“Street activities” to inform and empower people on the issue of racial profiling

People in Germany are exposed to various forms of racism that operate on a personal, institutional and structural level. The practice of racial profiling is one of them. Due to the (semi-)official legality of this practice and the power that police have on the personal freedom of individuals, its discriminatory effects are particularly serious. Many of those affected either have little knowledge about their rights to react to this practice, fear criminal consequences or are intimidated and psychologically burdened by their apparent powerlessness vis-à-vis the police.

BDB e.V. makes mobile information stands to reach and inform those affected and interested on the streets. We visit places where racial profiling is more likely, e.g. parks, train stations, educational institutions, street festivals. We hand out flyers with short tips on how to behave in a control situation in different languages (French, English, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese and if possible, others), in order to inform people and encourage them to exchange their own experiences and strategies.

We followed these “street activities” on film. The resulting video serves both as documentation and as reflection material for future empowerment seminars and awareness-raising trainings. These activities and the video documentation were supported by Netzwerk Selbsthilfe and Stiftung Umverteilen.