Why is racism a problem in Berlin?

In interview 3 of Dire-logues Faris Amin, Palestinian classical cellist and story teller, talks to us about his experiences and perspective on the atmospheric impact inequality has on PoC's living in a cosmopolitan city. ⁠

So racism is a problem in Berlin as much as it is a problem anywhere else, I would say the special thing about racism in berlin is that it’s very subtle, it can be quite visible and physical but most of the time it’s subtle and that’s what makes me feel choked sometimes, makes me feel like I can’t breathe somehow because there’s no respect, there’s no recognition in the city, there’s a general atmosphere of confusion that the city is going through, maybe a transitional period of time, where people are trying to understand who are those people that are coming to live in our country, in our space, to some it might be like we’re invading their space, so they, there’s different reactions to it.

Usually racism is more visible in these cities because there’s a lot of different people from different backgrounds coming into the city to find work, because that’s how the world is structured today. Everyone is migrating from the global south to the global north to find a living and that’s where the problems start and some places, in some metropolitan, I’d say it’s better than Belin somehow, it depends on which aspect we’re looking at, but for example a city like London to compare to Berlin, is another pace of co-existence or co-resistance in terms of these issues, while Berlin it’s still new, because the city is still being introduced to us as new people of the city.

I’ve been here for five years now, and the situation definitely has changed, I would say. Like also my perspective on it, from the first year, second year, third year, going through different episodes, I wouldn’t say it’s clearly got better, it can be that it got somehow better, because there’s a lot of work in the city by marginalised people, whether they’re queer or people of colour or black people, there’s a lot of work being done and that work is making a mark, definitely changing the city. It’s still difficult for me to say it actually got better because I still hear about people getting attacked, people getting harassed, for no reason, for being themselves, so it depends, but I’m hopeful because of all that work that is happening.

Credits

Presented by Black Brown Berlin

Director & Producer by - Chanel Knight

Assistant Director - Ibra Wane

Videographer & Sound - Ibra Wane

Editor - Jasco Ocsaj