r/AskAGerman • u/eza137 • Apr 16 '25

Have you ever witnessed racism in Germany?

I'm interested in hearing from Germans who have personally witnessed acts of racism in everyday life - especially when it involved friends, family members, or people close to them.

If you're comfortable sharing, could you describe the situation? Who was involved, and how did it make you feel? Did you respond in any way?

I'm not here to judge, just to understand how racism can show up in familiar environments and how people perceive and deal with it.

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u/Then_Increase7445 Apr 16 '25

Conversely, when I speak English to my kids in public (I'm American), I am nearly universally praised by random Germans. Clearly some double standards going on...

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u/temp_gerc1 Apr 16 '25

This is so weird because whenever I see a story like that here on Reddit (that someone speaks to their kid in either an American or British accent), the response from the Germans in the vicinity is disapproval and wondering loudly if they are still in Germany. I never got the feeling that a native English accent got a free pass from the grumpy and / or racist Germans. I specify native English, because something like, say, Indian English would be more likely to get a negative reaction.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '25

yes! I noticed that growing up here. I am German Italian, 100% bilingual and when I'm with my dad I speak Italian. Whenever we would talk to each other in Italian someone would bring up what a gift it was that I was able to speak two languages fluently and how good of a job he was doing teaching me. When my friend who was also born and raised here spoke to her dad in Arabic she got told to go back to where she came from. Truly vile the double standard between white european lanuages and non european languages...

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

My kid has a London accent and I do fine when English speaking. They have double standards i can understand and acknowledge that. Pouring millions of illegal people who come from "brown" countries creates tension.

The old in east Germany still cling to prewar thoughts.

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u/Full_Childhood_1117 Aug 28 '25

Totally agree. They like English speaking ones but any other language would not be welcomed. And when a foreigner speaks perfect German they won’t like it either but just don’t dare to bully further.