Discrimination has been an issue throughout all of American and European history. You would think that after making the same mistakes for hundreds of years, we would be able to solve this problem, but apparently not. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, after years of being divided West Germany and East Germany would finally reunite. However, contrary to the hopes of a peaceful unification many people weren’t accepting of the people on the opposite side of the wall. People of all different ethnicities and races were getting discriminated against and this is still happening today. The article focuses on Abenaa Adomako and her experience with discrimination despite being born in Germany. She recalled the time when she tried to welcome a couple who were eastern Germans to the western side, but instead of getting a “thank you” back she got called names and spat on. It is the 21st century and it is horrible that people are still discriminating against others. We’ve had this issue long enough, it’s time to actually find a solution and make a different.
@Izzy Williams You would think that with time and integration the two groups would begin to collaborate or at least begin to show some respect to one another. Clearly this is not the case. I don't think we will see a united Germany for a very long time. The most controversial aspects of Germany’s history are too recent to be forgotten already. For example the Berlin Wall only fell 30 years ago. It could be a few hundred more years until we begin to see noticeable changes in how the old East and West Germans regard each other. The wound of the country is still open for now.
On Nov. 9, 1989, once the Berlin Wall was taken down, the whole country rejoiced; the West was finally reunited with the East . However what they didn’t know was that this momentous occasion would cause an eruption of racial insecurities and discrimination between immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and “biological” Germans. Katrin Bennhold uses stories from Western individuals such as Abenaa Adomako and Idil Baydar to illustrate the unsettling feeling of them having to reidentify themselves along with the hardships of facing societal acceptance. Artist Yury Kharchenko describes this period as one where every German “is searching for their identity” because of the instilled feeling of nationalism that was drilled into the people of Eastern Germany. Bennhold furthers this idea by providing historical background information and explaining how each side’s ambitions for a better Germany affected the people. She describes how easterners feel as though the West has “disempowered” them because their defeat of communism became a victory for the West, so Eastern Germans respond with rebellions to stay connected to their nationalistic values.