I got pulled out of the queue in the supermarket today.

I got pulled out of the queue in the supermarket today. After letting ten people go through the exit, the security guard gave me a signal to go out of the line to the exit, and come with him. After trying to signal him,  that i don´t speak slovene he just wanted me to follow him to a room in the back. There I had to empty my freshly packed bag entirely including my sports clothes and he asked for my check. Than, after counting the items on the table and the items on the check i was free to pack my bag and was allowed to go. After I got through the door i watched the security guard let the rest of the queue go through the exit without complications.

First of all. I have been living in Germany since I was one. And allthough my father is german it is pretty easy to see that i am asian. Black straight hair, dark brown eyes and a bit browner skintone than most caucasians. In my life I had numerous encounters with racism back in germany, which were way clearer and way harsher than this, but exactly that makes this so interesting. 

Coming from Germany, security in a supermarket is something really foreign to me. I have been controlled in the electronics store, liqueur shop and of course at the airport but never in a supermarket. My french roomate however tells me, that this is something very common in France so I guess here I have been living in a german bubble.

Futhermore the population in Germany is actually more homogenous then the one of Slovenia. Germany: 87,2%, Slovenia: 83,1%, allthough the people in Slovenia that don´t identify as Slovene are mostly Serbs, Kroats and Bosniaks, who are all mostly similar in culture and looks. (I know that this is a sensitive topic but this is in reference to the similarities in the Ex-Jugoslavia Countries in relation to the bigger differences in culture and looks between Germans and the biggest ethnic minorities in Germany which are Turkish, Polish and Syrian.) 

So maybe i am just more used to beeing an Asian in the crowd, especially since there are way more Asians in Germany than there are in Slovenia. And maybe The security guard just pulled me out of the queue because of my backpack. And maybe I just didn´t see him controlling someone else directly after me. But maybe not. 

Racism is better when its not subtle. When you can identify it as racism and laugh about it or confront it. It is dangerous when it is subtle, creeping into everyday conversation and behaviour without the people even realizing it. Those micro-agressions and tendencies  slowly sink into the public and poison the social and political landscape. The Borders of what is considered  as acceptable are shifting to the right. It is happening in Germany with the AFD beeing called "bürgerlich and konservativ (middle class and conservative)" instead of rightwing and nationalistic, and it is happening in other countries in the EU, like the UK (not so long EU anymore), or France with Marine Le Pen and the Front National.

In the week of the 5th of June 2019, the New anti-racism commission of the EU reports on Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia. It reports about new Anti-Discrimination legislation and LGBTQ-rights initiatives, but also reports about the missing prosecution of hate speech and missing data about racial discrimination.

I will never know why specifically I got pulled out of the queue. There is a high probability that the security guard was only doing his job. But you can never know if you are part of the missing data.

Sources:

The World Factbook: Germany

The World Factbook: Slovenia

Die Zeit 45/2019: "Extrem und Mittendrin" by Mariam Lau

Die Zeit 43/2019  "Diese lächerlichen Mahnwachen vor Synagogen" by Richard C. Scheider

Council of Europe Newsroom: "New anti-racism commission reports on Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia"