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crinkly_earsÖzil reports Twitter user for racial abuse
Real Madrid's German international Mesut Özil has reported the owner of a Twitter account for racial abuse, after the player was accused of not being German, according to the Bild newspaper.
The player's lawyer - Sascha Beumer – decided to take legal action after an unknown Twitter user posted messages using a private account during the Denmark-Germany game, stating that the player was not German and criticising his surname – which is of Muslim descent.
"Özil isn't German! A piece of paper doesn't change your origins", were the unknown user’s words in their first message, then adding that nobody with a non-German name should play in the German team.
Soon after, amid the protests - both online and offline -, Twitter decided to block the user's account from where the racist comments came from.
The Real Madrid player's father and agent - Mustafa Özil – totally agreed with his son's decision to report the incident: "it's important to say that you can't get away with saying things like that. This person has overstepped the mark".
Özil – who has played in all three of Germany's games so far in the 2012 Euros – was born in Gelsenkirchen (West Germany), while his parents come from Turkey. The Real Madrid player has always defended his German status.
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Date: 2012-06-21 01:46 am (UTC)That "Ozil isn't German..." BS is tiresomely common online. Mesut is just a poor little cultural orphan as far as the reader comments are concerned on too many sites.
I say report them all.
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Date: 2012-06-21 01:58 am (UTC)I was similarly angry when I saw an article on CNN (I don't even know why I read their crap but ah well) about footballers not singing their national anthems. So many of the comments focused on immigrant players who don't sing the lyrics, as if it were some sort of crime. I participated in my fair share of sports growing up and I can't say I ever even noticed the anthem being sung, because I was concentrating on the match ahead.
But some of the comments just gave me chills--like this one I put on my Tumblr:
http://mostlymesut.tumblr.com/post/25351541343/i-think-that-makes-you-a-flag-waving-nationalist
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:02 am (UTC)Franz Beckenbauer can complain: but in the '70s he didn't sing it either! No one did. The anthem made you uncomfortable, it had associations one couldn't shake.
It's just one of those things I prefer people not to complain about.
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:08 am (UTC)I know them, but only because her comments made me curious enough to look them up.
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:12 am (UTC)The song was written in 1848 and is rather saccharine, but quite harmless. It was before there was a Germany (Union in 1871 when Prussia sort of forced the issue).
But in 1848 it was a time of revolution and great hope and change. So "Deutschland Ueber Alles" - still the official first stanza believe it or not, though only the third is sung at events - was quite harmless at the time. It signified hope about change at a sensitive time (revolution all over Europe). It took on its sinister overtones later.
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Date: 2012-06-21 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 03:42 am (UTC)It was literally the first time I saw flags everywhere (my mother and I passed through that summer on our way to Italy).
My mother was thrilled to marry a Canadian. She had a literal complex about telling people she was German and she sort of avoids it to this day. That attitude is passing.
Some still disapprove. In 2010 some Turkish-Germans in Berlin put up a 20 foot flag along the side of their building (biggest flag in Germany). It was stolen by left-wingers twice and they had to have someone sit up at night to guard it.
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:05 am (UTC)As to the discussion about footballers singing the anthem or not, who cares? They are supposed to play football. Besides, the Haydn-music is beautiful all by itself and doesnt need a text.
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Date: 2012-06-22 07:07 pm (UTC)Was this a coincidence or is the divide between who sings and who doesn't sing related to race as well as age? I mean these players (and their living families) weren't around when all that madness was going on. Is there an enduring legacy around the anthem (or at least the third stanza) that stops even young people (or first generation citizens) from singing along?
Long post,,but I am a dark skinned african american. Despite America's racial history, there isn't much "to do" about symbols of the country's history (confederate flag aside) for today's youth or first gen children.
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:47 am (UTC)And seriously, no one alive today made any of the decisions that caused what happened. The only veterans still alive from that era were young kids at the time. It's like in America where there is a sentiment of things being owed to blacks and native americans for past crimes. While slavery was horrible, and natives were treated most unfairly, to hold me personally responsible for what people I never even KNEW did, is ridiculous.
Germans have a right to be proud of themselves. Shit, y'all have a far more functioning society/economy than most of the world. And it is a beautiful place with a rich cultural history. One group of assholes can't take that away from you.
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Date: 2012-06-21 03:59 am (UTC)my entire family immigrated to america in the twentieth century -- none of my ancestors were involved in either the native american genocide nor slavery. but i'm conscious of how my ethnicity affords me privilege, privilege whose origin is the enslavement and slaughter of other groups.
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Date: 2012-06-21 04:11 am (UTC)The Germans' contemporary attitude toward nationalism and apologising for their history might strike Americans (us Canadians too -- but I do think Americans tend to be more patriotic) as overly self-flagellating and no longer necessary, but as a child of immigrants, I really appreciate the thought into promoting that sort of attitude of "We must never forget". Because really? Powerful nations in history have shown us time and time again that yes, we WILL forget and pretend these bad things in the past never happened.
I'm Chinese-Canadian and I absolutely sympathise with older generation Chinese people who dislike Japan and their government for not really acknowledging the war crimes they've committed. I dislike that the Japanese government doesn't address this, but I definitely don't hold it against the Japanese people in general, and quite like them.
I mean even Canada, which is an amazingly tolerant and diverse country, is guilty of tiptoeing around history involving some pretty awful mistreatment of Native people, for example.
/rant
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Date: 2012-06-21 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-22 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 05:05 pm (UTC)They could have picked a much better and much more deserving example than the - admittedly deplorable but comparatively tame - statement he "isn't German".
This is a very random reaction and strikes me as odd, is all I'm saying.
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Date: 2012-06-21 05:13 pm (UTC)The stuff at Welt Online is worse - hell, BILD - who could forget Bild?? The most poisonous shit is published on that website.
Perhaps it was reported in the news? Perhaps it received one too many re-tweets? Perhaps it was an account that could be easily tracked down and shut for maximum publicity? Perhaps by over-reaching slightly - choosing a fairly innocuous statement (compared to the crap in Bild, for example) then they are setting a tidy precedent for far worse stuff. As if to say: this, and anything worse could be punished.
But yes - very odd. I don't know the hate-speech laws in Germany. In Canada this would be unlikely to get you banned - and we don't have complete free speech in Canada (common misconception is that we do). Hate speech is not protected, and hate-speech is a vaguely defined idea.
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:15 pm (UTC)As for laws in Germany, yes, some hate-speech, namely hate speech directed at entire segments of the populace, is not protected by our free speech laws. (I happen to rather like it that way.)
Let me quote the relevant wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksverhetzung):
For any hate speech to be punishable as Volksverhetzung, the law requires that said speech be "qualified for disturbing public peace" either by inciting "hatred against parts of the populace" or calling for "acts of violence or despotism against them", or by attacking "the human dignity of others by reviling, maliciously making contemptible or slandering parts of the populace".
I'm actually not sure the twitter statements, as reported, qualify as Volksverhetzung acc. to German law. Which is why I thought it a dumb move. If this goes to court and is rejected, it's basically like giving the rest of the stupid people a reason to party.
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:32 pm (UTC)Hee hee hee - I am perilously amused by this! The poor things!
Karmic balance!
Edit: In Canada nothing gets to trial. Everything is settled. 5% of cases make it to court. Is it the same in Germany? I know ZERO about a civil system.
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:36 pm (UTC)Given though that my dad's taken some customers' unpaid bills all the way to court plenty of times, I assume it's more than 5 percent over here?
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:37 pm (UTC)And some Crispy! I'm about to watch and we need Crispy to be good!
You love Ronaldo! You have great taste!
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 02:14 am (UTC)People are dumb. I'm glad Mesut's people are handling this. They pick on him because he's not vocal about shit
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:49 am (UTC)And I'm such a mutt, I don't even know what to call myself. German-Welsh-English-Irish-American?
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 02:40 am (UTC)It's sad - you're born there, grow up there, and people still think you don't belong because of how you look.
I bet the one that say that isn't german, i believe most german people would care more about the victory he brings in euro than his descent.
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:42 am (UTC)And seriously, the captain of America's team is Carlos Bocanegra, son of a Mexican immigrant. You gonna demand his papers, too?
Though I have to say, I'm interested that this one account is singled out. I see racist crap there all the time. I unfollow those people immediately, but I know it's there.
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Date: 2012-06-21 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 03:33 am (UTC)As much as I would like it to be so, being a racists isn't a crime? I'm confused
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Date: 2012-06-21 03:37 am (UTC)Wasn't a guy in the UK sued for a racist Tweet against a footballer not so long ago? Other countries have laws about incitement to racial hatred, etc.
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Date: 2012-06-21 03:43 am (UTC)Meanwhile it's totally cool that John Terry run around playing for England in an international tournament (complete with ten words respect sewn onto his jersey) while awaiting charges of racial abuse. You know it's bad when twitter can respond quicker than the BFA.
OT: why can JT go more than 12 months without opening his mouth or dropping his pants in the wrong home?
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Date: 2012-06-21 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 04:16 am (UTC)#secondgenerationproblems
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Date: 2012-06-21 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 11:35 am (UTC)I like to think that with each passing generation we get a little better. My parents, though I love them dearly, say things about people’s ethnicity or nationality that surprise and upset me. Just the other day I was with my mom wearing my Ozil jersey. She must have said 3 times, “Just look at that name!”, “It’s such a strange name!”, “Can you imagine if that was your last name?” (to which I quickly replied, Why yes… yes I can! hahaha) This was coming from a woman whose married name (and the name I grew up with) is 10 letters long, very Eastern European in nature, and one that no one can ever pronounce! I just couldn’t understand why she had an issue with it… so I chalked it up to her age and a lack of exposure. But my point being, I don’t think anyone in my family of my generation would think or say something like this simply because it wouldn’t BE something we’d find “strange”.
And last thing… Sadly, I don’t wonder if looks play a part in this. He LOOKS Turkish (obviously). He does not LOOK “typical” German. This kills me because we’ve dealt with this in my own family (my hubby is Hispanic and very dark). But some people just can’t seem to accept others who “look” different. Anyways, the twitter account should be disabled, and I’m proud of Mesut for taking a stand on this.
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Date: 2012-06-21 01:23 pm (UTC)Although the racism against Ozil infuriates me, the cultural debate about him is actually one of the things I found initially intriguing about him. It's just one of the many things that makes Mesut an interesting, intriguing and complex public personality. Too bad that some people use it against him instead of for him, like I do.
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Date: 2012-06-21 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-22 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-22 12:49 am (UTC)Go, Oezil family, go, fight, win!