About the author
Noah Sow, born and raised in Bavaria, has been working in radio since she turned eighteen. She became known mainly as a radio host in personality shows on WDR Einslive, HR3, Radio Fritz, and YouFm, as well as through numerous TV activities.
Noah Sow has been living in Hamburg since 1998. This multi-talented musician, voice artist, radio playwright, author, and producer has made a name for herself as a composer and singer. She is internationally active on rock music stages with her band Noah Sow & Das Heimlich Maneuver (www.myspace.com/noahso), with many of her songs dealing with political issues.
It was never a question for Noah Sow to look away and ignore grievances. In 2001 she initiated the founding of the association der braune mob e.V., the first antiracist German mediawatch organization (www.derbraunemob.de), whose goals she is actively committed to as chairperson.
Her Book Deutschland Black & White is based on her extensive experiences as an anti-racism activist
About the book
Non-Germans may be surprised to learn about the existence of numerous Black Germans (Schwarze Deutsche) who have always been here. Even the most cautious estimates say that there are far more than 1,000,000 Blacks currently living in Germany, most of whom are German citizens. This makes up more than one percent of the country's population.
Nevertheless, many Germans are unfamiliar with this fact and would never guess that their own country has a Black minority. This is due to the lingering phantasm of German nationality being defined by racial terms. Up until today, the majority of Germans likes to pretend that all Germans are (must be) white and whoever is not white simply cannot be German. This belief prevails to the extent that many even have the opinion that there can't be racism in Germany as there are no Black Germans. Both, of course, are wrong.
Many Black Germans and Blacks in Germany have already been killed by racist mobs or died while in police custody; they are harassed on a daily basis and face a panoply of direct and indirect racial discrimination.
The mainstream Germans have created a culture of wishful thinking in which the historical facts of the obvious presence of Black Germans for many centuries are being ignored or even subjected to attempts to wipe them out on an institutionalized level. The non-acceptance of this part of their own history penetrates what Germans learn in school about Germany's colonial activities (close to nothing) and their own ethnic composition (nothing), as well as the way in which Black persons are shown, treated and displayed in contemporary literature, children's literature, film, media and advertising: as inferior, other, 100% foreign, exotic, helpless, objectified, not belonging.
At the same time, Germany likes to present itself as a country that has learned from its past and is open to dealing with its xenophobic issues.
With my book, I want to show that Germany needs to do much more than a little scraping on the surface in order to become the advanced and democratic country it likes to present itself as. I was curious to see whether there really is a willingness within Germany's white majority population to deal with their racist issues even if this means saying goodbye to some racist traditions or if it is really all just talk, which would mean that my country wouldn't be ready for another level of insight, consciousness and an actual change, as well as a stop to the oppression of its Black minority population. I'm thrilled and excited to this day, as I haven't gotten the definite answer yet.
But in my opinion sanity, reason and humanity are going to win this time around.
More about Noah Sow:
http://www.noahsow.de/
