Ethnic diversity, 'race', and racism have been subject to discussion in American studies departments at German universities for many years. It appears that especially in the past few decades, ethnic minorities and 'new immigrants' have increasingly become objects of scholarly inquiry. Such research questions focus on the U.S. and other traditionally multicultural societies that have emerged out of historical situations shaped by (settler) colonialism, slavery and/or large-scale immigration. Paradoxically, these studies have overwhelmingly been conducted by white scholars born in Germany and holding German citizenship. Scholars with actual experience of racial discrimination have remained largely unheard.Departing from a critique of practices employed by the German branch of the American studies, the volume offers (self-)reflective approaches by scholars from different fields in the German humanities. It thereby seeks to provide a solid basis for thorough and candid discussions of the mechanisms behind and the implications of racialized power relations in the German humanities and German society at large.

• Table of Contents 6
• Acknowledgments 8
• Who Can Speak and Who Is Heard/Hurt? Facing Problems of Race, Racism, and Ethnic Diversity in the Humanities in Germany: A Surve 10
• ‘Ausländer’ – A Racialized Concept? ‘Race’ as an Analytical Concept in Contemporary German Immigration History 46
• I. Race in Translation: Comparing Racial and Xenophobic Formations in Germany and the United States 46
• Perspective Matters: Racism and Resistance in the Everyday Lives of Youths of Color in Germany 70
• Beyond a Trifling Presence: Afro-Germans and Identity Boundaries in Germany 84
• Race and Racism in Translation: “Who Can Speak?” in German Renderings of Literary African American English 102
• II. Normative Whiteness in the German Humanities 124
• Post-Racism, Colorblind Individualism & Political Correctness: Contemporary Modes of Materialization in American Studies and 124
• Kanak Academic: Teaching in Enemy Territory 154
• The Migrant Scholar of Color as Refugee in the Western Academy 178
• Keeping Academia White: A Case Study 196
• III. Diversity-Conscious Approaches to Academic and Pedagogical Practice 218
• On Racism without Race: The Need to Diversify Germanistik and the German Academy 218