how do fellow mixed/poc in Berlin deal with micro aggressions and racism?

nah you're not alone at all. the shoulder check thing is real, i've had that happen near hermannplatz more than once. the thing that helped me was finding a stammtisch for poc in neukölln, just a casual group that meets at a späti or bar. knowing there's other people who get the specific vibe of being sized up by some altbau landlord or getting the "where are you really from" after you've been speaking perfect german for 10 minutes makes it easier to shrug off. the defensiveness from white germans is exhausting too, like they think acknowledging it means they personally installed the berlin wall of exclusion. keep your circle tight and don't waste energy convincing people who don't want to see it.

arrow_drop_up 5 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

honestly the thing that got me through it was just finding the spots where the vibe is different. like there's a bar in wedding called Kater Blau that's pretty chill, never had any weird looks there. and for apartment hunting, if you can find a WG that's explicitly international or has other poc in it, that helps a lot. the defensiveness thing is real though, I stopped bringing it up with german friends entirely, it's just not worth the conversation where they try to explain why it's actually not happening. find your people, stick with them, the rest is background noise

arrow_drop_up 3 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

You're definitely not alone. I've found that a lot of the worst stuff happens in spaces where people assume they have power over you, like the Burgeramt or when dealing with Hausverwaltungen. The look of surprise when I speak perfect German after they've already decided I don't belong here is something I'll never get used to.

What helped me was getting involved with a local initiative that does anti-racism workshops, mostly because it put me in a room with other people who deal with the same nonsense. It's not about changing the minds of the people who shoulder-check you, it's about not feeling like you're the only one who notices it happening. The defensiveness from white Germans is a wall you'll never break through with logic, so I stopped trying to explain it to anyone who isn't already paying attention.

arrow_drop_up 2 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

arrow_drop_up 4 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

arrow_drop_up 3 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

arrow_drop_up 1 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply