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Our next Inclusive Sussex: In Conversation event on Monday 10 February at 5.30pm features Professor Gary Younge, award-winning author, broadcaster, and professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester.

Gary, who currently specialises in the Black post-war experience in Europe, will be discussing ‘Colouring between the lines: what the experiences of Black Germans in Nazi Germany tell us about systems of racial oppression in general and antisemitism in particular.’  Following his presentation, a panel of Sussex academics will join Gary in discussion:

• Chair: Professor David Ruebain, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Culture, Equality and Inclusion)
• Professor Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, Professor of Digital Memory, Heritage and Culture and Director of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab
• Dr Naaz Rashid, Co-Director, Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies and Associate Professor in Media and Cultural Studies
• Dr Gerhard Wolf, Associate Professor in History

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During the event, Gary will explore how Black Germans occupied a perilous but liminal space in Nazi Germany. As a small, visible minority, officially designated as an inferior race, they were subject to discrimination, including sterilisation, incarceration and murder. But in a racialised system that had chosen and ruthlessly pursued both Jews and Roma as its primary ethnic enemies, anti-black discrimination was systemic but not systematic. Their treatment was inconsistent – at least one Black German even served in the Wehrmacht, others went to the concentration camps.

The distinction between how the Nazis treated black people and Jews illustrates the manner in which systems of racial oppression find and prioritise their targets, the ambivalent role that visible racial difference can play in that system and provides an opportunity for a more sophisticated understanding of how anti-black racism and antisemitism both differ and overlap. 

Following the discussion, you are welcome to join a short drinks reception. Tickets for this event are free, but as places are limited. 

About Professor Gary Younge

Gary is an award-winning author, journalist and broadcaster focusing on race, identity, equality and social movements. He is an editorial board member of The Nation magazine, winner of the 2023 Orwell Prize for Journalism, and has been a columnist and US correspondent at The Guardian. Gary also co-presents a podcast called Over the Top Under the Radar. He has written six books, most recently Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter and has been published in The New York Review of Books, Granta, GQ, The Financial Times and The New Statesman. He has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.

About Inclusive Sussex: In Conversation

The Inclusive Sussex: In Conversation event series supports our Inclusive Sussex strategy by exploring issues of liberation, equality, diversity and justice with voices from all walks of life, bringing their expertise and lived experiences to the fore.

Sussex has a proud history of welcoming staff and students from the widest range of backgrounds and from all over the world, and in working to create a truly inclusive community that values diversity of identity, background, belief, thought, discipline and method. We continue to strive for Sussex to be a leading example of good practice in advancing equality, diversity and inclusion and a place which welcomes rigorous discussion and debate and where everyone can thrive.

This work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal: SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). You can read more about our work on the SDGs.