Everyone’s a little bit racist, sometimes.

So, German federal police can stop and demand papers from train passengers based on nothing more than their skin colour, if they’re unlucky enough to be on a line used for illegal entry into Germany ‘according to experience’. If you cannot prove your identity, you will be searched. This is according to a ruling from the Koblenz administrative court, after a victim of the practice sued.

Setting aside the moral outrage and the fact that this is a pretty weak way of stopping illegal immigration, this ruling sends completely the wrong message – to both people inside and outside Germany.

It makes Germany seem closed and insular, when that is far from the case. Germany has been incredibly kind to me – I was able to get a number of jobs ‘fresh off the boat’, even without much in the way of German language ability (back then). I worked hard and I believe I did well to integrate myself – God knows, I paid enough tax. Had I not been accepted, I would have left pretty swiftly.

Then again, I am white. Incredibly white. I wonder what my experience would have been with a darker skin colour?

If there is a silver lining to this whole affair, it’s that this profiling was discussed so openly. I really hope that, for Germany’s sake, this triggers a wider debate and the court of public opinion can stamp this silliness on the head.