No, things are not perfect here. And I did not claim there is no racism or class distinction that divides our population. Enlightened Americans just do not automatically associate “black” with “poor” and certainly NOT with “slaves”. And, there are probably many more African Americans who are not living in “ghettos and slums” and who are not in “street gangs fighting against each other” than there are. Also, while there is stratification and segregation, I would not say that any part of the population is untouchable (like the caste system in India) which is what I take your use of the word “pariah” to mean. (Why don’t YOU call a spade a spade?)

There is no “English-only movement” here and as for prison populations, there are many social reasons that there is an imbalance in the racial makeup, not because our justice system is run by a bunch of white supremacists. Before you cast aspersions onto us, you really ought to do a little research and educate yourself about “reality”.

And by the way, did you notice how I did not answer with assumptions and stereo-types attacking life in Germany? Huh!

Hell, immigrant kids - especially Turkish German kids - even adopt some traits associated with African Americans, like hip-hop culture and fashion and stuff, and they’ve got a slang of their own, too, that has become fashionable lately even among the “white” kids (those without “Migrationshintergrund” I mean). That’s why a Turkish German guitar virtuoso like Muhammad Suicmez is so unique, unexpected and out of the ordinary. A Turkish German kid that listens to metal and classical instead of rap? Can’t be.

Oh, and pariahs are pariahs simply by virtue of being treated like pariahs, even if there’s not a societal class officially called that. John, you needn’t have a tag on a spade that says “spade” to recognise the tool as spade. Not every country that calls itself a democracy is one, either.

I’m certainly not saying that immigrants and their descendants here are subhuman or treated like it. But there are all kinds of conflicts and social divides. Almost parallel societies. That’s why there is so much heated discussion about “multiculturalism” in Germany. It’s obvious that you can’t do without integration, that doesn’t mean you can’t respect other cultures or the cultures of the immigrants, nobody is advocating total assimilation, but there must be compromises. When neither parents nor kids speak German well, there is no common ground and communication and schooling is made very difficult.

There’s the English-only movement in the US. That’s what I would call narrow-minded. I’ve never advocated anything like that and I’m not unsympathetic to the concerns of immigrants and their descendants, so I have no idea why I should suddenly be racist. If addressing issues plainly is racist where you live, I really don’t want to live there and feel sorry for you. That’s really political correctness spun out of control. There’s no denial that the Hauptschule - at least in urban areas - has become a place for the lower classes to remain among themselves, and that the established bourgeoisie avoids, which is entirely contrary to its original purpose.

As for slavery, it depends … just because something is not called slavery (for obvious reasons) does not mean that it can’t work in the same way.

Wow! Shocking to see such a weltlichste guy is so rassistisch! We have all kinds of poor children in the USA, including immigrants from Central America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Eastern European countries like Bosnia, not just African Americans, who by the way are not “labourers, slaves or even pariahs”.

And in the USA, it is considered important that all children have access to education, so that they can rise above their station and become a contributing member of society . That is what is called the AMERICAN DREAM and we do not begrudge providing education because of wealth or social status. There is nothing wrong with being a day laborer, and we don’t have slaves, and no one knows what a pariah even is.

Now most kids are at Gymnasium, almost everyone makes Abitur (which is why even menial jobs require Abitur now), and Universitäten are flooded by people who have no interest in science, research or an academic career (Universitäten have degraded into fancier professional training centres, a lot like colleges in the States which I’ve heard lambasted as being on the level of our Volkshochschulen!), with the result that especially the humanities and small, exotic fields of study - where research is still the focus, and the training of to-be scientists, nothing else - are marginalised. The Realschule has turned into the exception instead of the norm, and the Hauptschule is left with the kids of the poorest parents, especially uneducated immigrants who are not integrated at all and barely speak a word of German. Essentially the offspring of day labourers, slaves or even pariahs. Sort of like those poor Afro-American kids in the USA.

i am german and i must say i do not share every single experience you are writing about BUT that doesn’t matter - these are one person’s (your) views and experiences, these are personal intercultural experiences. they are very interesting to read and extremely entertaining.

and i love your tone.

i have to quote micha here:

“Both systems have their charm, but the correct system is the American one, because it has inspired dozens of films of international acclaim revolving around high school, whereas there has never been a major motion picture about the German Gymnasium.”

ROFLMAO!

roflmao, too ^^
well done, very well done!

ROFLMAO!

Merke: die Zahl besteht aus Ziffern, wie das Wort aus Buchstaben.

Viele Grüße
europamitte