{"title":"Comparing Anti-Black Racisms While White: Anecdote and Evidence of Racism in Germany and the United States","authors":"J. Brandon Pelcher","doi":"10.1111/tger.70010","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Courses of Black German culture taught in the United States implicitly confront expectations of comparison between, if not ranking of, anti-Black racisms of the two countries. Through a critical self-reflection and evaluation of my own experiences teaching Black German culture as a White instructor, I suggest that White instructors of these courses, who have not experienced anti-Black racism themselves, may grasp for what they perceive as canonical evidence in order to counteract that lack. Overvaluation of evidence and devaluation of anecdotal anti-Black racism, a dynamic deeply ingrained in predominantly White academia, is precisely what such courses are meant to critique. This article explores how anecdote and evidence can function for a White instructor; when and how that process can become particularly problematic; and a series of pedagogical practices and works of Black German culture that can help to preclude those problems. This combination reveals the importance of deconstructing the evidence-anecdote hierarchy to the Black German movement itself and, therefore, the importance of that deconstruction to courses on Black German culture</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":43693,"journal":{"name":"Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German","volume":"58 1","pages":"39-44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tger.70010","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Courses of Black German culture taught in the United States implicitly confront expectations of comparison between, if not ranking of, anti-Black racisms of the two countries. Through a critical self-reflection and evaluation of my own experiences teaching Black German culture as a White instructor, I suggest that White instructors of these courses, who have not experienced anti-Black racism themselves, may grasp for what they perceive as canonical evidence in order to counteract that lack. Overvaluation of evidence and devaluation of anecdotal anti-Black racism, a dynamic deeply ingrained in predominantly White academia, is precisely what such courses are meant to critique. This article explores how anecdote and evidence can function for a White instructor; when and how that process can become particularly problematic; and a series of pedagogical practices and works of Black German culture that can help to preclude those problems. This combination reveals the importance of deconstructing the evidence-anecdote hierarchy to the Black German movement itself and, therefore, the importance of that deconstruction to courses on Black German culture