among others, and after further inquiring about the international eugenic conventions and the horribly racist eugenic ideas taught in universities, that most likely played a role in the worldwide pigmentocracies we see today, I feel that those racists that funded that movement should also be blamed and more attention should be paid to that subject as well.
I continue to do homework on I.G. Farben and I truly feel that their role should be taught more in detail when discussing the Holocaust. I mean how can they not teach you about the conglomerate that was the biggest chemical company in the history of the world at that moment in time, and what role they played in rearmament, experimentation on human subjects, funding, slave labor? What was their relationship to Zyklon B (the prussic acid used in the gas chambers)? What was their relationship to Auschwitz? Who was American I.G. the U.S. subsidiary company that was taken over by the U.S. government for “Trading with the enemy” in 1941?
Why is it Happening Again?
People keep asking how can the world (Germany included) be tilting to the right? Well, there are a lot of reasons. For one the disparity between the rich and the poor just continues to increase. People that are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table are in dire straights and they are frustrated. Many people believe that fascism is a revolution from the top down, and I would agree. Multi-national corporations are out to make a profit and do not wish to curtail their behavior. If our food loses nutrients so what. If neo-liberal policies are gonna hurt us all with the austerity and the privatization, they are getting ready for a backlash from us, they know the unrest is coming, and so in their minds they feel, they need to divide us, and if that doesn’t work then prison and the surveillance state is the backup plan.
They are planning for civil disobedience, they are planning for the climate refugees, war refugees, and economic refugees. We are all at risk, but they must separate us and turn our anger against other victims of the same madness, and the right-wing will serve as their buffer zone, they will be fed more scraps and will be used as the muscle to keep the others in check. That is their plan. They make wars to kill BIPOC people and to sell their weapons. The corporations will not change course. They will stick to their plan.
Europe and its colonizers in the Anglosphere went out and exploited the resources and labor of people in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Then they have the nerve to not teach the real history and omit the whole thing. The hypocritical west has fooled the world into believing they are the model of civilization has continued on rewarding the dictators and their cronies, that crush all hope of fair distribution of the wealth and resources of countries worldwide. And the same hypocrite west after causing the problems and the poverty in those same countries in the global south, still have time to make wars on those countries and then militarize their borders and add the extra financial incentive of For-Profit Immigration Detention.
Tell me again why is it that the Spanish language is spoken in twenty different countries? What role did Spain play in those countries? Were there any reparations or even apologies for the theft, genocide, and rape? How are people from Latino America treated in Spain today? As a member of N.A.T.O., what role have they played in helping create refugees? What role have their financial institutions and corporations played in creating poverty? And tell me again, just why do Ceuta and Melilla belong to Spain? (The same criticisms can be made about many European countries and their offshoots in the Anglosphere and their historical behavior).
Ask a person suffering fromRacial Trauma or Racial Battle Fatigue just how “multiculti (multicultural)” they feel this racist German country is. I can see why many of them saw an appeal in Donald Trump, I really can, since his first state of the union address was on the 30th of January, which is the same date Hitler came to power, and so people with right-wing persuasions worldwide flocked to his corner.
Recommended Reading Material:
The Kaiser’s Holocaust – David Olusoga
War Against the Weak – Edwin Black
They Thought They were Free – Milton Meyer
I.B.M. and the Holocaust – Edwin Black
The Destruction of the European Jews – Raul Hilberg
Trading with the Enemy – Charles Higham
Hitler’s American Model – James Q. Whitman
The Nazi Connection – Stefan Kühl
The Nazi Hydra in America – Glenn Yeadon
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler – Anthony C. Sutton
The American West and the Nazi East – Carroll P. Kakel
KL – Nikolaus Wachsmann
Hell’s Cartel – Diarmuid Jeffreys
The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben – Joseph Borkin
Hitler – Ian Kershaw
The Devil’s Chessboard – David Talbot
Factories of Death – Sheldon Harris
Imbeciles- Adam Cohen
School for Barbarians – Erika Mann
The Splendid Blond Beast – Christopher Simpson
Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account – Miklos Nyiszli
When talking about the racism they have encountered, sometimes all BIPOC people would like to feel is some sort of compassion. Some sort of empathy. The typical “well racism is everywhere” is like another dagger to the heart of someone that is already hurting.
I recently had an experience where I told a really personal and painful story to someone and when they said, “that bastard” in regards to the person that had hurt me, it made me appreciate that person so much because I felt that they actually cared, and it felt really nice to see someone actually care, instead of trying to make excuses for the behavior of a racist.
Malcolm Little was born on May 19th 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was one of four children born to Louis Helen and Earl Little (Earl Little also had three children from a prior relationship who lived in Boston.) Malcolm X had many reasons to be angry at Euro-Americans. His father and four uncles were killed by Euro-Americans and his mother was put into a mental institution for 26 years, tearing Malcolm’s family apart and splitting him up from his sibblings. Eventually like many other poor urban youth from broken homes, Malcolm was pulled into the street life. On the streets of Boston and later New York he would make a name for himself as a hustler and a pimp and eventually landing in prison on a burglary conviction. Malcolm ended up serving seven years in prison, and it was while incarcerated that Malcolm discovered books (which he read vigorously) and Islam and both changed him forever.
Malcolm took on the surname “X” because he stated that “Little” was the slave name given to his ancestors, and since he did not know his real African name, then “X” would suit him better than his birth name “Little.”
Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam upon release from prison, and continued to be mentored by Elijah Muhammad whom he had already started writing and taking instruction from while incarcerated. With time Malcolm ended up becoming a national spokesman for the religious organization, and became quite a prolific speaker. His speeches varied in subject, e.g. he could speak about religion, or he could denounce “white supremacy” and educate Europeans and Euro-Americans about their true histories and about their unjust actions towards the global BIPOC community. Malcolm represented the Nation for several years until he eventually broke ties with the Nation and decided to start two organizations the Muslim Mosque Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
Malcolm made the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and met with many world leaders in Africa and the Middle East. Malcolm was always pushing for Pan Africanism and trying to shed light to the plight of African Americans in the so-called “Land of the Free.”
Ask Yourself
What does the legacy of Malcolm X mean for BIPOC people today? Do his words still inspire people of color, fighting everyday injustice and racism? What does the name Malcolm X mean to the kids lost in the streets, who think there is no way out for them? What does Malcolm X mean to the kids who are tired of white supremacy? What does he mean to BIPOC people that have felt humiliation or discrimination in their lives? What does Malcolm X mean to the kids who have seen their culture not covered by school curriculum or represented on television or in film? What does Malcolm mean to the kids that looked for role models, but saw them killed off one by one, or still captive behind prison walls like e.g. many former Black Panthers? What does his name mean to those like me who are sick of racism?
What He Still Means Today
Malcolm X was someone who seemed fearless when it came to telling the oppressor his truths. I personally had never heard anyone speak to white people the way he did. He would speak for those who couldn’t, who had no voice, and he was a hero to the oppressed of the world. His presence is needed now more than ever, in a world where white supremacists again feel emboldened to terrorize BIPOC people like they have done so continuously in the past.
I truly feel that if Malcolm X would not have been assasinated he would have continued to do a lot of good for humanity. I feel that he was that “fighting spirit” I feel he was that “Pride” he was a champion of the oppressed. He was our champion, he was a role model and that is why we will never forget him and will continue to study his speeches. Malcolm X is also a symbol that people can change; that if you only have faith in them and don’t give up on them, the most unexpected miracles can happen. Malcolm X is a hero that continues to influence and touch lives. He had the courage that we will all need to confront and defeat racism.
“Some personal heroes of mine.” (Photo by, Miguel Torres)
Sources:
X, Malcolm, et al. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Reissue, Ballantine Books, 1992.
There is an apartment building today, where the old Reich Chancellery once stood, and this sign, and another dedicated to the history of the Chancellery are the only reminders of the event that happened at this location.
Reich Chancellery formerly Wilhelmstraße 77
“Berlin Conference” oil painting by, Anton von Werner
The Berlin Conference or as some call it the Congo Conference was held in Berlin, Germany between the 15th of November 1884 and it continued until the 26th of February 1885. It was organized by German chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and was held at his chancellery. The conference was attended by members from thirteen European countries and the United States who aimed to set agendas of territorial aggression on African land. There were no African representatives at the conference, nor was much thought placed into to the ethnic differences of the people whose lives were to be affected by these artificial borders being erected by these decisions. In order for no future disputes to develop between the colonizers; future rules for colonization and free trade were decided at the conference.
Congo Free State
Also during this infamous conference it was decided that the exclusive right to colonize the majority of the Congo, (under an imperialistic project given the name of “Congo Free State“) would be granted privately to King Leopold II of Belgium, while some minor portions of land, and waterways inside Congo remained neutral and open for commercial purposes, the majority of the country would fall under the king’s control. The book “King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild is very well written and is full of the stories of injustice and violence that took place in the “Congo Free State” between 1885-1908.
The story of King Leopold the second’s Congo is a story of human beings forced to work on rubber plantations and killed for choosing not to work, or for not working hard enough. It is a story of sickness and famine. It is a story of fathers watching their children mutilated by the Belgian king’s agents. It is a story of workplace quotas placed on the Congolese and if they weren’t met, than this would lead to horrendous maimings of a person’s hands or even feet. Another common tactic of the king’s agents was kidnap family members and hold them as ransom, until a certain amount of work was finished. It is said ten million people were murdered in the Congo under the reign of King Leopold II.
German Interests
Germany ended up colonizing the countries of Togo, Cameroon, German South East Africa (modern-day Burundi, Tanzania, and Rwanda), and an area they called German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia).Terrible atrocities can be read in all four territories. In German South West Africa alone the German colonizers committed what has been called the First Genocide of the Twentieth Century against the Nama and Herero people in which it is estimated as many as 100,000 people were killed. For anyone wishing to learn more on the subject I would recommend David Olusoga and Caspar W. Erichsen’s wonderful book entitled, “The Kaiser’s Holocaust.”
Repercussions and Aftermath
One cannot begin to imagine the suffering that this meeting paved the way for. The millions of dead human beings, and the millions more that survived, but were left with the pain and memories of brutality, rapes, mutilations, humiliation, exploitation, displacements, the traumas that could never be atoned. Although France, England, and Portugal had colonies in Africa prior to the meeting. This meeting gave future colonization in Africa the go ahead.
Then after decades of colonization came the decolonization struggles, the proxy wars. How many more lives were taken? And what can be said of the Civil Wars? What effect did carving up, lands and creating territories, disregarding the people of the land and their way of life have on those wars?
Formerly known as Palais Schulenburg, the city palace of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł (1775–1833) later housed the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck
On my walk yesterday afternoon, I witnessed a mural from a distance and so I decided to check it out. As I approached, I saw the piece, and I read the statement on the bottom. I became very upset after noticing how someone had defaced the word “Black.” The mural is of George Floyd, the 46 year old man murdered by Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin on the 25th of May, 2020. The mural originally read “Black Lives Matter” but someone changed it to “Lives Matter.” So, this person means to tell me, and anyone reading this mural, that “Lives Matter” as if “All Lives Mattered Equally?” Well let me just reflect on what you are saying….
If it was true that “Lives Matter” then the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color of the world would not have been exploited for the last 529 years. If it was true that “Lives Matter” there wouldn’t be refugees leaving war torn countries, (Wars of Western Imperialism) seeking a better life for themselves and their children. If “Lives Matter” there wouldn’t be drones killing civilians, or thousands of BIPOC children dying from malnutrition daily. If “Lives Matter” The continued Imperialism of the west, would not still continue to dehumanize BIPOC people in order to continue to exploit their countries. If “Lives Matter” there would be no dictators that keep their people down, so that western countries can have access to the so-called, “Free Market” as they help themselves to the resources of that country. If “Lives Matter” than there would no need for “Immigration Detention.” If “Lives Mattered” there would not be a need for racist programming on television or film, and all histories would receive the same amount of attention, but clearly that is not the case.
Ì am Chicano and I am very supportive of Black Lives Matter, because they are only reminding the world that “Black Lives Matter” because everyday the world reminds them by their actions towards Africans and the African diaspora that they don’t.
Not too far away from the George Floyd mural, I ran across this sign, I see these all over Berlin, and I have never seen these defaced. What this offensive advertisement tells me is that the dehumanization of the Native People of Turtle Island, does not bother folks. The dehumanization of a people who were victims of genocide, in the means of commercializing a product is not offensive to the kind of people that would claim that “Lives Matter.” (Photo by, Miguel Torres)
If All Lives Truly Mattered
As an adult, I started reading vigorously about the histories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and their struggles. I learned what White Supremacy was all about. I also learned that the same people who insist that they do not see color, are the same people who support the system of White Supremacy simply with their silence. That is all it truly takes. All human beings are important, but what is being stated is that clearly, some need to be reminded that “Black Lives Matter” because it seems like some people do not want to acknowledge it. So, here is another reminder, Black Lives Matter!
If I had to reflect on it, I would have to say, that I have experienced racism for most of my life. I can remember back in the 5th grade, when a kid told me that I was brown, therefore to him, I was “yucky.”
I remember a girl putting me down, because the color of my skin. I can also remember a relative showing me the whitest part on his body, (his leg), and telling me, that he was from Spain, and that another relative of mine, was an “india”, (spanish for Indian, which is what the Spaniards, wrongfully called the Natives of the Americas).
Sometimes the racism I witnessed happened to others, like when I was in sixth grade an African American student was doing the Pledge of Allegiance, and the teacher kicked his leg because it was sticking out too much for her liking. I never did forget that moment. It felt like for some reason this Euro-American teacher, did not like that student for some reason, and was Looking for excuses to make his life hard.
I remember as a kid in my late teens and how since I was never taught, my people’s history, how I felt kind of strange, when a co-worker told me, that Mexicans were just a bunch of Indians, and I thought to myself, “no, we are Mestizos meaning we were Native mixed with Spanish“, like that spanish mix, made us better. Where did that idea come from?
Every person of color that I have talked to, has told me that they were also told, “to find a blanquito, or blanquita (In other words to get a person with European roots, so that in their belief, this would better our gene pool), to better the race“, as if something deep inside us, has told us, that dark skin is not beautiful, or that they are more beautiful than us.
I remember countless run-ins with police, and how they would “Stop and Frisk” me for just the way I looked. How sometimes they would stop me, three or four times a night. I remember when a police officer pulled me over, and asked me why was I in a specific neighborhood, and if they did not have contact lense shops in my neighborhood, implying that I did not belong in that specific neighborhood.
In my lifetime I have been called many derogatory names, I have also heard my fellow Mexican people, called many not so very nice names, even by the former U.S. President Donald Trump, and I am tired of it. It is not fair how Anglo-Saxon’s get different treatment than I do, when it comes to airports, border checkpoints, or at embassies.
The damage caused by racism is permanent. People of Color have to carry the abuse, we take it home, and bring the stress home to our loved ones, or may even explode on the wrong people, because that pain after building up inside you for so long, eventually comes out.
Why Won’t They See
I really wish people would see the harm White Supremacy has caused and continues to cause. I do not understand how some Anglo-Saxons would choose to ignore this history and present day happenings, and continue believing in White Supremacy, after all the damage this dangerous way of thinking has caused. Millions of people have been murdered because of these ideas. How could some people be so heartless? Racism is the behavior of bullies.
Fighting Racism Workshop 