"Being Black is not a crime!"

Our cooperation partner and coordinator Lillian Kababiito from the AfroLebenPlus network writes about the BlackLivesMatter protests. AfroLebenPlus was founded in 2001 and is a nationwide association of HIV-positive migrants.

"My name is Lillian Kababiito,
I come from Uganda and Germany is my second home. On behalf of the network AfroLebenPlus, I send you my warmest regards.

There is restlessness, yes, there is restlessness. We Black people always live with inner unrest! Unfortunately!

Racism against Black people is designed and inbuilt in Germany and around the world

We are in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in America, but we AfroLebenPlus and other Black people experience multi-racism also here in Germany.
I really feel that racism against Black people is designed and inbuilt in Germany and around the world, and that's why it has been working for decades.

When I witnessed the murder of a Black man in public in broad daylight, something inside me broke down and I don't think I will ever normalize or forget this pain. I can still hear his voice as he screams for air to breathe. Breathing is a human right and only God can take that away from us!

This has resurrected a past that we almost believed we had overcome and buried.
I cannot explain how it feels when a person is murdered because he / she looks like me.
This applies not only to People of Color, but to all of humanity. The racism that currently prevails in America is particularly experienced by Black people around the whole world - and everyone knows that.

Black people are struggling with a bigger virus called racism

We have worked hard in the fight against discrimination, stigma and racism for decades. We tried to live with the HI-Virus, and in this challenging time of the Coronavirus, when nobody seems to be responsible for telling people what to do or what will happen, Black people are struggling with a bigger virus called racism.

That must stop! Black people are no less human.
Injustice takes peace away! Being Black is not a crime! Respect and love are not one-way, it is an exchange.
We have to inform our people about each other.
Africans learn a lot about other people and others either learn less, nothing or wrong nonsense about us.
It is time to change our old structures and reduce structural racism, educate our people about each other, educate our police about humanity, invest in initiatives of the minority, give a voice to everyone and stop suppressing people's feelings.
We still have a lot to do.

We thank all people who treat humanity as human and continue the fight with us.
This affects all Black people around the world, all Black people in Germany and thus AfroLebenPlus.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

"We have had enough of this racism."

The German translation of the speech is available at: https://magazin.hiv/2020/06/17/being-black-is-not-a-crime/