Racism: Turkish and Mexican

There is an ongoing problem of racism in Germany and the United States. In the early 1990s Germany reunified, but many migrant workers decided to stay, the biggest community being the Turks. The Turks were invited to Germany during the Cold War to work and live, although the plan was not meant to be permanent. Many Turks have assimilated and integrated into German culture and society. Many Turkish children have not been to Turkey, and consider Germany their homeland. However, there has been racism towards Turkish citizens even before racist groups began to attack. During the 1990s Germany’s government created a citizenship rule, that all people of German “descent” could reside in Germany and obtain citizenship, Turks were not included. It is not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that Turks could obtain German citizenship, many of whom had lived in Germany all their lives. Since the late 2000s there has been a recent uptick in racially motivated attacks against minorities much of it corresponding to right wing extremism popularizing in Europe. In February of 2020 a male suspect killed nine people in Hanau, Germany, which has a significant number of Turkish residents. Anti racist campaigner Karen Taylor believes “ We have a racist party in Bundestag, a party which is outspoken about there racist view of the world, that not shy of spreading it and being engaged with far-right groups which have been forbidden by our constitution”, “the far right AfD party quickly attempted to distance itself from the 43 year old suspect, who dead body was found near his mother’s after a manhunt” (Luke Hurst, “Hanau Attacks: Alternative for Germany party slammed for ‘legitimizing deadly racism’,euronews, 2/27/20). There have been numerous other attacks and with more immigrants from muslim countries coming to Germany, racism continues to grow. 

A similar situation is occurring in the United States. The United States has one of the world’s strongest economies. It also shares a long border with Mexico. Many Mexicans come to America looking for more opportunities and safety, both ways are to stop poverty. Many younger Mexicans were born in the United States and have integrated into American culture, some have never been to Mexico. They are American as anyone else, and yet many still encounter racial slurs daily. Many racist people in America believe that Mexicans are taking jobs and in turn ruining the economy. This was big topic during the presidential election of 2016, where many of the candidates had mexcian ancestry and were questioned during debates. Although most of the racism toward mexicans is not heard in the news as much as other minorities, this changed. “The 3 August mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, which left 22 people dead, appeared to be the deadliest terror attack and hate crime against Latinos in recent American history. A white nationalist manifesto that appeared to be linked to the shooting claimed that Latinos were “invaders”, even though Latinos had been living in the area long before Texas became part of the United States” (Lois Beckett, “It can happen again: America’s long history of attacks against latinos”, the Guardian, 8/15/2019) .This along with other attacks have sparked fear in the latino community. Some of the mistreatment is not only coming from racists but also the United States government. Thousands of Mexicans trying to cross the border to the United States have been locked up and separated from their families and even killed. The problem of racism grows in both countries as many countries in the world want to show more independence. Independence is fueled by nationalism, and many use racism to support it. 

Bibliography

Beckett, Lois.“It can happen again: America’s long history of attacks against latinos.” The Guardian, 8/15/2019.

Hurst, Luke. “Hanau Attacks: Alternative for Germany party slammed for ‘legitimizing deadly racism’.” Euronews, 2/27/20. 

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