It's all fun and games 'til someone gets racist on Twitter...

[renee shah]

Özil reports Twitter user for racial abuse

PEPE ÍÑIGUEZ. Hamburg 06/19/2012

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.

Comments

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

When I was a child in Germany in the '80s no one ever sang the anthem - for obvious reasons. It was never played. I didn't even learn the words until I left for Canada. When my mother was growing up in the '60s they didn't only not sing the anthem they didn't even do team sports!

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.

[renee shah (from livejournal.com)]

My mom watched the 3rd place match at the World Cup with me and when the German anthem played and she saw some players mouthing the lyrics she turned to me and said "You know, I lived there for twenty years and I never even knew the anthem had words."

I know them, but only because her comments made me curious enough to look them up.

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

That would have been my mother's experience exactly. To this day I can't be sure she knows the lyrics.

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.

[charliechaz.livejournal.com]

Interesting....I always assumed that Germany changed their national anthem after WWii or sometime after reunification .......I knew German nationalism was complicated, u didn't know the bit about not singing the words in 80s .....I'm making a mental not to learn more

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

It wasn't just the '80s. Overt patriotism (not nationalism - plain old patriotism) was frowned on, actively, until 2006 when the World Cup came to Germany.

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.

[mello-march.livejournal.com]

1952 the german President and the Chancellor agreed that only the third stanza of the national anthem should be used on official occasions. Then 1991, after Germany's reunification, the third stanza was officially declared national anthem. The words are actually quite fitting: "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (unity and justice and freedom). Today, only some very old and stubborn war veterans and, of course, the despicable neo-nazis still hold on to the first stanza that is a testimony of former German megalomania, invoking a "Reich" that covers half of Europe.

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.

[charliechaz.livejournal.com]

...so I am watching the Germany v greece quarter final game right now! During the national anthems I typically i running around just finishing putting my snacks together, but today I skipped my snacks and paid close attention.... the "fair skinned players" all sang along.....the "non-german, german players didn't. (PS put those designations in quotations on purpose)

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.

[lovinthelads.livejournal.com]

I had a very interesting discussion on this topic with a German friend of mine, and we talked a lot about what it mean to be German in a post WWII world. He lived in Nuremberg, where they have kept intact many Nazi sites as a reminded to themselves of what was allowed to happen, so it does not happen again.

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.

[yeats.livejournal.com]

i feel like holding anyone personally responsible is wrong, but there is such thing as systemic and institutional privilege, which people whose ancestors weren't slaves or native americans still benefit from.

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.

[naobot.livejournal.com]

This!

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

[lovinthelads.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. And there are remnants of slavery in our society such as the gross urban poverty of blacks that needs to be addressed through education and opportunity, but that can be done in a forward thinking way rather than an attempt to correct past wrongs. Slavery was wrong, but what is more wrong is in assuming that people can just "work harder" to improve their circumstances.

[charliechaz.livejournal.com]

point well observed.