Who we are
We write out of a PoC* perspective, so the following classification is important to us: We understand disintegration as an attitude towards all social processes that are based on injustice towards persons and groups that are endowed with less privileges and power.
On the one hand, by positioning ourselves as people of color, we share the common experience of working, loving, and living in a white-dominated society. We experience racism based on our external characteristics both in our daily lives and at work. On the other hand, we identify with the female gender, also people in our team have a non-binary gender identity, understand themselves as queer and this is how we are read from the outside. In our still heteronormative male-dominated society, this means experiences of discrimination based on gender category, which is why we always try to take up intersectional aspects in our work.
Furthermore, we plead for a resource-oriented change of perspective: Instead of problematizing migration, flight, social origin, sexual orientation and other “characteristics”, we would like to make the potential that arises from diversity visible and accessible for other people.
However, this also includes drawing attention to structural inequalities that arise from the various categories of discrimination. The goal of our professional work is to help people make their voices heard and, in a creative way and in cooperation with others, to develop steps for action that will help them in their everyday lives and thus contribute to greater equality.
Why we do, what we do
In the German culture of remembrance, National Socialism and the colonial era are mostly marked as key historical events, the effects of which can be felt to the present day and cannot be denied.
Ein Verständnis von rassistischen und antisemitischen Strukturen, Denk- und Handlungsmustern als Phänomene, die nur Randgruppen und/oder
An understanding of racist and anti-Semitic structures, patterns of thought and action as phenomena that can only be attributed to fringe groups and/or individual perpetrators falls short and obscures the systemic anchoring of unequal power relations that have an impact beyond individual attitudes.
Rather, they must be understood as part of a historical legacy that can only be uncovered and dismantled in a process of coming to terms with society as a whole.
“Our head is round so that thinking can change direction”
WE – ARE NOT THE WORLD’S NAVEL
With our project in Cologne, we dealt with the central question of how a postcolonial perspective on our society can contribute to the awareness of this historical legacy and stimulate critical engagement as well as self-reflexive further thinking. In doing so, we want to stimulate the extent to which one’s own interpretations of history and the present reflect dominant narratives with one’s own entanglement in racist and colonial structures and what alternative patterns of interpretation are possible.
Accordingly, we see a critical approach, the awareness of the historical conditions of racism as a global system of domination, under which colonial continuities and discriminatory inequalities persist today globally and locally, as an opportunity in the learning process to shape our society and Cologne as a place for all.
Aha, so what are you doing now???
In our 2020 project we have created an interactive map of Cologne, with the help of which you can follow Cologne’s colonial traces. For this purpose, we have worked on the one hand with the project „Kopfwelten“ and recorded the compilations listed there in audio format. Furthermore, we have researched other places and developed our own contributions. You can find the map HERE.
In addition, we tried to search for similar projects all over Germany – and you can find the results HERE.
Ihr habt noch Fragen, Anregungen oder Kritik? Dann schreibt uns gerne ein Nachricht über das Kontaktformular.
Share the knowledge! Informiere andere darüber!
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Danke
Unser Dank geht an die vielen Menschen, die Geschehnisse analysieren, forschen, neue Impulse geben, großartige Literatur veröffentlichen und mit ihrer Stimme die Stimmen von so vielen hör- und sichtbar, fühl- und erlebbar machen.
Ein ganz besonderer Dank geht an Prof. Dr. Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, die uns die Texte aus ihrer langjährigen Arbeit zur Verfügung gestellt hat, diese neu formuliert, lektoriert und eingesprochen hat.
Weiterhin danken wir Salman Abdo, Maria Baumeister, Patrick Bewick, Louis Djaiz, Laura Alassani, Mona Leitmeier, Jonas Linnebank, Flora Dilan Oturan, Serge Palaise und Anthony Vallez.
Außerdem geht unser Dank an das Büro für Diversity Management und die Stelle für Prävention und Abbau von Intoleranz, Diskriminierung und Ausgrenzung im Rahmen von Diversity (IDA)/Abteilung Vielfalt beim Amt für Integration und Vielfalt.
Weiterhin bedanken wir uns beim Landesprogramm NRWeltoffen, das solche Projekte ermöglichen.
Durch die Kooperation mit dem Willi-Eichler-Bildungswerk konnten die Inhalte des Projektes in die englische und französische Sprache übertragen werden.