Neither Foreigners Nor Aliens: The Interwoven Stories of Sinti and Roma and Black Germans

The article undertakes a comparative investigation of the diverging histories of two communities of people of color that have been located in Germany for many generations: the Sinti and Roma and the Black Germans. My argument is made against a background of a racialist concept of nation that still exists today and that arose during the German colonial period that continues to be repressed even today—a concept that construes the categories of Germanness and whiteness to be identical. The focuses of my investigation are on both a historical locating of the rejection (Ausgrenzung) and persecution narratives of both communities as well as a history of resistance that is connected to these narratives and that involves the political and cultural self-identification that in recent decades has led to a significant change of perspective.