I used to take these busses before because they were cheap going to and from Sweden from Germany. The only people ever questioned by the border police were non-white or eastern europeans.
"Is Germany a racist country? That is what a new documentary, Black on White, is trying to find out. Its findings are shocking. But, as Damien McGuinness reports, the filmmaker himself has been criticized by black Germans for his methods."[1]
Racism is obviously very much alive, it's just no longer blatant. You can't say the n word and people rarely do (some people mistake racism with purely this blatant form of bigotry and ignore the rest), but racial profiling happens every day, even in small interactions with people. I can't count the number of times I'd get to finally know someone, consider them as a new friend, and they'd drop the 'I didn't think you were like this (like them), I thought you'd be like xyz (stereotype of my ethnicity)'. That's racial profiling and it affects a lot of things. Getting checked on an international bus or train is almost guaranteed for me, concerts or clubs? Checked, airplanes? Everyone gets checked but extra searches, taking your shoes off etc is reserved for us special few.
Anyway that doesn't even bother me, sure racial profiling for security checks are degrading but it doesn't affect me much personally in my life, it's a minor nuisance all things considered. What depresses me is, you recall that guy on HN who tried to find an apartment in Munich?
> The conclusion from this little study, is that a girl with an italian name, gets an 90% answer rate, a guy with an arab name and is younger than 25 gets, 1% answer rate. The master of all, is the young munich guy who is around 25
That's racial profiling, too. It's based on the same principles of racial profiling, that we judge people based on their ethnicity rather than as individuals who happened to have a certain skin color, and then treat people differently. And obviously it's not just trying to find a home to rent, it's jobs etc etc.
Racial profiling, supposedly unlawful in Germany, but you can't really do anything about it when it happens -- except for being an impolite and passive-aggressive smartass (do know your limits, though) and making the officers feel bad about what they're doing.
