There is either race or racism, racism researcher Alaadin El-Mafaalani once said. Since the former is not true, the latter must be. In this respect, the critique of racism is nowadays a socio-political necessity that a university must also face. Like asbestos, racism can be found everywhere if you only look for it. The fact that Cologne is now the first university in Germany to establish a position for the critique of racism does not mean that we have more racism at the UzK than elsewhere, but that we are tackling the problem. We have to enter into a permanent dialogue with each other about the topic of racism.

The newly created Office for the Critique of Racism should be the central point of contact for this, to coordinate and moderate the conversation. We have also created other contact points for concrete concerns about discrimination. Because anyone can be guilty of racist behaviour or racist statements. You don't have to be a proven racist to do this. It's about recognising what racist behaviour is and how to avoid racist language. This is not an easy task, because often you don't even realise who you're hitting with which statement. Even the supposed compliment "You speak good German" is not innocent. We want to draw attention to these and other phrases and situations - and find a remedy.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Katajun Amirpur
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