Summer Break

Currents will be taking a break for the next two weeks. But please tune back in for Bush Girl Alerts, my rambling about life in Germany, children, politics and anything else that gets me riled up.

Until then, I wish you all a fantastic summer.

See you soon.







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Professor, Put Your Hands Up

Like most, I was disgusted but not surprised by Henry Louis Gates' arrest at his Cambridge home a few days ago. Although he'd identified himself as the resident and showed his ID, the police officer arrested him anyway for disorderly conduct.

This article on The Root (a site to which I have contributed several essays and which was founded by Gates) explains what went down. The author, Gates' friend, expresses his outrage at the repeated, unfair treatment of white police officers towards men of color, Harvard University Professor or not.

But another important aspect of the case that is not mentioned in the article and what has been getting to me: A neighbor called the police because she saw Gates trying to get into the front door, his front door.

A woman not in the deep south but in the university town of Cambridge, didn't recognize a very iconic professor, who also happens to be her neighbor and thought: "Black man on porch. Must be breaking in.". . . in the middle of the day. . .on the front friggin' porch.

This is what I find even more disturbing about the entire story. I have to admit that I am wary of police officers to begin with. I know they are not all racists but I know they are trained to profile, to think of people in boxes, socio-economic violence ratios. I guess I just don't expect much from police officers when it comes to racial fairness.

But the neighbor, that's what gets to me. She is the real signal that anything really can happen in America.

Photo: flickr

The Case of Marwa al-Sherbini

Symbolic funeral of Marwa al-Sherbini in Tehran
Originally uploaded by WashingtonTV

I have been behind on the news and scantily voicing my opinion about certain events because of an impending book deadline. But there is one case a Currents reader mentioned, which certainly deserves to be brought up here.

Marwa Sherbini was a pregnant, 32 year-old Egyptian, Muslim mother of a three year-old boy, who lived in the eastern German city of Dresden. She was in court last week to testify against her neighbor, Alex W., who had been verbally harrassing her and calling her a Muslim terrorist and other racist and Islamaphobic slurs.

Now this is hard to believe, but in a Dresden courtroom, the very one in which Sherbini would testify against her neighbor, he managed to stab her eighteen times and kill her. Eighteen times. . . in a courtroom. To make matters worse, a security guard fired one shot and wounded Sherbini's husband, who had come to his wife's aid.

All of this was witnessed by the couple's three year-old son.

The Egyptian and some western media have noticed that this story didn't get nearly as much attention as a westerner's murder in Egypt would have.

But why else was this story not so big? Is it because it just happens too often in Germany? Has violence against foreigners simply become too commonplace, especially in eastern cities like Dresden? Would there have been more press coverage if it had happened in Cologne or the trendy capital of Berlin? Or is it simply too shameful for Germany?

The case is sad but no longer surprising, I must admit. A few posts down, I mention violence against foreigners in Germany as frequent and it has affected all of us foreigners here directly and indirectly.

Some say Sherbini was targeted because she wore a headscarf. So then what? Should Muslim women stop wearing headscarves to protect themselves? If people have to start going "underground" so they won't be prosecuted for their religious beliefs, then Germany would be returning to an ugly chapter in its history.

Unleashing the Bigots

I have yet to see Brüno but I did laugh (and cringe) when I saw Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat, his first insert-your-own-foot-in-mouth satirical documentary.

As the reviews and complaints come in for Brüno, I start to question Cohen's motives. The shocking entertainment factor is obvious but then what? What comes after he has unleashed the racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic in people?

This is what I asked myself as I watched the clip below, in which he gets a group of cowboy hat-wearing Arizonians to sing along with him,"Throw the Jew Down the Well."

If you watch closely, you'll see that there are some who are reluctant to sing along. You sense that an inner morality makes a brave appearance and reveals itself in a few frowns or upturned eyebrows or simple refusal to sing along.

But within one refrain, Cohen (as Borat) has strung almost all of them along. They are cheering, clapping and even putting up fake horns on their heads.

My first reaction to this clip was, "No way. I can't believe it." But my second reaction, a moment later, was, "Is it good to rile people up like this? Bring out the worst in them simply because he can?"

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way defending these people. I still can't believe not one person stood up and protested. But I also wonder if bringing out all that venom, putting it on You Tube and letting it fester, is somehow not just as troublesome?

Service as a Second Language

Service With A Smile
Originally uploaded by sudergal

Over the past few years it has become apparent that many Berlin salespeople have enrolled in SSL (Service as a Second Language) classes. Ten years ago, a smile, a polite greeting or even a "Thank you," was a lot to ask for when shopping here.

In the past, I've had saleswomen tell me not to unfold sweaters because they, the salespeople would then have to fold them again. I've watched cashiers at the grocery store, after not saying hello, throw my food so fast across the scanner that even a robot couldn't catch them at the other end. I've had salespeople tell me they are closed, 15 minutes before closing time, and say, "No, I am not going to open the register back up. Not even for a regular customer like you."

But times have changed. Sales people have to be trained now. Managers instruct employees, not that the customer is always right (that would be going too far), but that the customer has some rights and should not be abused or ignored without reason.

Even my sister, who was recently visiting from the US, remarked at how friendly the saleswoman in a clothing store was. The saleswoman even looked up from her book when my sister asked, in English, how much a blouse cost. The woman didn't huff and even grinned as she told us the price.

It was almost, almost like being in America, until. . . it was time to pay.

A long line was forming and there were two salespeople behind the counter. One worked diligently while the other, the woman who had helped us, stood by idly. When I caught her eye, she said, "I would ring up, but I'm just too hot. I can't concentrate in weather like this."

Just for one moment, I thought I'd been lost. But I found my way back to Berlin in no time at all.

Pina Bausch: Another Legend Gone

I have been posting less because I'm writing a book but I would never forgive myself if I didn't say something about Pina Bausch, THE Tanztheater legend who died two days ago in Wuppertal, Germany where her company was based.

Long before I moved here, I went to see her performances at Brooklyn Academy of Music every year. It wasn't always easy getting a friend to join me because many people couldn't dig her. Too much drama, too pretentious, too something, were often the complaints.

But that is what I loved about Pina Bausch's work, the too much: the exaggeration, the sets (oh the sets! real soil, or rows and rows of real carnations on the stage), the women dancers and their long dresses, their hair flailing about, the men leaping in dress pants, the repetition of movement that triggers new meaning as the piece wears on.

The movement in Pina Bausch's work is difficult to classify, as it differs greatly with each piece. Sometimes the dancing itself is minimal and the choreography is the drama, like in this clip. But sometimes the dancing is downright dynamic and physical, passionate and always painfully human. There are always real people dancing in her pieces, with all of their imperfections and issues, like the rest of us, seeing ourselves on stage.

Pina Bausch will be missed.