Josef Auslander

Oktober 95

My name is .... hmm, oh, that´s not important! Just call me, Josef - Sepp for short.
I was born 26 June 1963 in San Francisco, California, the third and last sibling of immigrant parents.
(By the way, San Francisco is home to Acid, (yes, the drug!), Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, hippies, Keruac and other famous icons!) I have spent most of my life in the City, so you can say I´m a "Quintessential Urban Dweller."
By ethnicity I am Filipino and by birth I am American. Physically, I am 177 cm tall. I have black hair - closely cropped to my scalp, rich, brown skin - a color tone which most of the Natives try to attaim during summer (It does not fade or rub-off!) and chestnut-brown, almond-shaped eyes. I wear the latest straight-up, cool-funky-acid-jazz, super dope fashions. I walk in a manner that is ever revealing my inner City roots. With these features, maybe you can understand how well I mingle with the Natives.
I live in Upper-Austria, outside a small town called Steinerkirchen a. d. Traun. I am so astonished how beautiful it is here. Lovely lakes, meadows, and forests everywhere. Fairy tales are created with this area in mind. On the horizon, the Traunstein rests. It stands as regal and noble as it did when the Monarchy existed. My neighbors are also a dream. Assisting me in getting my "living space" started, inviting me to social functions, and most-important-drinking Most with them. So then, why am I so unhappy? Does it sound like a distressed Angel in Paradise?
Well, ... Maybe.
Living peacefully in the countryside did not go unscathed. I had one of Gendarmeries "Finest" come to my home in the early hours of the morning. He gave no greeting, no hello, just a mean glaring stare - Scanning me from head to toe. He was down right unfriendly.
He asked, "IS JOSEF AUSLANDER HERE!?"
I replied with great enthusiasm "Yes, thats me!"
"LET ME SEE YOUR PASSSPORT", he said.
While I went to obtain my passport, my friend (whose about as dark as I am) wanted to see what the commotion was about. The Gendarmerie man looked at him with the same glaring gaze, and asked for his passport too.
I wondered, are we under arrest?
What have we done wrong?
Did they think we were going to undermine the Austrian Goverment?
Or did they see us throwing darts at Haider´s and Vranitzky´s poster?

A series of similiar questions followed: "How long have you lived here? Who lives here with you? Where did you come from? What was your job? Why hasn`t your friend enrolled at the local goverment? I don`t care if he`s visiting for two days, he must enroll!" This went on for 45 minutes. At the end, all he wanted to do was remind me that if I wanted to stay in Austria, I must obtain a stamp of residency from the goverment within 3 months. I have been here less than a month.
Unbelievable!
After that ordeal we laughed with a sense of relief that we were not in trouble, but later we felt deeply humiliated. He did not treat us like civilized people. He treated us as we were sub-human! The thought came across my mind, "If my skin color was like theirs and I spoke their dialect, would I have been treated nicer?` Nah! ... Well, maybe.
Few days later, while picking up my daughter from kindergarten, a boy from her class, yelled out from the bus and said, "Ein Neger" to me. I looked at my daughter, and thought she did not hear that boys remark. Later, I found out she heard that remark, and she too was called "Eine Negerin" by that same boy. She wondered why that boy called her a different name other than her given birth name. Me and my daughter had a discussion how people make generalizations about skin color, language, weight, size and etc. and how she should not call people different names. Her first course in "Predujice Studies".
These are only a few encounterings and perceptions of one person. A person who listens to jazz, surf the internet, loves to eat Wienerschnitzel, snowboards, drink Freistädter Bier, and most of all loves his wife and child. A person who wishes to become part of society, a cog, a function, not a stereotyped parasite.
Once a friend of mine asked, "does a persons skin color matter in Austria?" My answer?
Well, maybe. Maybe everywhere.
Peace!

PS: Please do not feel offended by the term "Natives". Many Westerners used this term to describe the "indigenous people" of a strange + bizarre land.

NEXT: Pepe Auslander finds a job!