There are no human “races”! What exists are categorisations of humans in accordance with their appearances (racialisation), accompanied by judging or depreciation thereof. However, biologistic interpretations of the term “race” are still present today. Some legal doctrines and parts of jurisprudence are still locked in with scientific approaches which classify people by allegedly essential group affiliations, instead of critically problematising discriminatory classifications.

Labelling an act of discrimination “racist” would therefore already grammatically clarify that the law does not address unequal treatments based on “race” but such that this occurs due to racism and the categorization into different races.

Recital 6 of the EU Anti-Racism Directive 2000/43/EC clarifies that “[t]he European Union rejects theories which attempt to determine the existence of separate human races. The use of the term "racial origin" in this Directive does not imply an acceptance of such theories.” This view is shared by the German legislator in its explanatory memorandum regarding the AGG (in German). In this, it is explained that the terminology of “on the ground of race” in § 1 AGG was chosen consciously to make clear that the law itself does not assume an existence of different races, but that the person acting racist underlies this assumption. Persons, who have experienced racism, however find this term unacceptable in light of the background of European colonialism and National Socialism , as well as of the prevalence of everyday racism.

For this reason, the BUG recommends that the term “race” in § 1 AGG be exchanged with “racist reasons”, “racist discrimination”, or “racist ascription” in order to shift the linguistic focus to the issue of racism unequivocally.