this land is your land, this land is my land...
A German tourist couple walked into my coffee shop today. I couldn't help but strike up a conversation with them, because it's awkward when you understand someone's private conversations and they don't think you do. (I lived in Berlin from 1989-1993, and am still somewhat fluent in German.) We ended up talking for quite awhile, and I was pleased to find that, once used, my German was not as bad as I had feared.
The couple spoke of how different it is here in Canada where all sorts of people live and work together without incident. (Coming from Toronto, I actually find Vancouver less multi-cultural and more racist. Here there are three basic categories: white, Asian, and Indian. And everyone here "knows" that Asians are bad drivers and Indians are noisy, etc. I guess that being white means I don't hear much about what the others think of us. In Toronto, however, there are too many different kinds of people to keep track of, so the stereotypes seem to be fewer and further between. Either that or they're so ridiculously abundant that nobody can keep track of them all.)
Back to our German couple. (I have a bracket habit, and I'm truly sorry if it annoys you. This isn't supposed to be a formal essay anyway, it's supposed to be a journal of sorts, and as such I find brackets a useful tool to help organise my thoughts as they come out.) Back to our German couple. (I'm so funny.) The husband talked about how after 9-11 Germans got even more fearful and suspicious of the Muslims living among them. This man said that he was afraid to ride the bus because somebody might attack him, and because he was afraid of the people speaking in different languages because he didn't know what they could be saying. Obviously this man had some anxiety issues, and I got the impression he was also getting professional help for them, but nevertheless there was some truth in his words. I also remember Germany as being a far more racist place than Canada, and how the Germans were afraid of the Turks (a significant minority in Berlin).
Here are a few of our thoughts on why Germany might be more racist or fearful of the stranger:
Here in Canada, we all have a sense of being newcomers to the country, except for the Aboriginal peoples who lived here before the rest of us showed up. As such, we have more of a sense of being equal participants in making this country what it is and what it will become. In Germany, the people have no memory of a time when their ancestors did not live there, unless you go back before the stone age. Their culture and identity is quite solidly established in that land, and any newcomer is obviously an outsider. In Canada, we are (almost) all newcomers together, and we have that sense of foreigness in common. In Germany, any non-German is a newcomer, and they are often unknown, mistrusted and even feared.
Also, since World War II, Germans have had to deal with the aftermath of Hitler's overblown sense of national pride and superiority. Today, any German who is too proud of his/her country or heritage is quickly accused of being a Nazi. The country is still suffering shame and humiliation and dares not encourage too much national self-esteem lest the ghost of Hitler rear its ugly head once again. Here in Canada, we can have much pride in our country, for we have made it what it is, and it is generally considered to be a good place. (I do not wish to deny our nation's failures with respect to our Aboriginal peoples, the foreign blood that was spilled to build our railroads, and other such tragedies. It simply does not overshadow our national identity in the same way that Germany's is. Perhaps it should.) The ability to have pride in one's national identity is a great strength. The shame or meekness that has been imposed on the German self-identity is harmful in that it makes them more afraid of the stranger.
Quite frankly, Germans are a strong majority in Germany, and they are not forced into much interaction with their minorities and immigrants. It is human nature to fear the unknown. The German gentleman feared the unknown Turks and Arabs that lived in/around Frankfurt. I grew up in a multi-cultural country/city/school system, and my best friend in school was a Muslim. It is hard to fear your best friend and others like her. Familiarity builds comfort and comfort builds trust.
I think Canada is a fantastic country, and I'm proud of it. I'm not proud of its mistakes and failures, but I am proud of our cultural mosaic and the understanding and trust it builds between the peoples of the world who have become neighbours in this land.
1 comment:
All good points! I think you've nailed it.
I would suggest that another source of stress for the Germans is the history of Muslim-Christian warfare. I mean, at times between 700 and 1700, it really looked like Christendom might go down for the count and that Islam was the way of the future.
I know Germans are all secularized now, but still - it was only in, what, the 1660s, that the Muslim-Ottoman Turk juggernaut nearly took Vienna. After that they would likely have rolled all the way to the English Channel.
And now that European birthrates have plummeted, they're getting pretty nervous about being replaced by a Muslim majority of immigrants in the next few generations. They don't have much of a shared religious identity to sustain them, either. What, they're going to rally around the glorious, inspiring EU? It's a bureaucracy. They haven't even been able to pass the EU consitution.
Finally, I think the Germans are like the Japanese in being very, very conformist, and thus fairly xenophobic.
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