What if a simple "hello" could bridge the gap between isolation and solidarity? Join us in this heartfelt episode of Hear My True Story as we uncover the profound significance of a simple greeting among black individuals living in predominantly white communities. Through my personal journey as an African in Marburg, Germany, I reveal how exchanging a "hello brother" or "hello sister" on the street becomes a powerful act of mutual recognition and support. These seemingly small gestures carry immense emotional weight, fostering a sense of unity and understanding amidst the shared challenges of discrimination and systemic racism.
In an intriguing turn of events, a friend's curious question about the meaning behind these greetings leads to a deeper exploration of their importance. I recount a poignant moment where not reciprocating a greeting left me grappling with feelings of betrayal and guilt, underscoring the deep emotional connections these interactions create. As your host, Otako, I remind you that your feedback is invaluable to us. Please check the episode description for a link to send your messages, and explore our YouTube channel for more engaging content. Stay tuned for future episodes as we continue sharing our authentic stories, and thank you for being an essential part of our journey.
What if a simple "hello" could bridge the gap between isolation and solidarity? Join us in this heartfelt episode of Hear My True Story as we uncover the profound significance of a simple greeting among black individuals living in predominantly white communities. Through my personal journey as an African in Marburg, Germany, I reveal how exchanging a "hello brother" or "hello sister" on the street becomes a powerful act of mutual recognition and support. These seemingly small gestures carry immense emotional weight, fostering a sense of unity and understanding amidst the shared challenges of discrimination and systemic racism.
In an intriguing turn of events, a friend's curious question about the meaning behind these greetings leads to a deeper exploration of their importance. I recount a poignant moment where not reciprocating a greeting left me grappling with feelings of betrayal and guilt, underscoring the deep emotional connections these interactions create. As your host, Otako, I remind you that your feedback is invaluable to us. Please check the episode description for a link to send your messages, and explore our YouTube channel for more engaging content. Stay tuned for future episodes as we continue sharing our authentic stories, and thank you for being an essential part of our journey.
For those of us living as minorities in predominant white communities, there is often a sense of isolation. So when I meet someone who looks like me and they say hello brother, it is so powerful. It is a powerful moment. It is an acknowledgement that we are not alone, that we understand each other's struggle In Europe, as a black person, we face discrimination, systematic racism and all sorts of challenges, but when we greet each other with hello brother, hello sister, we are happy, you smile, you have that connection. There is that solidarity. It is a small act but it has a lot, a lot of weight, symbolizing support, unity.
Otako:
This is your favorite time of the week with your number one podcast. Hear my true story.
Otako:
Welcome to today's episode of Hear my True Story podcast. Well, my dear listeners, I'm always happy to have you on this wonderful podcast and I can say every time I come on this podcast I'm the most excited podcaster, because I do like having you listen to my stories. I have this feeling that every time I'm seated in front of this microphone and I share my personal stories, I become more stronger, because storytelling is what makes me healing as a person. So today I want to share with you my personal experience, but before I start, I just want to share a question to any person who is living, maybe, in a community where they are the minority.
Otako:
This is your question. Have you ever heard the term brother used in a way that feels deeper than just a word? As an African guy living in Germany, let me tell you I hear it a lot, and today I'm sharing with you my personal story about what that word really means.
Otako:
With you every week. Hear my true story.
Otako:
I'm in Germany, in the city of Marburg, central Germany, central Germany. This is a university town, which means that it is full of people from all backgrounds, all migration backgrounds, and as I was walking on the streets with some friends of mine, none of these friends of mine were black like me. They were all from all over the world. If you looked at our group as we were walking, it was like a bunch of migrants, a real definition of migration in Germany and Europe At large.
Otako:
So, as we walked on the busy streets in the city of Marburg, in the old town. You know they call it an old town because it is an old town. That's why they call it an old town old town. It is built with old houses, old structure architecture and that really gives the beauty of being an old town and everyone who visits the city of Mahabu they go up there and see the old town.
Otako:
So as we are walking in a small business street in the old town in Mahabu, germany, I spot another black guy. Our eyes meet and we do the usual little head nod thing. If you don't know, that it's when a black person meets another black person on the street and their eyes meet and they smile at each other and they give themselves a nod and then maybe sometimes they add the word hello brother or hello sister. So for me, I meet this guy, we do the usual greeting times. They had the word hello brother or hello sister. So for me I met this guy. We did the usual greeting. He'd nod, smile back, say hello brother, I say hello brother and then we continued with our business. He walked ahead.
Otako:
I walked also ahead.
Otako:
However, none of the guys that I was walking with realized this small gesture of conversation or of greeting. A few blocks later, I see another black person. We exchange the nods and smiles and he says hello brother. I also say hello brother. We continue with our walking. However, this time one of my friends notes. Then he's a bit confused. And then he asked, and then he looks at me and we continue walking and I look at him and I know he has something that he wants to say. And then he asked me Otaku, can I ask you something? And I told him, yes, well, ask me. He said do you know that guy that you smiled at and nodded the head at? I said nope, I don't know him. I've not seen him. I have never seen him in my entire life. He was so confused. He was like well, I just hear you, I just heard you say hello brother, is he your brother? Because you smiled and then said hello, hello brother, is he your real brother? I was trying not to kind of laugh at him or maybe ignore his question.
Otako:
I was like okay, anyway, I can try to explain. I explained to him. It is a term we use when someone says hello brother or hello sister. It is a gesture of solidarity. Perhaps it does not matter if we don't know each other personally, it is just a gesture. So he understood me. That's what I hope. And then we continued walking.
Otako:
Now, as we are walking here is the interesting thing that comes in my head. I started to think Otaku, what if you did not respond with hello brother? Next time, when you meet a fellow black person and they look at you with a smile, perhaps you don't need to smile back, you don't need to give them the nod, you don't need to smile back, you don't need to give them the nod, you don't need to say hello to them, just ignore them. You know that kind of thinking in your head. Who, lucky enough being in Marble. It is a very international city With a lot of people. That means with a lot of black people. Also, in this city I meet another black person. He approaches and I say to myself well, otaku, today it is the time to try out your theory. I did not respond. He looked at me, he smiled at me. I smiled not back. I did not look back at me. He smiled at me. I smiled not back, I did not look back at him. And then he said hello brother. I did not say even hello brother. I literally ignored all his gestures and I looked away.
Otako:
I continued walking, but something broke inside my heart. I continued walking, but something broke inside my heart. I personally started feeling this guilt. And then I turned and looked at this guy as he walked away from me, as he continued walking. I was walking ahead, he was walking ahead. I looked back and he looked at me On his face he felt betrayed. He had this betrayal face that someone. I looked back and he looked at me On his face. He felt betrayed. He had this betrayal face that someone did not just respond when I tried to say hi to them. That hurt me a lot. That made me to think many times Otaku, why would you do such a thing? I started to blame myself. Why am I even trying out this theory? Because the entire week I was down I hated myself for being so, so bad-hearted person, for breaking someone's heart, not by just saying hello brother. It kept haunting me.
Otako:
It is at that point when I got to realize. Well, it is not just a casual greeting, this term hello brother, hello sister it has a lot of meaning, it means a lot. It means a lot. It's like saying I see you, I get you, we are in this together.
Otako:
For those of us living as minorities in a predominant white communities, there is often a sense of isolation. So when I meet someone who looks like me and they say hello brother, it is so powerful, it is a powerful moment. It is an acknowledgement that we are not alone, that we understand each other's struggle. In Europe, as a black person, we face discrimination, systematic racism and all sorts of challenges, but when we greet each other with hello brother, hello sister, we are happy. You smile. You have that connection. There is that solidarity. It is a small act, but it has a lot, a lot of weight. You have that connection. There's that solidarity. It is a small act, but it has a lot, a lot of weight, symbolizing support, unity.
Otako:
So next time, my dear listeners, if you are that kind of person living in a predominantly white community and you look at someone who looks like you, don't, instead to say hello brother, hello sister, smile to them, give them a nod, show them that you are there. They are there, you recognize that and you're happy, and then you'll be able to make this world a wonderful place to live. Let me tell you that simple gesture can make someone's day a happy day, place to live. Let me tell you that simple gesture can make someone's day a happy day For me. When I did not respond, it made my day a bad day and it made the other person's day a bad day. So nowadays, when I see someone smile back to me, they look at me. I say to them do the same to me. I am the happiest person. I say them hello brother, hello sister, and they do the same to me. I am happy. I am the happiest person because I feel like, well, someone just said hello to me. It is nice to hear that.
Otako:
So, my dear listeners, thank you for always listening to Hear my True Story podcast. Until next time, keep listening to Hear my True Story podcast. It has been me, Otaku, your host, and next time maybe I share with you a wonderful story. By the way, there's something new. If you enjoyed listening to Hear my True Story podcast on the description when you go to the description of the episode, you'll see we have there a text for you. You can send us a message. You can just send us a message appreciating what we do, because that also makes our day. When you give us your feedback, when you give us your thoughts with our stories, that may make our day a better place of telling our own stories. So, my dear listeners, don't forget if you have feedback, share it with us. If you have anything you want to tell us, please let us know. We would be so happy to hear from you. It has been me, Otako, your host, on Hear my True Story Podcast. Keep listening, as we keep podcasting.
Otako:
We not only have voices for a podcast, but also faces for YouTube. Don't miss your next episode. Hear my true story.
