Being Bullied because you are dark-skinned

Aminah gehört zu uns (Aminah is part of us). Petra Mönter und Susanne Maier

published in 2017

The problem I see in this book is that the prejudice against dark-skinned children isn’t properly tackled; the girl Aminah is left with no tools to speak out or defend herself – instead, all the ‘white, normal’ kids from her class decide to protect her from the older kids, without letting her stand on her own. Indeed, she belongs to them and they have appropriated her voice. 
As I read somewhere in a racism in children's books manual (Reference: Sprache-Macht-Rassismus. Dokumentation der Fachtagung vom 22. Oktober 2014; Diakonie, Düsseldorf), this book should come with the subtitle - 'for whites only', since it is indeed a book by 'Whites' for 'whites'. It has nothing to do with giving non-Whites more representation or humanising them, but simply instilling in the supposedly all-White readership the need to be tolerant to difference, even though that difference may be shocking, pitiable or simply, unpleasant. Let’s take a closer look at the plot:

Henri and the blond, blue-eyed protagonist, Ida enter their classroom after the summer break and is speechless (‘verblüfft’) when they see a new child there – ‘die Neue sah einfach anders aus, als wir es gewöhnt waren. Sie hatte sehr dunkle Haut’ (the newcomer looked quite different from what we were used to. Her skin was very dark). She is asked very slowly what her name is, to which she replies -  ‘I am not stupid, you can speak normal to me!’ Aminah was born in Syria (never mind most people in Syria are fair-skinned!) and moved to Germany with her parents. The other kids enter the class and they are all illustrated in a state of shock, whispering or simply startled. 

Later at the playground, a group of older kids start heckling Aminah – we learn that this gang of three were accustomed to harassing the foreigners (read dark-skinned children) (die ausländischen Kinder) at school: ‘Wie siehst du denn aus?..bist du in einem Farbtopf gefallen?’ Aminah is furious when they make fun of her skin colour but a lot of the kids snigger. Henri and Ida take Aminah back to class. Later at the playground, the bullying trio are back and this time, their actions are more aggressive – ‘Ausländer haben hier nichts zu suchen’ and they run away with Aminah’s jacket. Aminah starts crying while her ‘friends’ stand helplessly by.

The following day Aminah is absent. Henri thinks Aminah is afraid to come to school alone. They gather everyone from their class together and try to find a way to help. The class prefect says they need to stick together and so, they devise a plan. The next morning, they pick Aminah up from her house. ‘We are going to pick you up every morning from now on’, says Henri. Aminah is never given the chance to face the older kids and defend herself. Later in the city, it’s Henri and Ida, the protagonists who meet the older girl from the gang and confront her with her racism – Lea is planning to go to Kenia and Henri mockingly notes that there, all the people are dark-skinned, hopefully they won’t be so mean to her as she was to Aminah. Does this change Lea’s thinking and behaviour? Does she apologise to Aminah? Is Aminah still a victim of their bullying?

Lea and her gang return the next day and are waiting to taunt Aminah. But they are in for a surprise - all the kids from Aminah’s class circle the three – Henri and Ida have their hands around a scared Aminah. Now the class speaks up for a silent, helpless Aminah – ‘Lasst unsere Freundin in Ruhe…sonst kriegt ihr es mit uns zu tun’. More and more kids join in to walk Aminah home and pick Aminah up on mornings -  ‘Aminah gehört zu uns. Wer sie wegen ihrer Hautfarbe ärgert, kriegt es mit uns zu tun.`‘ (Aminah is a part of us. Whoever annoys her because of her skin colour has to go through us). Aminah’s voice is effectively usurped, her body and colour absorbed by all the whiteness surrounding her. The daunting question is – what happens when the trio finds her alone?

This is no triumphant book against xenophobia. In fact, I would argue it reinforces xenophobic feelings through the following:

Aminah is singled out and deemed strange and undesirable simply because of her skin colour

What is the norm in the classroom in Germany? – white kids, full stop.

The white normal kids take up Aminah’s conflict and make it their own without dealing with the real problem – racism.
Aminah’s voice is nonexistent. There is no interaction or confrontation with her and the kids. She remains an ostracised secondary character who has to depend on the normal, white kids to be and feel safe.

As already mentioned in previous posts, it’s also disturbing to see how many books point to the child’s skin colour as an automatic sign of strangeness, not belonging, not being able to speak the German language etc. That darker-skinned persons continue to create such a stir and scandal in children’s books is not only very distressing but very worrying about the (self)representation that ‘Germany’ chooses for itself. It’s impossible to begin to open up the discussion about integration and what constitutes the national culture when everything that is non-white gets branded as foreign, strange and undesirable.