Berlin – No, Hanau is not over yet. Intensive reporting on the anniversary of the murders does not change the political failures. The failure of the state was already visible after the NSU murders. Hanau is a crime scene, but also a symbol. Racial discrimination in schools, hate campaigns against places like hookah bars and people who meet there because they are always strangers elsewhere, the failure of the police. And a way of dealing with the victims that makes your blood run cold.
Maybe my optimism is innate, otherwise it wouldn’t survive this time. It’s right next to grief and anger. It is accompanied by exhaustion from the fact that the same thing happens over and over again. This is the case for many who are confronted with racism or anti-Semitism in Germany. Fatigue spreads because nothing changes. I find it strange how politicians can emphasize how little they can imagine what happened in Hanau. Anyone with open eyes knows what is happening in Germany. And everyone who has children can imagine the pain of their parents in Hanau. I just imagine my daughter was sitting in the coffee chatting with her friend. And then she is shot. There is no police on site to prevent it, and then they treat the bereaved with the greatest possible coldness. What is wrong with that?
Hanau symbolizes a climate change. It doesn’t come suddenly, but grows slowly. That happens when politics and society keep making the same mistakes. We live in an immigration society that needs to be shaped. First of all, by taking racism seriously and systematically fighting it! If this does not happen, the consequences will become visible at some point. These consequences don’t just mean more murders will happen. That’s bad enough. They also mean that optimism is lost. The hope for change in the minority communities is slowly disappearing. And this opens the doors to abuse. Islamists like the sympathizers of IS and left-wing extremists and anti-Semites like the MLPD use the Hanau murders for their own purposes. Some take Hanau as proof that democracy is incapable of acting. And the others use racism as a vehicle for radicalization.
Both see how much hypocrisy is associated with Hanau. There are the hypocritical words of the Turkish embassy for the Kurds among the victims who were persecuted in their own country. There are the crocodile tears of politicians who want to show solidarity, but do nothing to change the situation of people affected by racism. The radicals see that and work on it. Oh yes, and then there are the racists who only have malicious laughter left about Hanau.
There is little time left to halt climate change. I would like to say that there is progress, that it makes a difference, because we say the names of the victims from Hanau and not the perpetrators. But to stop the climate change caused by disappointment and escalation, it takes a lot more than tears from crocodiles.
–
