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RACISM

‘N-gger raus’ – dealing with racism every day

An expat shares his experience of overt racism in Austria. Well-educated and smartly dressed, he tells The Local Austria of a shocking incident of racism on Vienna's subway trains.

'N-gger raus' - dealing with racism every day
Photo: ardfern/Wikimedia
There’s a message scrawled on the wall of my apartment building. The shorthand is crude, almost illegible, but the size of the graffiti more than compensates. I pass by it everyday, usually dismissing it as a minor nuisance.
 
Occasionally, I choose to interpret the message as an explicit warning, to be cautious and wary of my surroundings. In big, accusing letters, the graffiti reads 'Nigger raus!'
 
I’m no stranger to nativism, xenophobia nor even to racism. In fact, I’d say I’m quite difficult to offend. Growing up in cosmopolitan cities on both sides of the Atlantic has left me largely immune to the truculence of elderly bigots and mistrustful strangers.
 
Austria, however, has presented me with new challenges.
 
From my first days in Austria, approximately a year ago, I’ve been made to feel like an unwelcome element. Whether I wear a three­-piece suit or jeans and a t­-shirt, the reactions are almost invariable—suspicious looks, insulting comments, and body language that implies distrust.
 
Of course, the problem exists everywhere—all humans suffer from a propensity for tribalism. For hundreds of thousands of years, we travelled in small bands of foragers and hunters. So the tendency to define oneself by allegiance to the “in­group” and opposition to “out­groups” has become hardwired into our cognitive profile.
 
But Austria stands apart, in my experience, due to the incognisance of its discrimination.
 
Especially in smaller towns, but even in Vienna, I’ve been shocked to witness explicit bigotry committed by people who would vociferously deny being racist. And often times, their cognitive dissonance goes unchallenged.
 
Chris Stephan, an Austrian stand­-up comedian, quickly comes to mind. His idea of a friendly hoax was to dress up in black-face and follow Kim Kardashian, recently wed to Kanye West, around the Vienna Opera Ball.
 
Despite the historic connection between black-face and offensive minstrel shows, Stephan claimed he isn’t racist.  His excuse— “I’m part- Arab”—only underscores his ignorance of what racism is.
 
Andreas Moelzer, an Austrian former MEP, provides another example. After decrying the European Union as a “conglomerate of negroes,” and after receiving some political backlash, Moelzer admitted that his comments may have been “nonconformist” or “politically incorrect,” but they certainly weren’t racist.
 
In my experience, a great deal of Freedom Party (FPÖ) voters are equally capable of the same intellectual jiujitsu.
 
Do Austrians fully understand what constitutes a racist remark or action? I’m often left in doubt.
 
ZARA (Zivilcourage und Anti-­Rassismus-­Arbeit), an NGO which monitors racism in Austria, identified 731 racist incidents in 2013, 53 of which were graffiti. The majority of these incidents occurred in the public sphere—a comment by a politician, an unjust arrest, or an indiscriminate attack.
 
Oft-times, the people responsible for the racist acts avoid any consequences because the act isn’t considered sufficiently offensive.
 
Less than a month ago, I found myself seated on the U6, headed for Floridsdorf to visit a video game store owned by a friend. I was traveling directly from work, carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit. Seated directly across from me was an older woman, somewhere in her 60s.
 
For the duration of five U-Bahn stations, she stared at me without pausing to gaze elsewhere. She fixed her eyes on my clothing, scrutinised my posture, and analysed my face.
 
Having suffered enough of her unwanted attention, I stared back and asked, “Kann ich Ihnen helfen?” ("Can I help you?")
 
Her response was as quick as it was shocking: “Ich habe noch nie einen Affen in einem Anzug gesehen.”  ("I've never before seen a monkey in a suit.")
 
Restraining myself, I simply smiled and leaned back into my seat. I was certainly taken aback by the flagrant insult, but what really shocked me was the sheepish reaction of the other passengers. Enough people had heard the remark, and yet no one uttered a word of protest.
 
Some people were still staring at me—expecting a violent backlash, perhaps. Otherwise, the cabin was as silent as a crypt.
 
In the West, we often castigate other cultures for failing to address the extremism in their midst. A notable example is the constant appeal to moderate muslims to condemn acts of terrorism. But by that same token, we should feel encouraged to address our own demons. In particular, the rise of the extreme right and nationalists in Europe.
 
Thankfully, I often see signs of a political counterpoise, but is enough being done?
 
Something that happened last week gave me a modicum of hope. The sign that I pass by everyday, the one which reads “Nigger raus,” was recently defaced by an anonymous Samaritan. The word “Nigger” was replaced with “Nazi.”

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RACISM

How widespread is racism in Austria?

The number of racist incidents in Austria decreased last year compared to the previous year, a new study has found. But experts say many cases go unreported.

How widespread is racism in Austria?

At first glance, the statistics look encouraging. Just over 1,300 incidents with a racist motive were reported to the Austrian non-government organisation ZARA last year – a drop from just under 1,500 reported the previous year and half as many as 2020 when a record 3,000 racist incidents were reported. 

The spike in incidents from 2020 is thought to be connected to people spending more time online in the first pandemic year and due to the issue being in the public eye as part of the Black Lives Matter movement sparked after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the US. 

However, Rita Isiba, who heads up ZARA, warned that many cases go undetected because some victims fear the wider implications of reporting offences. 

During the presentation on Wednesday of the new report into racism and discrimination, Isiba said racism is part of everyday life in Austria for people of colour and is not an individual problem, but a social one. 

The report shows “how deeply rooted racism still is in many areas of life in Austria”, Isiba said.

Particularly in the education system, the healthcare system, when in contact with the police and the workplace, there is clear racism and discrimination, the report found. 

ZARA provided 1,708 counselling appointments to victims when racism was reported, and took legal measures or other interventions 702 times.

READ ALSO: Muslims and black people discriminated against in Austria, report reveals

Where is racism happening in Austria?

Of the 1,302 reports documented by ZARA in 2023, 58 percent concerned racist incidents online. But researchers pointed out that there can be a blurry line between online incidents and in-person incidents. 

Head of the counselling centres, Fiorentina Azizi-Hacker mentioned one example of a black woman contacting ZARA because she had been subjected to racist and sexist insults as well as threats by her online dating contact.

After she said she was not interested in meeting up again after the first date, he bombarded her with messages in which he threatened to sexually assault her daughter, among other things.

The office attributed 15.9 percent of cases to the “public sphere”, 11 percent to incidents involving “goods and services”, 8.4 percent to state authorities and institutions, 4.5 percent to the police, 1.6 percent to politics and the media and 0.4 percent to the world of work. Formal complaints were only lodged in four out of 58 cases of alleged racist police violence.

It comes after a report released by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found Austria and Germany were among the worst EU countries for racism.

A total of 76 percent of respondents in Germany and 72 percent in Austria reported experiencing discrimination in the past five years due to their skin colour, origin, or religion.

READ ALSO: Austria ranks among ‘worst’ EU countries for racism

Language ‘bans’ at school

The anti-discrimination organisation ZARA slammed the system around Austria’s so-called German support classes or Deutschförderklassen.

Teacher Ali Dönmez said the issue is that pupils are segregated based on their language skills and the MIKA-D test required for categorisation places too much importance on grammar.

Dönmez pointed out that the way Austrian schools deal with multilingualism is generally a problem. He described several cases where children and young people were forbidden to speak Turkish or Arabic or were even penalised for doing so.

But younger people are often afraid to report the problems in case teachers are informed. 

“There is a legitimate concern that the situation will get worse if they report it,” said Dönmez.

Austrian government shelves racism action plan 

ZARA’s Rita Isiba issued fresh calls for the Austrian government to kick start its National Action Plan against Racism (NAP).

However, it has emerged that the coalition government – made up of the Greens and Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has shelved it.

When Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) was asked about the NAP, he said the government “won’t get round to it” before the election later this year, reported the Kurier. 

According to Austrian broadcaster ORF, Rauch said the responsibility for the plan lay with Integration and Women’s Affairs Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP).

“We would like to see much more speed in the creation and coordination of this plan,” said Rauch, criticising his coalition partners. The Green ministries had “done their homework and have already taken important measures in their areas of responsibility”, said Rauch. 

Isiba said their agency would “continue to work to bring Austria closer to a society that is critical of racism”, when asked about the cancelled plan. “If we don’t have the support of politicians, we at least have the support of private individuals and companies.”

READ ALSO: Austrian study shows discrimination against foreigners in the housing market

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