Freitag, 13. Februar 2009

Hi.

I'm a student. I'm a student of the city of Trier, which is located quite in the middle of nowhere in West Germany. When you study in your first semester, it often goes hand in hand with a lot of drinking, a lot of party and hell of a good time. Finding new friends, meeting old friends, celebrating yourself and that kind of stuff...
When your first semester reaches the end, it usually goes along with even more party and even more drinking. So did we yesterday. And since we wanted it to be one special party, we chose one of the bigger discos in our town, namely the "musicpark a1". So we rallied together nearly half of our semester to say good bye to each other and to finish an intense time we enjoyed together. 
But what if some people are invited to this party but actually not able to come to it?
Let's see what plausible reasons there are for this case:
- You can have a date
- You can be so drunk that moving might be a problem (which often happens with students)
- You can be ill and henceforth not able to come 
Actually none of this quite understable reasons was the case for two of my friends, which were not allowed to enter that location.
It was a more stupid reason, probably the most stupid reason you can think of...(no, my dear male readers, i DON'T talk about women ;-) 

The reason I talk about is different colour. 

Before, we heard some rumors that there is kind of a "black quota" or some other kind of shit, established by the disco to limit the number of black people whose skin-colour seems to be seen as an indicator for a low social status (=trouble). It is needless to explain that this condition is quite idiotic and extremely superficial...so we thought it's just a bit of gossip goin' around. 
Most of us already had a drink...or 2...or maybe more and were in "pary-mood". Soon after we entered that location, we heard of our 2 friends who had to stand outside because they were not allowed to enter. 
We asked the doorman why...and got the answer that those two boys did not "behave". I think its funny, in a rather absurd way. Because the two guys exceed the politeness and manners of most people that were allowed to enter before. For them it was more the problem that number 1 was black and number two obviously of south-american origin.
If it wasn't for the past reports of foreign people having problems coming in...you could declare it as badluck or coincidence and forget it. But I think, it is worth writing about, because i am quite sure, that this happens in a LOT of discos all other the country and it is never too late to make people aware of that. 
I was raised by my parents to respect and tolerate different opinions, believes, and skin-colours anyway. I was taught by my brother to stand to my opionions, and to make it public if necessary. And my opinion is:

 A foreign quota in any disco is a way of subtle racism and superficial to the core. 

It may even be true that there was bad experience with black people in the past and so on, but taking this as a justification is as shallow as the word shallow can be. 
It just excludes people from having fun and is purely discriminating...
The fact alone, that im writing this text nowadays is an example how stuck some people are in their attitude, an attitude which would fit better in a time 70 years ago. 

Well, i could go and on writing about unnecessary simple-minded ways of subtle racism in our society based of narrow thinking...but other people have done this better and more elaborated than I could ever do. 
This is a small text about a more or less small incident compared to other things that happen day by day, but it's in my opinion worth and important to mention. Reading that text won't change anything, but writing a comment, reporting similar incidents or at least sending this to your friends will perhaps encourage people to think about "foreign quotas" or how foreigners and/or black people are treated in their local establishment.
I personally think that this might lead to some good, even if it's effect will be small.

We don't need racism. We don't quotas. Because we are all of the same blood.

your truly,
totallymad