Podium Discussion
In our first public event, we asked: How can seemingly ‘good ideas’ like supporting survivors of violence go so very wrong by reinforcing racist policing and security regimes?
After the violence in Köln and Orlando, mainstream feminist and LGBT organizations call on the State for more ‘protection’. Yet we know that the State uses its claims to protect marginalized communities as an alibi to continue law enforcement violence against people of color and migrants.
If police and borders don’t make us safe, what alternatives do we have in our communities? How can we build safety for ourselves?
This event was organized by students of the “Feminism and the State: Carceral Feminisms & Transformative Alternatives” seminar at Humboldt University, together with their teacher, Melanie Brazzell. In order to make connections between the Berlin and U.S. contexts, Melanie invited several local activist-thinkers to the seminar as guest speakers.
The public panel brought those speakers together into conversation for a broader public audience. At the event, they examined Germany’s law enforcement and prison system, as well as current debates around hate crimes law and sex worker regulations. They also offered visionary community-based alternatives for survivors of violence, answering the question “what would really make us safe?”