00:01Justice Mwembe shows the power structures still at work in Berlin.
00:05She's the founder of Decolonial Tours and, along with her colleague Thiel,
00:09guides participants through Berlin's Schöneberg district on the Black and Queer Feminism Tour.
00:14The imbalance when it comes to power structures is still there.
00:17Relevant problems like climate change or even sexism and racism
00:24all are rooted in colonialism and we don't talk about it.
00:30The Black and Queer Feminism Tour reveals oppression, past and present,
00:35and highlights the stories of those who resist it.
00:38Like the German poet Mai Aeem, who co-founded the initiative of black people in Germany.
00:43Today, a riverbank bears her name.
00:48Her legacy makes today's street re-namings in Berlin possible.
00:52Much of Aeem's work took shape through her connection with the US writer and activist Audrey Lorde,
00:57who lived in Schöneberg for a time.
01:02Both became key forces in local feminist and black movements still active today.
01:09And they were familiar with overlapping systems of power regarding race, gender, sexual orientation and more.
01:19It's the aspect of understanding that all of our identities, our experiences of individuals
01:22are so interconnected from a variety of different experiences
01:26that I think helps people understand things a lot more
01:29where they're able to trade information and knowledge with one another.
01:32The decolonial tours point at all four crucial dimensions of discrimination.
01:36The individual, structural, institutional and historical.
01:39We're trying also to promote the understanding of how, why is it relevant for even white people to engage with
01:47racism?
01:47How can a white person benefit from that?
01:50How does sexism also not only limit women as a spectrum, but also maybe men?
02:02How can a white person benefit from that children, girls generally get a negative?!
02:02On the Black and Queer Feminism Tour, Justice and Thiel discuss with their participants
02:07problems that arise out of colour blindness.
02:10They stress, for instance, how white feminism often ignores key issues
02:15of black, indigenous, and people of colour,
02:17and undermines the complexities of discrimination.
02:22They speak about differences, and about the many possibilities for people to engage.
02:28I can know and respect your differences.
02:31You must know and respect mine.
02:34That is the only way we can work together.
02:37Power is relative, but it is real.
02:39And if you do not use whatever power you possess,
02:42it will be used against you.
02:45Audre Lorde.
02:49Equality lies at the core of democracy.
02:52Germany's basic law promises it,
02:54an idea that sounds egalitarian, at least in theory.
02:58We grew up with the idea that as long as the Nazi era is over,
03:03we do have democratic values,
03:05and therefore we don't have nothing to worry about.
03:08There is still a lot of work to do to really understand them
03:13and to feel responsible and have that accountability also
03:19to keep the peace that we longed for for such a long time.
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