Originally posted at redhaircrow.com.

A quote from our documentary, given by Dr. Hartmut Lutz, Professor Emeritus Griefswald University, who was a participant. It is critically relevant to the events at Halle, and the rising racism, violence & xenophobia in Germany…and western society in general. As with most things, somehow it becomes playing the victim yet again, even when doing horrific acts, minimizing or refusing to recognize/act against the obvious signs and rising racism & xenophobia. Dehumanization of others by whatever means, for whatever reason, has enormous consequences on a society. Stereotypes and stereotyping are not harmless.

“Victims vs. Perpetrators: as a German it is morally interesting to define oneself as victim”-Dr Harmut Lutz

“For Germans, dealing with Natives is quite a guilt-free space. They are not Hereros, they are not Jews, they are not Romnja and Sintezza, they are far far away. The German State never dealt with Natives, never colonized them. This is a rather comfortable space to enter. But cultural appropriation of Natives and hobbyism does not protect one from being racist. Not at all. Imagine the CULTURAL APPROPRIATION of Natives and ANTISEMITISM as two sides of the same coin.

Both have one thing in common: the process of Othering and the exclusion of fellow human beings. Through Othering one projects anything on someone else. And those projections and descriptions of others tell you much more about the person who projects and not about the “stranger”. These descriptions can be both positive and negative. Positive imaginations can be detached from realities that other societies are worshiped and adored in rather unreal ways.

On the other side, it can also be totally negative, they are dehumanized and constructed as subhuman objects. But both are ways of objectifying other people, either as objects of admiration and romanticizing or as objects of contempt…even killing. Through these extreme imaginations and projections, the actual people including oneself.”

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The photo I took when I was in Halle in 2018 to discuss the film and its theme at the IDEENKONGRESS zu Kultur, Alltag und Politik auf dem Land. The violent, selfish, racist events of Oct 9, 2019 happened right outside the hotel where I’d stayed, at the döner shop I had visited. After the terrorist murders in Halle in Germany on Oct. 9th, where a white German gunner targeted a synagogue of members celebrating Yom Kippur.

It’s no surprise the admitted connection and inspiration by the murdering of innocents in Christchurch. Another young white male, entitled and privileged, full of hatred and angry, who feels “others” are threatening and taking away what is their right, their lands, their whatevers…. when the actual reverse has taken place across the world by that same demographic.

The connection is the accepted practice of DEHUMANIZE AND OBJECTIFICATION of “others”. Germans have done this to Native Americans for decades, passing along systemic racist practices and entitlement aka white supremacist ideology that it is okay to do so. This act of terrorist violence is another consequences of the willingness to use/categorize/label others. Flip sides of the same coin.