The German police categories "southerner" and "southern appearance" for suspects or criminals violate the basic constitutional right of individuals "not to be racially discriminated against," according to a scholar and researcher specializing in language and migration.
Clara Erudosa, a researcher at the University of Coimbra, while expressing disappointment with the action of the German police to discriminate against the suspects or criminals based on their race, stated the German police not only promote and institutionally legitimize racism, but also act unconstitutionally.
This kind of category implemented by German Police, is used as a form of racial profiling to characterize the appearance of perpetrators.”
The Southern category in Germany basically stigmatizes people as non-white and therefore non-German, regardless of where they were born, where they are originally from and what religion they belong to.
"Who is included in this category depends on the groups that are the focus of politics and the media. Italians in the 1950s, Turks since the 70s, and the Arabic-speaking population since 2015 are included in this category,” she said.
Pointing out that people in the Southern category have a common appearance such as black hair and beard, dark skin and brown eyes, the researcher said: "Separating people on the basis of their appearance, skin color and attributing innate characteristics to them is one of the broadest and most common forms of racist thinking and behavior.”