Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany - Paperback

by Ethel Morgan Smith (Author)

Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany is an account of my everyday life as an expatriate in German culture while I interacted with scholars, diplomats, students, friends, and lovers. Although the work reflects my personal experience, it is designed and rooted in my knowledge and experience of African American literature, culture, and history. But the question was what was I, a Black American woman doing in one of the most racist countries in the world? Or I had been told. After all, Germany is not known as a place that has called out to Africans Americans like France (Paris), but I felt seduced by the fact that I could experience myself without the limitations of race-or so I thought. I am not sure that it is possible to not be whom one has always been. By involving the reader in my day-to-day life, this book will draw a personal portrait of a Black American woman in a country that professes not to be racist, even though racism kept finding me. Like all Americans, epscially African Americans, we are defined by our history. In Germany I was offered an opportunity to experience racial malaise that was different, but no less insoluble, than racial conflict in my own country. But as a privileged guest I felt protected. Reflections will be of interest to Germans and non-Germans who may be concerned with German culture from a unique perspective. This works serves as a relevant contribution to the efforts of those who seek to promote healing, not in Germany or America, but in the human heart. Reflections of the Other bears witness to my journey from an encounter with neo-Nazi skinheads to a love story in a village of lilacs.

Author Biography

Ethel Morgan Smith is also the author of From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College and has published in national and international outlets. She is Associate Professor of English at West Virginia University, and has received the following awards: Fulbright-Universitat of Tubingen, Germany, Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship-Bellagio, Italy, Visiting Artist-The American Academy in Rome, Reseach fellow-Brandeis University's Women's Studies Reserach Center, Dupont Fellowship-Randolph-Macon Woman's College, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Breadloaf, and other.