Solidarity with #Blacklivesmatter
Last updated 5. March 2025 | Sprecherinnen
Here you can find our solidarity, together with the LandesAStenKonferenz:
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer. The police officer knelt on George’s neck for over eight minutes until he lost consciousness and died. George told the police officers involved several times that he could not breathe. The police officers ignored this, did not help him and watched as George slowly died. Since then, there have been almost daily protests against racism and police violence. Millions of people around the world take to the streets together and show solidarity with all victims of racist police violence.
This murder of George Floyd did not come out of nowhere, but is just the tip of the (racism) iceberg. In the USA, 1,098 people were killed by the police in 2019 (1). Of these, 24% were black people, although they only make up 13% of the American population (2).
Another example of racist police violence is the case of Breonna Taylor. She was murdered by police officers in her own home at night on March 13, 2020. To this day, almost three months later, this incident has had no consequences for the police officers involved, who murdered an innocent person! (3)
While we were writing this text, it was reported that another Black man was shot dead by police officers: Rayshard Brooks was killed on 12.06 in the parking lot of a Wendy’s in Atlanta after police were called because he had fallen asleep in his car. (4)
In addition to racist police violence, societal racism is also evident in the justice system, where black people on average receive 19.1% longer prison sentences for similar crimes (5) and are sentenced to death more often (6), as well as in the school system – schools in majority non-white districts have on average 10% less funding available (7).
When we talk about all this, we must not forget the centuries of dehumanization of Black people through slavery and subsequent segregation that created the basis for today’s systematic racism!
Everything that has been mentioned so far is only a fraction of what needs to be made visible. We must also understand racism as a global problem: If we criticize racist police violence in the USA, the next step is to also fight structural racism in Germany and elsewhere!
#SayTheirNames #NoJusticeNoPeace #BlackLivesMatter #WhiteSilenceIsViolence #JusticeforGeorgeFloyd
Police violence is not an isolated incident in Germany either, but a structural problem. Anti-racist initiatives estimate at least ten deaths of non-white people in police operations in recent years alone, in which the circumstances of the death suggest a racist motivation on the part of the officers. (8) The “Death in custody” initiative has counted 159 deaths of POCs in police custody in Germany since 1993.
The survivors and survivors of police violence generally have no chance of a fair trial: in 2017, there were a total of 2177 investigations into police violence in Germany. According to a recent study, there is a high number of unreported cases: Only around 9% of actual incidents are reported, of which 2% are actually convicted (9) – a report is usually followed by a counter-report from the police, which is much more likely to be prosecuted. (10)
This monopoly on violence cannot be analyzed without the basis of structural racism. Structural racism refers to the ideological anchoring in institutions, jurisdiction and norms in society. Individuals do not act with racist intentions per se, but often unconsciously participate in a racist society in which Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOCs), among others, are threatened by discrimination in all areas of life. These patterns of discrimination are usually disguised and/or accepted by the majority of society, which is why those affected often suffer not only from discrimination, but also from the silence of their fellow human beings.
We commemorate the (BI-)POCs killed by police violence in Germany: Oury Jalloh, Robble Warsame, Amad Ahmad, Yaya Jabbi, Achidi John, Laye-Alama Condé, William Tonou-Mbobda, Hussam Fadl, Matiullah J., Christy Schwundeck and the countless others affected.
Contrary to the narrative of the academic milieu, racist violence still occurs at universities. Just last Saturday, a student in Saarbrücken was attacked with a knife in a racist attack (11).
Cases of racism in teaching, in organizational processes and by colleagues are repeatedly brought to our attention as student representatives. The relationship of dependency between the lecturer and the students is particularly problematic in the fight against racism due to the assessment situation. In order to strengthen the rights of the students concerned, there are anti-discrimination officers in Lower Saxony who intervene in cases of discrimination and work preventively through regulations and training.
We welcome the establishment of these positions at the universities, but despite these regulations and the anti-discrimination officers, unacceptable racist conditions remain.
On the one hand, this is due to the unhindered influence of racist teachers, staff and students. On the other hand, the anti-discrimination officers and therefore the universities lack the necessary means to effectively intervene in these processes. The fact that people like AfD co-founder Bernd Lucke or other fascists in universities can hide behind the supposed freedom of academia frightens us.
We demand that universities provide the anti-discrimination offices with more resources in order to enforce the effectiveness of the General Equal Treatment Act at universities and to develop comprehensive and binding concepts that consistently counteract the (re)production of racism in teaching – as well as universities as institutions. We also expect universities to implement existing regulations, radically expand their scope and thus ensure their effectiveness in the reality of the lives of discriminated students. Furthermore, effective evaluations are needed that focus on racism in teaching, structures and among students and staff. Universities should no longer remain a place for privileged, white cis men!
Any kind of discrimination should and must be addressed and actively combated!
We are therefore calling on people to take part in the following petition, which addresses these points and others directly to the Ministry of Science: https://www.change.org/p/rassismuskritische-lehre-in-nieders%C3%A4chsischen-bildungsinstitutionen-rassismus-blacklivesmatter-blackhistoryindeutschland
Racism is not just a problem of the police or the justice system. Racism can be found in all parts of everyday life. Not just on individual days, but every day. Not just in individual countries or cities, but everywhere.
The LAK will continue to fight against structural racism, police violence and for a liberated society! This requires perseverance, so we call on you to organize yourselves – whether in the ASten, in the city groups, the BlackLivesMatter movement or other autonomous groups!
Sources:
1 https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/; https://www.br.de/nachricht/schwarze-polizeigewalt-usa-102.html
2 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vereinigte_Staaten#Ethnien_und_Einwanderergruppen
5 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/black-men-sentenced-time-white-men-crime-study/story?id=51203491
6 https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/executions-overview/executions-by-race-and-race-of-victim
7 https://edbuild.org/content/dismissed
10 Police violence: Hardly any protection for victims. Monitor, November 16, 2018
11 https://taz.de/Messerangriff-in-Saarbruecken/!5691963/; https://www.facebook.com/52201993498/posts/10160485565163499/
As we are unable to shed full light on this complex topic, we have put together a few links for you:
- Anti-discrimination work at universities: https://www.antidiskriminierungsstelle.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/publikationen/Expertisen/Bausteine_f_e_systematischen_Diskrimschutz_an_Hochschulen.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
- Police violence in Germany: https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/kontraste/polizeigewalt-121~magnifier_pos-0.html
- Blacklivesmatter: https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/
- PM of the fzs: https://www.facebook.com/freierzusammenschlussvonstudentInnenschaften/posts/10160451853238499?__tn__=K-R
- twitter.com/BLMHannover , https://www.facebook.com/bipockollektivgoe/posts/588723485093785
- Introductory critique of racism: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQ8hDQvrqQ