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Saturday, July 02, 2005 Prenzlauer Berg Letting Everyone DownA cafe in Prenzlauer Berg has been keeping out young black men since last spring. You Berlin readers know about this; I've been mulling a column on it, which is the reason it hasn't been blogged so far at Radio Free Mike.Really the cafe owners want to keep out drug dealers. But they described the dealers in a document, then asked all employees to sign it. If you worked at a hip cafe called "An Einem Sonntag in August," starting last April, you had to swear in writing to keep out all young, black, lazy-looking, unwashed slackers who sat around for hours on the patio, ordering as little tea as possible and talking to other shady characters on the street. Older black people, black tourists, or "black students with clever eyes" were exempt. I'm happy to report that some employees refused to sign this document. They got fired. They went to the local press, and now there's a street protest against racism planned for July 17. An Einem Sonntag in August has earned most of its ugly attention; but I wonder if it's true that the owners are racist? Are they, in other words, modern (and liberal) examples of the rot in the German character that Hitler exploited? What's kept me from leaping on this for a column in the States is how it would play as an international story: Do I want to throw meat to warbloggers, for example, who would only cluck, "Look, these Krauts who refused to invade Iraq with us are still a bunch of Nazis"? What happened at the cafe seems to be an idiotic mixture of the German mania for paperwork plus a general racial numbness, which you see on the street in restaurant signs like this --  -- even when the restaurants are run by Chinese people. But I'm too white to speak with authority about racism in Berlin. I also don't like the tone of comments from white people on the Indymedia site who seem to need a (yuppified?) cafe to bash just to salve their own liberal souls. So here's a translation of the most interesting comment on that site, from a guy named Tony: I have dark-brown skin and strongly-curled black hair, because my father came to East Germany from Mozambique.posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:00 AM
Comments:
Putting aside the phrasing for a moment, and the whole (completely valid) question of racism, I have a real problem with the employees being asked to sign this document--and being fired if they refused.
What this says to me is that management was completely unprepared to entertain the idea that they might be off-base. Like you, I believe that they mean well, and are trying to resolve a business problem in what they see as a fair way, but this is really not the way to handle it. Doing a "my way or the highway" with their staff just exacerbates the wrongness.
Id be very wary of believing any comments on Indymedia, they are generally offensive lies. I suspect that, unless you know him personally, Tony doesnt really exist. He may do but I doubt it.... very much.
Wait, we can trust the articles, but not the comments? I like Tony's comment because it's so unexpected. I can't prove the guy's real, but he seems to cast light, instead of saying [paraphrase from another comment]: "Ahh, forget those racists at Sonntag, place is gentrified anyway, just go down the street to [a rival P-Berg cafe] if you want a 3-euro breakfast..."
" Wait, we can trust the articles, but not the comments?"
Thats about it. Id go further and suggest that I dont really believe most of the articles... this is the internet and thats an open posting forum. Anyone (of any political opinion or knowledge) can type whatever they want. The actual statements from the Action Group and the employees etc are documented elsewhere as in the recent television clip that Heather links to I think. They are real. People tend to then believe the comments they like, the ones theyd like to be true. Perhaps this one is true but i very much doubt it. Its up to you to decide. I find it irrelevant and suspicious because of certain themes he mentions (esp the bit you dont quote) but thats also irrelevant. The same goes for the other comments. This problem with the IMC network has been encountered internationally and some IMC networks have decided to pull the plug as well as many groups deciding to use other forums.
Here's the graf I cut: "I can somehow understand the people from 'Sonntag,' they're fighting for their existence. But especially the part [in the document] about bloodshot eyes and personal hygiene seems a bit misguided. My father comes from Africa, has normal eyes and showers every day."
It seemed repetitive, but if you see something in there that's relevant, have at it. Maybe another reader can back up or debunk what "Tony" has to say: Does he have a normal-sounding life for a minority in Berlin? And back to the big point: Think this is worth a column in the American press, or is it a bad example of German racism -- meaning easy fodder for warbloggers (& other demagogues)?
Maybe easy fodder for warbloggers (and other demagogues). But. Also very illuminating for many other people, who may not know anything about the way things are in Germany now. Like yours truly before she went and saw for herself.
Cast your mind back to when you lived here, Mike. It's very easy for Americans--and I speak of myself as well as anyone else--to have no idea whatsoever what goes on beyond our borders. Unless you make a concerted effort, it's all the Michael Jackson trial and Tom Cruise jumping on a sofa and oh, somebody else has been beheaded in Iraq. I think the P'berg situation raises all sorts of interesting questions about racism that could stand examination here. It hits, how do you say? Uncomfortably close to home.
Hi Mike,
I'm not sure about going to the American press with this piece/story. Although I don't know the cafe owners, I do think that this situation has more to do with Germans doing things in a very stereotypically "German way" rather than anything else. And what I mean by "German way," - in brief - is that they're trying to establish a set of rules while relying on a strictly factual approach to a very complicated, very human situation. They're defining a "problem" by referring to the shared characteristics of the people behind the "problem" without a sense of the degree to which their factual approach equates with racism. Without understanding how this same approach is constantly applied everywhere in German culture, I think U.S. readers would miss the point, and think that the cafe owners simply hate black people. Derick
Well now, hold on a tick. American readers may be insular, but we're not necessarily so thick that we can't have that point explained to us, and grasp it. Particularly if Mike is pointing this idea at some of the outlets for whom he tends to write, outlets where people are prepared to read carefully and think carefully about what they've read.
The fact that some people might be, oh, shallow in their reading is not a good reason to not expose a whole audience to an idea. Saying "I won't talk to you about this because it is too complicated and subtle for an outsider to understand" is not being fair to readers. I think Derick's perspective is very interesting. The idea that this is not racism as Americans understand it, but a manifestation of very German traits. I also believe that this can be explained clearly and well in an article meant for an American audience.
Hi Indri,
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A great point. I guess I'm thinking more about a USA Today/Local Paper audience rather than a Pacific News Service (for example) audience. Having lived in Germany for nearly a decade, I always find it hard to really explain anything about what happens here without trying (usually unsuccessfully!) to paint a broader picture of the cultural context in which it happens. Germans tend to prioritize "the facts" about a given situation to such a degree that nothing else really matters. From my perspective, the story is essentially about how Germans do things (racism included!) as much as it is about anything else. Derick | |
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