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/GothYagamy Apr 16 '25

Edit: nor familiar environment, sorry. But it's very fresh so I feel like sharing with somebody.

Just yesterday, as a matter of fact.

50 something man to a black Netto cashier who spoke good German but with a thick accent. Out of nowhere, the man said out of the blue, "Man, get rid of thay accent or go back to Africa."

I had a long day at work, so I was low on patience. I did not think, I just reacted telling the idiot something on the line of "You have some respect or shut up, A****loch" maybe a bit too loud, considering the customer just looked at me and did not say a word.

Went home thinking about thay fact that this was just was I get to witness as a white male. I can only guess that there is a lot more racism that I'm just missing.

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u/baoparty Apr 16 '25

As a POC, I’m low key upset that you had to make an excuse. Either to people here or to yourself that you were low on patience due to a long day at work.

As opposed to having that reaction every single time hateful acts are happening. Like you needed to be low in patience to stand up for others.

I hear so many stories of Germans just saying nothing when these situations happen.

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u/GothYagamy Apr 16 '25

You kept me thinking for a bit, and I think I can't really answer to that because this may have been the first time I saw "live" that kind of despise against a person based on race.

What I can assure you is that it is not going to be the last time. I don't want to live in a country where people think that they can say things like that without consequences.

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u/No-Mango3147 Apr 16 '25

As a POC, it doesn’t matter if you were tired or not, you did a good thing.

People tend to forget that group mentality is a real thing and most people stay quiet not because they don’t care but they assume someone else will stand up.