FINAL PAPER

Sophia Gillmer

Berlin Study Abroad Summer 2017

July 30, 2017

Berlin versus Seattle: Being Black or Multiracial in a Progressive City

My interest in this topic began after Sharon Otoo came to our class to discuss her book “The Things I think While Smiling Politely”. Otoo’s contribution to our class helped us to understand critical whiteness in Berlin, which has much of an impact on refugees’ and migrants’ ability to integrate into society. What Otoo had to say was nothing that I hadn’t heard in many of my African American classes at the University of Washington, but what I found most shocking was the fact that both Germany and the United States have so many similarities when it comes to the acknowledgement and treatment of black culture. Initially, I had the impression that because Germany placed much importance in remembering the horrors and mistakes of the Hitler regime, I assumed they had a better, more open minded history system than the United States, and therefore proved to be more progressive. I learned later that not just with history, but also for multicultural black communities, histories and cultures still tend to be ignored. In this essay, I chose to focus on what Otoo wrote about because she has a bicultural experience being a black woman who grew up in London, and moving to Berlin as a young adult. While the novella she wrote was not autobiographical, the book does highlight many experiences of multicultural black women in Berlin, as Otoo and the main character have many similarities in terms of age, family history, and lived experiences. What I found most interesting though, is that despite the fact this book won one of Germany’s most prestigious awards, the Ingeborg Bachmann prize, I could not find the book anywhere online. I plan to figure out why I had such a hard time finding her novella, and what that says about Germany’s opinion on black women and how that is similar to my experience in Seattle, and the prevalence of work by multiracial black authors, specifically Ijeoma Oluo. Keeping a smile on both of our faces starts with the history of each country and the laws that include and exclude women of color in certain spaces. 

Very few Berliners are ethnic Germans. Germany was a country of emigrants until after World War II when many people came from all over Europe, including some ethnic Germans where their integration was eased by “their ethnic origin, and post-war economic boom” (Oezcan). In 2000, a law passed in Germany that allowed people born in Germany to obtain citizenship if their parents have lived in in the country for eight years. This has changed the way many people can integrate seeing as many people have come as refugees to Germany despite two generations of family members having lived in Germany, these children still cannot be German citizens. Afro-Germans on the other hand, while experiencing many similar things as the current refugees have had a slightly different experience being brought into the country and known as “warbabies” (Lorde) Audrey Lorde goes to Berlin in the 80’s and researches these black women who are rare but still present in society. “How do you come to define a cultural identity when there has been no other Black person seen throughout your childhood” (Lorde). A quote from research done by Audre Lorde highlights the thoughts that many black women have growing up in this society; a society which looks at Audrey Lorde similar to the way she gets looked at in Southern United States. While times have changed, Germany has the world’s oldest health care and social security benefits (Bump). Going to Berlin, and being a very progressive person, this, along with many of Angela Merkel’s beliefs, struck me as incredibly progressive and opened minded. But walking through the city, and listening to people talk, and understanding the German refugee crisis, I have come to understand that what Audrey Lorde experiences, and despite many people’s opinion of Merkel’s progressive outlook, I have changed my perspective insomuch as I see under the progressive laws. A friend we met who works for the government in the department of immigration believes that the country could accept even more refugees because he says for every 80 Germans they accept one refugee. He compared it to being in a bar saying, “adding one more person does not have any impact on the space taken up”. I also noticed that while Merkel encourages entrance into Germany, refugees live in “containers”. The connotation of the word “container” is something you can close off and never see again unless you decide to open then top. While many refugees are African, most Afro-Germans are not in containers but still very far removed from German culture because as Audrey Lorde says their own culture is so far removed. 

While Audrey Lorde made it to Berlin in the 80’s and early 90’s, Sharon Otoo has lived in Germany since 1992, and currently lives with her four sons in Berlin (Oltermann). She is an activist as well as an award winning author who has much to say about being a black woman in Germany as well as marginalization and privilege. In the reading of certain passages, she has online, she chooses very selectively what she will read in the 35 minutes that are allotted before the dialogue planned for the later part of the conference. She has a lot of relatable things to say about friendship, men, children, cultural identification and the problematic nature of veganism. Otoo ends the reading with a chilling excerpt that starts the novella. After giving much background about the situation of her divorce and how betrayed and hurt she felt she says, “he asks me what I am thinking, I simply smiled” (Otoo). This passage made me stop and think because in the situation when your husband wants a divorce because it is “just not fun for [him]” getting angry doesn’t help (Otoo). In this scene, and in the other excerpts Sharon Otoo reads, the easiest thing to do is just smile. Because in many situations her feelings are disregarded anyway. What I find most interesting is that despite the fact that her voice is finally heard, and many people in Germany are able to read about a bicultural black woman’s experience in Germany, we still chose to ignore the voices of refugees in Berlin. They are still put in containers in Berlin, and Germany still faces terrorist attacks from refugees whose needs are not being met. On July 29th a man whose refugee status was declined made his voice heard by stabbing 7 people in Hamburg (Speciale). In our class Sharon Otoo also told our class that after she won the award, a man told her to stop writing about this subject because she won the prize and no longer needs to be an activist. To me, his advice shows fear and intimidation a successful black woman can cause and this man’s attempt to silence her. Both collections of silencing makes it no surprise that after returning home I could not find Sharon Otoo’s books anywhere. I checked every bookstore website, and every major second hand bookshop (and their suppliers in Seattle). The closest book they could find was located in London. The only place I found her book was Amazon which had an estimated shipping date of two weeks or more, and no way to expedite the delivery, making me unable to fully analyze her book. I found this frustrating, but also fascinating because it proves even more that her history and voice will continue to stay silenced. Even in Berlin, at the few book stores I looked in, I could not find her work. A narrative so relevant to bicultural and biracial women in the United States and even Seattle, is not available and not available to those who need a multicultural or multiracial example in their lives. 

I chose to focus on Sharon Otoo’s work after she emphasized certain quotes from her book which helped me understand why I have so much difficulty explaining my experiences as a biracial black woman to many of my closest friends. My favorite quote was, “laws of physics don’t apply to a breakfast egg” which I have used multiple times when my white friends tried to tell me how to cook gumbo, a Cajun dish my grandma had perfected growing up black in Louisiana. During her talk, I was shocked by how similar my experience as a multiracial black woman in Seattle to her experience as a multicultural black woman in Berlin, and how although people claim we are accepted in society, many subtle oppressions work to impress a forced smile on our face.  It surprised me how applicable that line could be as I try to maneuver through my identity and discover where I belong in society that grants me so many privileges, but shakes to a stop when the color of my skin comes to play. 

I want to relate Sharon Otoo’s work to that of Ijeoma Oluo who is a multiracial black woman activist based out of Shoreline, Washington, and writes articles for different magazines and newspapers as well as actively posts on Facebook and twitter about being black or multiracial, but also about her experience as a multiracial black woman in the United States. I found it interesting that similar to not being able to find any books by Sharon Otoo in the United States, I also had a hard time finding multiracial black writers in Seattle. I can only assume that this has to stem from the lack of representation of black women in the Seattle area and the need to silence the oppression people of color experience in order to keep the city appearing liberal and progressive. I see the most discrimination happening in Seattle in the school district. So much inequality happens because of how gentrification occurs and therefore how the school system organizes where children go to school. Another great example is the police brutality that occurs not just in every racist state, but a few miles away from the UW campus where a black woman with children was shot and killed in her own home. Ijeoma Oluo’s presence in the media is shocking for many of her 40,000 Facebook followers, because she is not afraid to criticize white people, and even people of color who only choose to acknowledge their skin color when it allows them to defend their oppressive lifestyle. It also seems like many of those posts she makes are intended to startle a certain type of audience giving her more presence in the media. Making a comment about being black in Cracker Barrel received so many offensive, hateful, and hurtful responses that for a multiracial black woman who understands the uncomfortable feeling of being in completely white-centric and white cultural space such as Cracker Barrel, I was shocked to see so many negative responses towards her real feelings as a black woman in that position. Listening to her opinion vlogs on Facebook, and reading some of her articles like “If You Give a Cop a Pepsi” or “Why You Can Touch My Hair” demonstrate her way of making her voice heard, and her feelings, as a multiracial woman in the greater Seattle, heard. 

But as Sharon Otoo asked us in class, “who are you writing for?” I have been thinking this the whole time, and I have been reflecting on what I have learned about in Berlin. On one hand, it is to show people in the United State that understanding identity and finding a place of belonging does not come easier in a country with great health insurance. It does not come easier in a liberal city in Washington that refuses to say the “n” word, but also refuses to make any real change in the segregated school system. The privilege to move countries and the privilege to use white privilege in order to obtain better schooling demonstrates the struggle of wanting and needing to be a part of the two identities. 

What I saw was black women who believed that Berlin was the place to live as a black woman in Germany because unlike other places in Germany, the multiculturalism makes it easier to walk around and be herself. I learned this from a woman at a bar that had a night supporting black musicians in Berlin. She said growing up in a small town in Germany made her uncomfortable, and here she can walk around without people staring at her. Berlin also has venues which support black culture such as “YAAM”, also known as “The Young African Art Museum”. These places encourage refugee entrance, and voice multiculturalism with the delicious Dju Dju African Beer made in Berlin and sold exclusively at a few locations, but also highlights the issue I found in Berlin that Sharon Otoo also noticed that “British people know how to be polite and not to use the n-word, but I still felt there is a glass ceiling. In Germany, people say really stupid things to your face, and they say it with a smile because they don’t know it’s racist, but it just feels so refreshingly honest. I can deal with that” (Oltermann). I saw what she was talking about in Berlin that I do not see much more in Seattle, and that is the white dreads, and also German’s lack of interest in talking about Race. Germans did not seem to understand how their actions could possibly be conceived as offensive most likely because the German Empire that took advantage of people in Africa has been ignored from their history similar to how slavery has been ignored in United States history. 

I want to end this paper by recognizing that many of these experiences, while different for different minority groups and cultural groups still have many challenges being accepted and incorporated into German society. Sharon Otoo, despite being a black woman in a racist society, I imagine had an easier time assimilating into the culture than an African refugee who speaks little English and no German, has no money, no passport, and no way to communicate back home to the community and culture they feel safe in. I find this to be similar to my experience as a multiracial black woman who experiences oppression because of the color of my skin, but also has many privileges having a white father and successful parents who can ensure I get the education I need and the treatment in school and in everyday life that I deserve. 

This paper is still filled with questions, and being based on my personal experience as the comments that people make to black women in Berlin and multiracial people in Seattle is accurately written by Sharon Otoo in her novella, “he asked me what I’m thinking. I simply smiled.” To end the reading with this passage from the beginning of the book has a shocking effect. Because what else can you do in situations of subtle discrimination and hurtful comments besides “simply smile?”

Works Cited

Bump, Jesse B. (October 19, 2010). "The long road to universal health coverage. A century of lessons for development strategy" (PDF). Seattle: PATH.

Lorde, Audre. "Showing Our True Colors." 14.1 (1991): 67-71. Web. 31 July 2017.

Oezcan, Veysel. "Germany: Immigration in Transition." Migrationpolicy.org. Migration Policy Institute, 02 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 July 2017.

Oltermann, Philip. "Black British Writer Wins Major German-language Fiction Award." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 July 2016. Web. 31 July 2017.

Oluo, Ijeoma. "Why You Can Touch My Hair." Jezebel. Jezebel.com, 08 July 2013. Web. 31 July 2017.

Speciale, Alessandro, and Chad Thomas. "Hamburg Attack Puts Merkel Refugee Policy Back in Spotlight." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 29 July 2017. Web. 31 July 2017.

Otoo, Sharon Dodua, perf. Lesung - the Things I Am Thinking While Smiling Politely. Sharon Otoo, 2015. Soundcloud. Web. 25 July 2017. <https://soundcloud.com/sharondoduaotoo/lesung-the-things-i-am-thinking-while-smiling-politely>.