Umeswaran Arunagirinathan - The Foreign German

On the way home I encountered a big blond youth pointing with his index finger and saying to his buddy, “Look at that, we have a nigger in town.” Perhaps I should come to Rosenheim more often, maybe many more dark-skinned people like myself should go to the fall festival in Lederhosen. Maybe then the young man would say one day, “Look at that! Umes is in town.” That would be beautiful. There’s scarcely another country in the world that has better medical coverage than Germany. If we intended to keep this medical standard in our health system, we have to be prepared to make people from other countries our fellow citizens.

Patients will get older and older and even more people will need assistance. The need for care personnel is growing so fast that we can’t even cover the need in several of the federal states. For many Germans the care profession is not attractive, many re-train, change their profession or emigrate to other countries where there are better financial incentives.

We are dependent on the people who come to us from foreign countries, for they accept the salaries and are ready to make contributions to our health care system. This, however, assumes the recognition of and respect for our foreign colleagues. I am glad and thankful that until now I’ve not had to hear discriminating phrases in my clinic like: “Look at that, here comes a nigger with a smock,” or remarks like that of a colleague who was traveling with his family in Africa, and joyfully reported that on an “all inclusive vacation” a negro had been provided them!

While I was standing in front of the patient room 527 with the visitation cart and was studying the next electronic file, suddenly Mr. Clausen, who was waiting for transport to rehab clinic, tapped my shoulder. When I turned around, he said: “You’re a good boy,” giving me a friendly look. That was one of my most beautiful experiences at the hospital. Man is able, until his last breath, to learn something new. It would have been unreasonable to shove Mr. Clausen in a drawer with the label “racist.” It would also have been understandable if I had not continued to treat him. The reasonable reaction was just what I had done – going toward someone who distances himself from you because of prejudice.

Presumably Mister Clausen had never before had the opportunity to get to know a dark-skinned man. Perhaps, in the future, he’ll encounter a colored person differently than before. Perhaps, with my behavior, I had given an 80-year old man the possibility that he wouldn’t die a racist. I think it’s important to engage in dialogue with those who think differently, even if it takes energy and patience. If we didn’t invest in these qualities, we won’t change anyone. With our help they can have the possibility of leaping out from their own shadow to see every person as a human being and not to be make distinct ones. The foreigner remains foreign so long as he feels himself foreign and is acknowledged as foreign by society.

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