| This project examined classical marginality theories and ethnic identity formation for Afro-Germans or black Germans. Afro-Germans are a little known group of German citizens or socialized Germans who have been defined as: (1) the offspring of a German and a black parent; (2) the offspring of two Afro-Germans or an Afro-German and another black person; or (3) any German who has a known and acknowledged black ancestor.;The label "Afro-German"' was constructed by black German women in the mid-1980s as a way of self-identifying. Black Germans had been assigned labels such as Besatzungskind, Farbige, Neger, or Mischling. While German citizenship laws are becoming less restrictive, Germany is still imagined by white Germans as an ethnically defined nation devoid of a distinctive black German history or memory. My analysis indicates that black Germans are relegated to the margins of German society, but to a lesser extent than in previous eras. I propose that the kind of marginality that exists in contemporary German society (i.e., a "softer marginality") differs in degree and kind from that of former generations, in large part, because of the postmodern turn, which allows for less differentiation among societal groups. Also, the type of ethnicity that Afro-Germans articulate in the postmodern, postcolonial era is more of a symbolic ethnicity, composed of a mixture things both German and African. |
