Last week while in Munich I experienced a stark deja vu: racism.
More accurately this was a repeat; for deja vu means to sense one has encountered the thing before. I wasn't sensing a fuzzy memory of anything...I was targeted because of my black skin -- and I know very clearly what that feels like.
Just like two years ago I was hurrying through Munich Hbf (main train station) and just like two years ago I was racially profiled and 'casually' stopped by a pair of undercover pigs who, naturally, were looking for drugs. (Naturally all black men deal in drugs -- or are illegal Africans.) They called in my passport number. They left disappointed. Less than two minutes later - more like 35 seconds! - ANOTHER pair of undercover pigs stop me from moving from the spot I had yet from which to move. They, too, demanded to see my passport and one of them actually tried to argue it, the passport, was inadequate/insufficient identification. Supposedly these two Bavarian assholes were of a separate branch of law enforcement than the previous Bavarian assholes.
Apparently Munich is the only EU member with bordersLet me get this straight: multiple branches of police patrol Munich Hbf and they don't communicate with each other...they don't share information?
And, if that is true, it is not only pathetic and unorganized but also MORE racist because it means I was independently stopped and searched by, not one, but two police agencies in less than 90 seconds apart in a big bustling train station...where, yes, I was the only black as far as my eyes could detect. (And two years ago it was during uber crowded Oktoberfest! But, my, racist pigs do have eyes like eagles.) Loads of travellers and backpackers pass through this travel hub but so long as those travellers look Oriental or blond or white or, maybe even, downright African with the tribal robes and stuff it is not as suspicious as a lone black man in Western clothes. Apparently Munich is the only EU member with borders. That the exact same thing happened to me also means this was not racist individuals but, rather, racist police training: the pigs were doing as they were trained to do: seek out dark skin travellers.
I was glad to leave Munich because you want to know something? Freedom is mobility.
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