The row centres around the exhibition ‘This is Colonialism’ and the museum’s decision to restrict white people from entering a small section of the display
Police officers are gathered in front of the Zeche Zollern museum in Dortmund, the focus of what social networks are describing as a racism scandal.
The row centres around the exhibition ‘This is Colonialism’ and the museum’s decision to restrict white people from entering a small section of the display. For several months now, Saturdays at the museum have been reserved for black people and people of colour to explore a colonialism exhibition
The museum claims the objective is not to be discriminatory, but to reserve a safe space for reflection for non-whites.
I would have been much more sympathetic if it was to prove a point, ie “This is the sense of exclusion experienced by those under colonial oppression”, but no, it’s just some real yikes-worthy stuff 😬
The museum claims the objective is not to be discriminatory
discriminatory
“treating a person or group differently from other people, because of their race, gender, sexuality, etc.”I kinda wish people cared as much about the actual discrimination minoritised people face that affects their ability to live their lives fully, as they do about restricting entry to a single museum exhibit one day a week.
I don’t care about the actual act itself of restricting white people from some museum for a day. In a bubble? Who gives a shit.
But this kinda stuff just diminishes the credibility of legitimate movements meant to actually improve equity and equality. It sways the general public into thinking that rights activism is immature and unreasonable.
It gives the AfD sort of parties of the world really easy ammo and is basically just handing them red herrings served on a silver platter.
Shit is dumb and counter productive.
I strongly disagree with the argument that we should moderate our behaviour based on what the people who hate us might say about us.
Bigots and fascists don’t need to be “given ammo”. They just make up their ammo no matter what we do. They lie, all the time. It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, they will find a way to feel aggrieved. Changing our behaviour based on what they might say only allows them power and control over us. And it limits what we can do to actually help the marginalised people they target.
We need to be better about where we spend our efforts. We should focus on helping people, regardless of what bigots say. It’s a bad habit of moderates, to spend all their time arguing and negotiating with bigots, rather than supporting the people bigots target.
Regardless of what right wingers say, people in the middle – who frequently sway elections – look at news like this and I don’t think it paints the left in a positive light.
Well I think it’s a losing strategy to care how to right-wing portrays your actions. And I think that caring for minorities is more important than pandering to conservatives and even to some extent to moderates. Especially since historically rights have been won even when the progressive movements fighting for them were extremely unpopular, in other words pandering to the sensibilities of moderates would have lead the movements into stagnation.
This kind of self defeating bullshit from the “progressive” wing of politics needs to stop. This is textbook throwing a stick into your own bicycle spokes tier nonsense.
Ah. Tokenism at it best.
Tokenism (n): The policy of making only a perfunctory effort or symbolic gesture toward the accomplishment of a goal, such as racial integration.
You get a news headline and feel so good that you did something…
How is that even legal in Germany?
As long as it’s not a public institution they have “Hausrecht”, meaning they can decide who is allowed to enter and who isn’t*.
^^^*Terms ^^^and ^^^conditions ^^^apply
I’m curious how they are enforcing this. Is it self-reported or is there someone at the door determining if you’re un-white enough? I’m half white and racially ambiguous, so not sure I’d make the cut lol. On the other hand, my grandparents were immigrants who lived under colonial rule.
Frankly, the Irish, Saami, Palestinians, and lots of native Americans are all colonized people who might be considered or visually identified as white. That said, I’m in Germany, it can be racist af, so I absolutely understand how a safe space might be desirable.
You can fix racism with racism trust us
This is incredibly dumb, but tbh I understand their intention. In Germany you’ll meet the worst kind of racists.
Once in Starbucks, a white
cuntwoman filled my coffee mug with trash while I was in the bathroom… Less extreme, but I think every Asian descendant was at least once told to go back to China. I have been mocked for my Asian eyes, etc.Seriously, many of their grandparents were okay with locking Jews in camps, the population as a mass grabbed and shared Jews’ properties, and then officially killed them in gas chambers.
You sound pretty racist yourself when you generalize the whole german population like that, based on one asshole messing around with your coffee …
I didn’t. If that’s your take from this text of mine, I don’t know how I could explain that to you.
You’re not alone in being called a bigot here for describing bigotry. It’s absolutely nuts.
So, maybe I edited my comment and they are replying to an old version which could’ve indeed been poor, so I don’t blame them too much.
Anyway, I’m finding out that those people who complain on the web often can’t read. Especially the type who thinks in black or white basis. They can’t see nuance. If people do see nuance, they often wouldn’t attack unless I write something really stupid.
Simply put, that type of people can’t be argued with. They won’t see the complexity of reality. Hence, it follows that they can’t read. Maybe they are teenagers who love to write on Steam threads or something (god forbid, I love that too).
So I often tell them they are wrong, with some explanation, yet also tell them I don’t intend to convince them (because they aren’t ready) and maybe that they have to read my text again (which they can’t).
For several months now, Saturdays at the museum have been reserved for black people and people of colour to explore a colonialism exhibition
Ohhh noo. Anyways…
What’s the blood quantum for being allowed in, do you think?
Strange response to racism.
Heaven forbid that us white people feel the tiniest modicum of discomfort. I sincerely hope it’ll help foster a sense of empathy for those that continue to suffer real substantive harm.
Also, I find it pretty unlikely that the people who would cry about this tiny concession are the same people who would be interested in going to this exhibit anyways.
Racism is either wrong or it isn’t.
That’s massively over-simplified.
Discrimination is bad. But not all discrimination is the same. Ubiquity and power dynamics play a huge role in what makes racism so damaging.
And, unfortunately, sometimes correcting for past discrimination can itself involve discrimination.
That’s massively over-simplified.
No, it’s really not. Racism is either wrong, or it isn’t. There’s not a middle ground here. That not all incidents of racism are equally bad does not mean any incident, large or small, of racism is not bad.
And, unfortunately, sometimes correcting for past discrimination can itself involve discrimination.
There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution, as the saying goes. That is precisely why all solutions, even imperfect ones, must be built on solid principles. Affirmative action, for example, is built on solid principles (unless one is some right-libertarian market fetishist, but fuck them), because it seeks the integration and inclusion of all races, even though it currently predominantly benefits non-majority groups. It seeks a better world, a world where people aren’t treated differently based on who their parents or grandparents were. Racism based on the idea of inferiority is far worse than racism based on the idea of collective ethnic guilt - but both are still bad. Racism based on collective ethnic guilt is worse than racism based on a simple but fundamental ‘othering’ of a racial group - but both are still bad.
Considering that people, incorrectly in my opinion, refer to affirmative action as racism constantly, this seems like an odd comment to square.
That’s because people are shitheads and I hate them.
Affirmative action is simply the implementation of the view that society should be comprised, in as many areas as possible, of demographics which reflect the demographics of society as a whole - ie that prejudices should not be allowed to dictate the construction of the institutions which rule our daily lives. It does not ‘other’ anyone - it welcomes them into areas previously closed off. And the principle would, in theory, defend a white minority same as a black or Asian minority. It is a way forward, a better world, a more united world, not a less united one.
I would love to go to an exhibit on colonialism and its vast crimes, and I am upset by the matter on principle. I don’t know why everyone is suddenly interested in running apologia for racial segregation.
It’s not unavailable to you. You can pick literally any other time but that four hours, like any other well adjusted adult would do.
It’s not unavailable to you. You can pick literally any other time but that four hours, like any other well adjusted adult would do.
You would say this, then, about a whites only 4 hours at the same museum, then, right?
Are you this opposed to women’s shelters not allowing men in order to provide a safe space for women?
No, because women’s shelters are not a public venue to begin with.
No, as that would be completely ignorant of the contextual reality of the situation.
‘Context’ is not a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. Malcolm X’s pre-Mecca racism, for example. was far, far less heinous than the racism of the America he lived in due to context - but that does not mean it wasn’t bad. Likewise, othering a race with benevolent intent is still, at its core, othering a race of human beings.
And in any case, the point is meant to refute the idea that “you can pick literally any other time”. That you can pick another time does not mean that the circumstances which force you to do so are right. Even if you still think it is correct to continue this practice, that “It’s only 4 hours” is not a valid argument regarding whether the principle of the thing is moral or not.
“The other water fountain is right there, boy.”
Nice false equivalence. That’s not what’s going on here.
Just letting you know what you sound like.
Take a moment to think about what brought you to defend discrimination based on skin color. Then consider if that’s a positive for humanity.
Here I thought we settled this bullshit already but I guess some have some catching up to do. We really were too lax on the South when we beat their ass.
Fuck racism and anyone who defends it.
How some of you make it more complicated than that I will never understand.
All the people in this thread standing up against “racism” for the most minor of limitations to the dominant racial group.
The proportion of comments here against an exhibit on colonialism being reserved 1 day a week for the victims of colonialism is disturbing.
And this is just a manufactured rightwing “controversy”. The museum had been doing this for months (it’s literally just 4 hours a week) without issue until a radio station associated with Germany’s far-right saw something they could spin as anti-white to rile up the “oppressed” white whiners on far-right Twitter.
The German version of this story has more information, but frankly it should have been obvious to all these “reverse racism” whiners that it was just a BS rightwing controversy regular people shouldn’t give two shits about. The associated party, AfD, is Germany’s far-right racist party, which has been ruled in court to be legitimately suspected to be a “threat to democracy”.
The fact that it became an issue “on social media” only after a white journalist documented that they were refused admission sort of tells you the whole story here.
Nobody cared, until angry racists made a big deal about it. It’s likely that, on balance, the vast majority of people don’t care and aren’t paying any attention to the racists. But if it involves angry racists, it leads, because that shit generates clicks and controversy. JOURNALISM.
I actually see the value in providing a safe space for oppressed or marginalized communities, such in the way that women’s shelters don’t allow men.
I don’t know what the answer is be here, but it’s not nearly as black and white (no pun intended) as commenters here seem to believe.
This seems fine to me? Why shouldn’t they have a specific day to go and reflect without me being there?
Maybe that’s the only day of the week you have available to go. Maybe it doesn’t help inclusionary cultural practices to intentionally separate races.
“Why can’t we exclude some races sometimes guys?”
It’s not even a day, it’s 4 hours Saturday morning.
