Bookshelf

[German] A book about racism. For me, it’s a topic which is certainly difficult to grasp, being a white male living in Germany. It’s undeniable that there are problems in this country. From following the news ever so slightly, those problems don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. They might even be on the rise. I don’t know a lot about it and that’s the reason I needed to read a book.

Hasters writes down her own experience being a daughter of a white German man and a black woman from the USA, growing up in Cologne. She ties it into a bunch of lessons on colonialism and her own family history. It was very interesting to read. Most of it all, this book is a lesson in empathy. We need to imagine ourselves walking in the shoes of others who face different challenges from us a lot more often. Racism can’t sufficiently be explained by hard facts, and there is no simple solution which will get rid of it. So, the main thing is to not stay passive, because that behavior will strengthen the systemic racism we have in this country, and also in other countries, of course. We need to speak up and help where we can. That’s another difficult thing – but books like these help a lot. I started by convincing my co-workers that we should make a company donation to Amadeu Antonio foundation. Not much convincing needed. A thousand bucks is not enough, but it’s a start.