Pan-Africanism is hard work. I learned that quickly this summer. When we are engaging with someone from the diaspora that has lived in a very different context than you, it is easy to misunderstand each other. We are often inundated with news from outlets that do not understand the complexity of life as a Black…
Media Ethics and Social Change
Towards the end of the end of our Global Fellowship in Urban Practice class in the spring, we read Valerie Alia’s essay “A picture is worth a thousand….: ethics and images” from her book Media Ethics and Social Change. In sociology, social change is often described as the alteration of mechanisms within the social structure….
Making it all make sense
Although this week’s post is focused on my map, I wanted to give a very recent update of how Germany talks about their genocide in present-day Naimbia without taking accountability. Behold, a recent tweet from the official German Embassy in Namibia Twitter account. In his speech, Bundesrat president Daniel Günther stated, “Even though it was…
Genocide, but not really…
Although I was not able to conduct an interview this week as I hoped, not all is lost. Before coming to Berlin, I did not know much about the history of German colonialism. In a way, every conversation that I have with a Berliner is an interview where I have the freedom to ask as…
When Given the Master’s Tools…
“Urbanization, we may conclude, has played a crucial role in the absorption of capital surpluses, at ever increasing geographical scales, but at the price of burgeoning processes of creative destruction that have dispossessed the masses of any right to the city whatsoever….The urban and peri-urban social movements of opposition, of which there are many around…
Afro-Berliners Existing and Resisting
“Sociologists who study organizations sometimes use the term ‘field’ to describe a set of organizations linked together as competitors and collaborators within a social space devoted to a particular type of action — such as a market for certain products, the pursuit of urban development, or the realm of electoral politics. Agreements struck among the…
Where Colonialism and the Holocaust Meets…
In the wake of discussions over whether or not ICE detention centers are concentration camps, I found the discussion hitting close to home even though I am in Berlin. With each lesson I learn from visiting historical sites in Berlin, the more I realize how much German Nazis were inspired by the United States when…
Renaming the Streets of Afrikanisches Viertel
Most of my extended family hails from Charleston, South Carolina. Located on the Charleston Harbor, the city has a long history of slavery and the oligarchy of White planters who control the economy and ultimately, the politics of the city. To those who have not spent a lot of time in Charleston, the city may…
Berlin, I Love You
My first “wow” moment in Berlin was when I took Berlin’s public transportation from Tegel International Airport to the student residence. The estimated time of arrival for the bus and U-Bahn that I took were visible and spot-on accurate. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had that happen to me in NYC or in my…
