Tens of thousands of demonstrators against racism took to the streets in cities across Germany this weekend, in what will be the largest investment event outside the United States. Organizers expect 1,500 people to show in Berlin. Instead, an estimated 15,000 protested in Alexanderplatz, in the city center of Berlin, with signs that “Germany is not innocent” report and “Black Lives matter” German media DW read. Demonstrators held a moment of silence that lasted eight minutes and 46 seconds, the time, the former policeman from Minneapolis Derek Chauvin on George Floyd knelt neck. But the protests extended far beyond Berlin, organized demonstrations in nine cities across the country. Monaco of Bavaria has seen a lot of at least 20,000 people and 14,000 people gathered in Hamburg. Even the football teams, including the Germans Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg, Borussia Dortmund and Hertha Berlin knelt in solidarity with the protests black lives Matter. But the protesters in Germany just do not violence expressed outrage at the police and racial discrimination is happening in the US, they call it in their own backyard. Here’s what to know: What is a problem, racism and police violence in Germany? A United Nations (UN) Group of Germany in 2017 has been concluded that there systemic problems of racism and an “incomplete understanding of history” in the country. They found that institutional racism is enshrined within the police institutions. “The repeated denial that racial profiling exists in Germany, the police authorities and the lack of an independent complaints mechanism to promote [the] federal and state impunity level” Ricardo Sunga, head of the UN group said in a statement . institutional racism among police officers has been found, particularly in the eastern state of Saxony, where it appeared in 2016, a video of officers from the region yank a refugee by a bus. requested racism of the police in the region to ask Martin Dulig, Saxony leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) at the time “if sympathy for Pegida [an anti-Islam Movement] and the AFD have [the right of] party alternative for Germany most widespread in the police than under ordinary citizens. “Despite the UN sounds alarm bells in 2016, the problem does not improve-it gets worse. The number of cases of racial discrimination in Germany has increased significantly, increased by 59% from 2016 to 2019, according to an annual report on Tuesday by the federal government presented Anti-Discrimination Agency (ADS). In January, the Office of Germany is just sitting legislator Africa-born, Karamba Diaby was riddled with bullet holes. Diaby later reported to have received death threats from neo-Nazi groups. Bernhard Franke, the head of ADS said that Germany has a “persistent problem with racial discrimination and are not sufficiently consistent legal assistance for the victims,” noted that “discrimination leads people down.” But the true extent of the problem of racism in Germany remains unknown, the country has less than Collect data on race and ethnicity, which means that officials do not know exactly how many of their citizens and residents are people of color or all measurement in which these poorest health had to address the social and economic consequences, while the group of the United Nations Germany has encouraged in 2017 to collect data on ethnic origin to identify and better address systemic racism has this data They have not yet been charged. As these protests combined with the history of Germany? Germany takes great pains his young man about his Nazi past to educate, but less attention is paid to the early history of the country as an imperial power. At the end of the nineteenth century, the German Empire solidified his power over several colonies in Africa. Between 1904 and 1908, 90,000 German Empire were estimated killed in what has been described as the first genocide of the twentieth century, in what is now Namibia. Aminata Toure, a black state legislator from the German Green Party, says that this part of German history has been selectively forgotten, so the anti-black racism in Germany remain as past recalls his NS. “I realized many years ago that this is that there is racism here is a problem that we have in Germany,” Touré, TIME said speaking at a protest rally in Schleswig Holstein on June 6th on the phone. “I think we are very good at remembering the Holocaust and it is important that we have this in our school system, but the problem is that we do not talk about the time we were colonized African countries,” he said, “A lot of anti-black racism was created during this period. There is little awareness of this problem. There are a lot of people who literally do not know, Germany has such a history of, or that we were a part of it. “the legacy of the second World war II has a role, Charles Huber, a former member of the Christian Democratic Union says, one of the first two blacks was elected to the German parliament. “Most people say [the ends], are not [the Nazis], because it is not appropriate. But that does not mean they do not think and act, consciously or unconsciously, under the same mechanisms.” There have been several deaths black people in Germany, including in police custody and as a result of attacks by the neo-Nazi right, talking about systemic problems says Touré. In 2001 Achidi John, an asylum seeker from Cameroon died after officers forced to take an emetic, a drug that induces vomiting in detention. In 2005, Oury Jalloh, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone burned in a police cell in Dessau to death. The police were accused in her murder but acquitted for lack of evidence. “These incidents have shown that we have not even looked at our institutions, you do not even need to look in the right place to find out where the problem might be,” says Touré. With the protests over the weekend, but Toure is optimistic something changes. “We are at the beginning of all in Germany, to talk about all these things with the majority. The minority, racism, the person concerned, for decades speakers. Most do not have. But this is something that has changed in recent days and weeks. We have another discussion, and I think we are moving in the right direction. “How did the German policy has responded to the protests? Since the protests began on 6 June, Chancellor Angela Merkel supported the protesters, while reminding them to abide by the rules of social distancing. “It ‘s okay if the people on the streets in Germany also take a clear declaration against racism,” said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday. The Interior Ministry spokesman Steve Age, however, denied that the racial profile is a systemic problem in Germany at a press conference earlier this week, with arguments rather than “taken seriously and included in the structural re-evaluation . ” Individual cases The June 4, Berlin was the adoption of the first German state anti-discrimination law which prohibits all state agencies, including police officers, to discriminate against people because of their race, gender, ability, creed, age or sexual orientation. The law, which has been in the works before the death of George Floyd, victims for damages and compensation has the right, if they are discriminated against. “This is an important step in the fight against discrimination and racism,” Werner Graf, a politician for the region, told EurActiv. “For the first time it is possible to take measures against discrimination by state actors and punish this in a simplified manner.” Correction: June 11, 2020 A quote from Charles Huber has been updated to make it specifically for extremists and he is not referring to the generally well-Germans.
Racism weighs in Germany. Tens of thousands of people take to the streets to call for justice
