Schwarzfahrer

12min | Director, Writer Pepe Danquart | 1994 | Germany | German with English subtitles | NTSC

A young black man is verbally harassed by an older woman on a streetcar, while the other passengers remain silent. He finally exacts his revenge. Pepe Danquart's Oscar-winning Schwarzfahrer is a look not only at racism, but at its subtlety. The old woman who rants against immigrants is odious enough, but more important is that no one challenges her.

To be certain, her rant sounds like what we still hear from these losers, or from politicians looking to score votes. I immediately saw a link between the old woman's “blacks carry AIDS” and Donald Trump's “Mexicans bring drugs.” It would be easy to say that due to Germany’s history, it has no choice but to make movies like this. In reality this should apply to every country. Racism exists everywhere. And as Billy Bragg said, racism must always get challenged. After all, no one is born racist.