Fear of the Unknown

Living in Berlin as an immigrant, it is not hard to notice that the minority of non Germans is not that small. Everywhere you see people who have some even come to Germany generations ago and one keeps being told that the conditions of a foreigner in Berlin is way better than anywhere else – at least – in Germany. Yet you see them, the signs of those who fear you, who are not satisfied with you being here and who think you can never be one of them. Not all is clear hostility against you, once in a while one is treated as being exotic and thus interesting, yet very seldom as one of them. Some people even fear approaching foreigners or “outsiders” because of their fear of doing or saying something culturally inappropriate.
It is of course not impossible to make German friends and become a part of their daily life, share quality time, joy, thoughts and even decisive moments of life with them. Yet they remain a small exception. One could even engage in conversation with the cashier in the supermarket, random people on the bus or someone sitting next to you in a Cafe and you would still be the one taking up space. Here, the same as everywhere else in the world, the politics does not want the citizens to see everyone simply as people. Here, same as everywhere, there are still thick borderlines even between Germans.
So you see them everywhere, the “Hakenkreuz” as well as the efforts to get rid of them by crossing them out, repainting, stickers, quotes etc. You see evidence of those who want you away from their lives and see those who are trying hard to say that the former are not the majority of Germans.

This one was inside a bus.

It is easy to say "them Neonazis" and make it sound like that would be something different from "us". It is easy to have some "bad guys" responsible for the terror and the pain. The real work, the real "resistance", the real "fight" starts when we try to understand. Understanding that a Neonazi is still a human and understanding what drives them to such horrid acts. We have to understand that every time we are afraid of the unknown and let this fear take over our actions, we are a little bit of a "Nazi" ourselves. Every time we divide the world into "us" and "them", believing that "we" have other issues to deal with and "their" problems should not concern us we are one tiny part of the reason why fascism still exists.
There is still too much fear, we are afraid of the racists and they are afraid of us and no one has yet piloted a serious project to bring us closer and to cure our fear. Why should they? It is after all how politicians keep us in our chains.