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Multiculturalism As A Racial Project

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Thus, despite its many manifestations and interpretations, multiculturalism in Germany can be primarily seen as an answer to the question of “Germanness”. While Joppke, sees this as largely a push aided by (perhaps alarming) immigration patterns to understand Germaneness without old concepts of nationhood, I attempt to put new emphasis on what this new Germanness meant. While attempting to perhaps transcend nationhood, multiculturalist movement in Germany predominantly attempted to understand Germaneness through reorganizing and interpreting new racial and ethnic makeup, which were the consequence of continued immigration and new refugee waves. Ultimately it is an ethno(-racial) project meant to protect already existing and carefully crafted color-blind and race-blind rhetoric (as a legacy of post-Nazism).
While it might seem controversial to refer to multiculturalism in Germany as a racial project, it is important to notice that the reference is to an ethno(-racial) project. While Omi and Winant specifically created their racial formation theory with the United States in mind, there are many parallels to be made. It is true, that, when regarding the majority of immigrants in Germany and the ethnic and racial makeup or “ethnic” Germans, the rhetoric of multiculturalism may not be a strictly racial project per say. Germany has very specific connotations of race and racism that deal directly with the killing of Jews, i.e. ethno-racial genocide. (Joppke 2011, 65). While

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