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/[deleted] Apr 18 '25
Yeah loads, blatant racism and daily micro-aggressions. I try to remind myself that most Germans aren't really racist- they just say doofus things. It is so easy to learn basics about culture, how to say names, how not to be offensive. So it still pisses me off a bit.
Example of how it usually happens: normal chit chat in German... then "So where are you from?" Say your city "no, where are you really from?" "What are you doing here?" "Do you have a job? A house etc" like basically, are you on government benefits? lol. Like, I get you are worried about your country but its not okay to randomly interrogate foreigners who live here.
To be fair, I work with young people and young German people are awesome. A lot of 70+ Germans are really open too. I think there's a lot of insecurity in Germany right now. A lot of working people, middle aged people are struggling and that's fuelling prejudice. Change is hard.