Politics | My summer in Frankfurt

European Racism; I Feel Like A Fly On The Wall For The First Time — Location Frankfurt, Germany

It’s a sinking feeling. People really enjoy that?

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

My husband and I are in Frankfurt, where we’re spending our summer this year, and if there’s one thing we’re thoroughly enjoying, it's how much people are able to mind their own business in this city. Granted, we’re not having the regular ‘tourist’ experience of having to rub shoulders with strangers in places every single day; however, this fact still stands out.

Whether you’d like to admit it or not, life in America revolves around having your life experiences being crafted for you by the people around you, based on their internalized ideas and biases about what treatment is deserved by the people in your position on the racial hierarchy.

Most follow this programming; some choose to override it, but I doubt anyone can argue that it doesn’t happen.

As a conspicuously very black person in Germany right now, where bodies are a variation of very pale to translucent (I never knew people could get so pale!), I’m quite taken aback by how much some of these people are ‘not worried about me’ in the same way their cousins in the south would be, where it’s a very normal occurrence for men to step out of their cars just to watch me fuel my car when I’m alone.

One time, we rented this house in Tennessee when we were visiting for my husband’s triathlon event (I wrote about it). The house was the first one off this main road in a really beautiful wooded area with a view of the Lookout Mountain that had a handful of houses scattered all over, but as they say, the hills have eyes in the south!

On the first morning that I went out for my morning jog up and down the street, I couldn’t tell you where all those people came from on my second lap back, casually walking by me and driving by me, including slowing down a little to get a good look, I guess. There was a bit of a tailback at one point, I swear, it was a tad bit agressive, yours truly being the main attraction.

At one point, I noticed some trucks had gone up to the main road and did a U-turn to come back down, which is when I knew to call my husband, who was asleep at the time, to come and help me complete my run. But hey … I couldn’t entirely blame them. I’m gorgeous. Even I sometimes have to go back and do a double-take when I pass by a mirror …. so it could have also been that.

On a more serious note, … a moment of silence for Armaud Aubery. I’m never not thinking about Armaud Aubery in times like that, when I have to fake a smile or say the odd ‘hello’ back when I can literally feel the negative energy and the hair at the back of my neck starting to stand up.

When my husband came down to meet me, the roaches practically disappeared. Not a single one on that road for the 45 minutes left on my clock. Long story short, he ended up putting in an offer for the house, and two weeks later, it was ours.

Back to Friendlier Frankfurt.

I’ve been going on my morning jogs every day since we got here, and no one has acted like I was jogging on their testicles or pulling out their nose hairs. The other side of this coin is that Germans in Frankfurt lack the sense of personal space. There have been numerous occasions where the park bench couldn’t have been smaller for two perfect strangers. It’s really funny.

The racism, or is it extreme classism

What I’m understanding from reading the morning news here, German racists are hyperfixated on a group of people they deem lesser: Other Europeans. These would be the Ukrainians, the Poles, the Turks, the Serbians, etc … That laundry list is longer than my arm.

I personally can’t tell anyone apart, and don’t really care to, but for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m the fly on the wall.

I’ve watched white people being refused a table at a restaurant we were dining at (some kind of profiling we were told). I’ve watched white people being chased down for the receipt by a waiter as they were leaving the restaurant (some kind of profiling we were told) — These people that did it were really loud about it, too. In those instances, they spoke as if they were announcing the nothing burger problem to everyone.

Do I feel better about myself because I’m not being targeted? Well…When the cops stopped us a couple of weeks ago, YES! YES! YES!

At these restaurants, no. I personally don’t derive my self-worth from the suffering of others. Can you imagine going your entire life expecting that waiters and waitresses will be the ones to keep affirming your worth back to you? Nonsense!

I just make sure to throw them the dirtiest look of disapproval I can muster without inducing the onset of wrinkles. I’ve also called the manager to decline the services of such crooked beings and requested a brand new waiter/ waitress. I guess that’s how I'm fighting back as the fly on the wall.

By the way… Does anybody know why waiters in certain establishments in London and Western Europe are able to staff their entire waitstaff with white men (dressed to the nines)? Does that mean Everything is really being covered by their tax contribution, or are they being paid a livable wage?

It’s really cute when they approach your table with that nervous smile.

I’m guessing we’re going to start seeing more of that in America, after these deportations are complete? Let’s also see if we’re able to finally get some of these law enforcement officers who are always ‘scared for their lives’ off the streets and into back kitchen sculleries, intentionally built with poor acoustics, which is where they truly belong.