24 Kasım 2011 Perşembe

IGNORANCE IS BLISS


Racist movements around the world especially towards Muslims are going to arise. 

Is it what we can conclude from the unfortunate murder of eight Turks and a Greek migrant in Germany by right wing extremists? Certainly, the recent attack by racist groups has created an agenda again over the Turkish population’s appearance in Germany. After many years since the “guest workers” arrived in Germany, it is hoped that something could have changed so far within the public sense, for example the overlook on the relationship between the religion as Islam and Turks. However, there are still stereotypes attached to people with Turkish background in Germany: They are still ‘the others’, stigmatized as "Kümmelfresser", "Döner fraction" or "Muslim fundamentalists", and as living in their own Turkish community with a complete own infrastructure. On the other hand, problems still occur caused by the integration of Turkish migrants within German society; however the younger generations have accomplished more efforts to adopt themselves into German culture and society. No doubt, there is a thin line here; nothing could be generalized with sharp statements. There are Turkish migrants in Germany who can identify themselves as German–Turks by not feeling to belong to just one single identity. These are the ones mostly who have quality lives and fully have knowledge about the society they live in. On the contrary, there are still people with Turkish background have been living in Germany for many years without speaking any single German word and not trying to integrate. Not all of Turkish migrants favor coexistence over cooperation. But of course, not every German welcomes Turkish people and let them be part of German society. Just a little discriminating joke here or a stereotyped term there, all of this helps to constitute high distinction and not letting them in.
Although these problems presented above are very visible in the public discourse, home come that neo-Nazi could kill eight people with Turkish migration background, detonate bombes and rob banks? In our opinion, the reason for this relies on the neglecting and ignoring of upcoming racism by German politics. “Right-wing extremism and racism in Germany? No way – we had Hitler and the Second World War!” This seems to be their motto in recent times. Well, if nobody talks about a problem, a problem just does not exist. Oh yeah, ignorance is bliss! You see: Power manifests itself not only in the communication of certain issues, but also in excluding them from the public discourse. Obviously, the problem of increasing racism and right-wing extremism in Germany does not belong to the agendas discussed in the public. But should we blame only German politics? Do you really think that there is a sufficient demand from the society to the politics to avoid racism? We, a Turkish and a German, are convinced that everybody, you and us, should think about our everyday behavior towards each other.

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Written by: 
Thomas Schmidt from Germany & Sezgi Eser from Turkey
Students in Sweden, Media and Communication Science (Ms) 



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