Afro-german filmmakers & "new perspectives" for blacks in Germany - Political Forum

Voland · #1 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 11:23 AM

The Afro - German community has a history going back centuries, but is often overlooked or exposed to open racism in a country where a majority still defines Germans as "white".
Now a group of young afro-german filmmakers is trying to change that...

Black German Film at the Berlinale: African-German Filmmakers Hope to Open Up 'New Perspectives' - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · #2 (**permalink**) 02-11-2007, 04:04 AM

Quote:

The Afrodeutsche

They have a hard task ahead of them. Black Germans, who generally refer to themselves as Afrodeutsche or African-Germans, have to constantly fight to be accepted as German -- for many people within and outside Germany, being German is synonymous with being white.

....

Despite the size of the community and its long history, there is a widespread assumption in the German film industry that films with black characters cannot be commercially successful. On the rare occasions that black characters are featured in German productions, they tend to be occupying stereotyped roles.

....

Yohannes feels that black filmmakers in Germany have a lot of catching up to do compared with the United States, where the Black Filmmaker Foundation is an integral part of the filmmaking scene. "US films may be further forward but they had to fight for that -- it didn't just happen," she says. "That's why we have come together -- to change things."

Ebéne too feels things have a long way to go in Germany. "There is no Denzel Washington here," she says.

Wow, yeah that's not how it is in the US. Blacks are everywhere in the US media, and they can be real people too, not just a cardboard cut out, or a gangster.

In the US, a non-white person can say they are American. Doesn't seem to work that way in Germany. However, we also have many more non-whites than you do (about 33 million blacks). In time, I'm guessing Germany will accept its blacks more. Hopefully.

Voland · #3 (**permalink**) 02-14-2007, 11:36 AM

The difference is that the US is a country which exists through immigration, and a widely accepted set of values etc., while Germany was at least founded as a nation state based on a common ethnicity , ( which was never actually there). Problem was that for most of its history Germany has been a culture- , but not a political nation. Especially the second empire and then of course the third reich used a an agressive kind of nationalism to provide the belt holding the country together.
Minorities always had problems to fit in there ( which doesn´t mean it was impossible) . And while modern Germans are probably the least nationalistic Europeans many still base their understanding of the nation on the terms of ethnicity. I remember two black kids in school ( children of german women and coloured american soldiers) who were frequently asked ( not necessarily unfriendly) how long they intended to stay in Germany ? People had to be reminded that these children were german and would stay.
The situation is changing and for the better but it´s probably still taking another generation

Bozo · #4 (**permalink**) 05-04-2007, 07:32 PM

Most Germans have no clue that there is also a Black history in Germany. It's not mentioned. Black Germans are 'over-looked'. Mostly treated as 'foreigners', racially profiled because they could be illigal immigrants, and Germans are quite xenophobic. They are also not as tolerant and open-minded as they want the world make to believe.