The following text displays racist incidents that took place in the early morning/night of the 21st February at the „Musichouse“ in Graz. We (the authors) were not directly affected by the racism, we witnessed the incident and tried to act in solidarity with the affected as good as possible. In advance the three affected persons told us that they have already been sent away from other bars without being told why. We do not want things like this to happen in Graz or anywhere else. This text tries to create a certain awareness concerning the daily racism many people are confronted with. In this text the names of the people involved have been changed.
People affected: Ali, Karim and Said
Supporters: Ina, Sandra, Tamara and Marlene
1.Occurrence
On the evening of the 20th february Ina had a party at her place. At one point of the party some guests decided to go to the Musichouse and party on there. Ali, Karim and said expressed their worries about going there bcause they have already been kicked out there once before with the lines “we don´t want foreigners here”. We were startled hearing that story, because until now we always had the feeling that the guests as well as the barkeepers at Musichouse have a certain “no racists welcome” attitude. That is why we persuaded Ali, Karim and Said to come with us. We were proven wrong. We arrived at the Musichouse at around 3 in the morning. Sandra, Tamara and Marlene entered the bar without any problems. Ali, Karim and Said did not. Ina started a discussion and asked the bouncer why he would not let them in. The bouncer replied “ I never had trouble with a white girl wearing glasses before”. After realizing that something is wrong the three people that already entered went outside again and joined the discussion. The bouncer was asked why exactly he would not let them in. He replied “They match a certain stereotype” as well as “They fulfill a certain cliche”. We wanted to know what exactly this stereotype looks like. He then told us that wearing sweatpants and having fur on a hoodie is part of this stereotype. We the asked him to go down and kick everyone wearing sweatpants or fur out, of course he did not do such thing.
Meanwhile one person went down to the bar and tried to talk to the barkeepers and explain the situation to them. She talked to all of the three waiters. One slightly pushed her away, the second one tried to explain that he personally has no problem with „foreigners“ and that this certain policy was an order of the bar owner, telling him to not accept this racist order and do something about it did not really show any effect. The third waiter was willing to listen and accept the criticism to a certain extend. He explained that this policy was the reaction to some thefts that took place in the bar. He said that the people stealing are probably from Albania. He also added that it does not matter where a person is from. The conversation went on and after explaining to him that Ali, Karim and Said are refugees from Arabic speaking countries and that it is absolutely unacceptable that they are not allowed in because of not being white* and looking typical European he said that they could come in and that the person should tell the bouncer to let them in. The bouncer though wanted to hear that from the waiter personally.
After going down to the bar again and trying to get one waiter to go upstairs and tell the bouncer to let them in the waiters only told her that they do not have time for such things and that this is business and therfore they are busy.
Telling the bouncer that noone of the waiters is able to come upstairs did not change anything. After discussing for a couple of more minutes,without any positive result, Ali, Karim und Said and there 4 supporters left. Meanwhile all this happened the affected people acted passive because everything felt uncomfortable for them. They told us that even at the first time when it happened that they were not allowed to stay they felt disappointed. They only wanted to have a nice evening, drink some beers, and dance a bit but they had to leave the musichouse two times and even in other bars in Graz they were forced to experience exclusion because of racism.
2.Criticism
1.We highly criticize this incident, because it is a clear case of racial profiling*. Not letting the three guys in is racist and nothing else.
2.During this whole procedure a lot of people entered the Musichouse, all these people where white and had a certain european appearance. That shows that the only reason why the three guys were not allowed to go in is the fact that they do not fit in the categories of white and European.
As the bar was pretty crowded the whole time and also obviously drunk people entered it the argument that the bar is full or the persons are too drunk is invalid as well. This again shows that the only reason why Ali, Karim and Said were denied exit was there non-European background and them being suspected of theft. We also criticize that for the whole time the supporters (4 white*,european females) were allowed to enter the bar even though they were aggressive. That is another fact that shows that apparently only not being white* is a reason to be denied exit to the Musichouse. Besides that we think that it is legit to be pissed off being confronted with such racism as long as the affected people agree with it.
3.The bouncer and the waiters constantly appealed to their boss. So we ask ourselves if the people working there just execute the racist commands from their boss without asking and just give their responsibility into his hands. This form of racist policies can and will not be tolerated.
4.Even though many people realized the discussion only two people got involved. The sad thing is that they had nothing positive to say. One person just said something like “you can´t say anything without being called a racist” and the other person just suggested to go somewhere else. Going somewhere else was considering this messed up situation not an option. We criticize the lack of solidarity from people passing by.
3.Claims
1.We claim an apology from the Musichouse to Ali, Karim and Said.
2.We claim a change of the Musichouse policies and Musichouse to put an end to this racial profiling*.
3.We want Musichouse to react in a different way to theft than with racism. Giving the people more self-responsibility and create a certain awareness would in our opinion be better than generalising people in a racist way.
4.We claim more awareness and responsibility from the Musichouse waiters as well from the guests concerning racism and any form of discrimination.
With this text we hope that it creates a certain awareness concerning racism and discrimination. We want to motivate people to stand up against racism and confront racism and racists always and everywhere. The reason why we changed all the information about the affected people and why they won’t include themselves into the process of making this case public is because they are afraid that this could cause negative effects on their asylum procedure. Even in other cases where people demanded their rights and tried to revolt, it happened that the state acted in a repressive way.
SMASH RACISM!
NO BORDER, NO NATION, DESTROY GRENZREGIME!