This is how systemic discrimination happens. It is subtle, deliberate, cunning, brazen, & irrational.

It segregates people & destroys lives.

My sister @shapeupafrican staged a one-woman protest on the streets of Hamburg today because teachers failed her daughter.

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My niece Jemima is 9.

She is the best in her class. In the top 1% year after year after year. Her results are proof.

She is so good that sometimes, she helps kids in secondary school with their homework (she not in secondary school yet!)

She's a quiet, introverted child.

At the end of this school year, her teachers recommended her to a district school (a school for average, non-performing students).

As it is in Germany, kids in primary school have to get an academic recommendation in order to gain admission into secondary schools.

This is where trouble begins.

Because contrary to popular belief, Germany has an underlying class / elitist educational system where top kids get recommended to enter the top schools while kids considered as "average" & "bottom-tier" go to lower class schools.

See below:

It would have been considered 'fair' if it was implemented exactly as it is reported (although if you ask me, this isn't a good system) but it isn't.

Because you see, Jemima in all her brilliance was recommended to an average secondary school.

My sister was livid! Rightly so.

After emailing the school authorities, she spoke with an official on the phone (due to covid19, schools are shut), who said Jemima is indeed the brightest kid in her class (phone call recorded) but she was recommended to a bottom school because she is an "introvert".

Absurd!

How does an academically excellent kid (with all the proof) get recommended as as "bottom" kid because she has a personality that is distinctly hers?

Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Sir Isaac Newton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page...

JK Rowling, Warren Buffet, Hilary Clinton, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Angela Merkel (the one dismissed as the introvert with the mediocre dress sense) were/are introverts & some of the most successful people on the planet.

Personality does not determine success.

I told my sister this: "had Jemima been an extrovert, they would still have given her an average recommendation on the grounds that she's too 'aggressive'"

You know why? Because systemic racism is irrational. It is malicious & it is done to keep a particular race down.

I'm very proud of my genius niece and my fighter of a sister.

This is how a mother fights for her child. One-woman protest or not, the aim is to get the word out there that a mother refused to accept a false report from a school that clearly discriminated against their daughter.

Please share this thread if you can. Let everyone hear and see what many are going through.

We were taught to not take oppression lying down. We stand up for what is right & just & we speak up & speak truth.

I am hoping local media will pick up on this story & do it justice.

Here's the full video for those asking.

Check this link: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157893122759212&id=697074211

The deceitful discriminatory recommendation of the teachers will not deter my sister from seeking admission for her kid in a top school.

Their recommendation is not our reality.

@DeutscheWelle

My sister stood in the freeze of #Germany because this too is important.

- Her daughter must know that she fought for her
- People must know that the system is engineered to not give equal opportunities to all races right from tender ages
- It still exists in 2021.

To think that this is happening during #BlackHistoryMonth is telling of how hundreds of years after slavery, people of colour are still not getting the recognition & equal opportunity they deserve.

@CNNAfrica @BBCAfrica @nowthisnews @AJStream @AJEnglish