An 11-year-old girl just set the record for the youngest person ever to graduate from high school in Germany, and the media bend over backwards to avoid mentioning the plain fact that she is from a refugee family from Afghanistan.
For no other reason than not to trigger their racist readership. They are helped by the fact that the family's surname in transcription matches a common German name and her first name is culturally non-specificโ€ฆ

#racism

in reply to Bilal Barakat ๐Ÿ‰

I just found that article. The only one stating her cultural background by the way...interesting, isn't it?๐Ÿค”

Quelle:
kabulscholarship.com/opportuniโ€ฆ

Erscheinungsdatum: 06.07.2025

in reply to earthling

@appassionato @fishhead_125

Of course everyone has a right to an education regardless of whether they are a genius or not and regardless of whether they'll use it at a scale to benefit mankind, but just to point out that the argument has been made that even from a purely utilitarian perspective, it is insane to tolerate a lack of education for all children in the world because who knows how many Einsteins we have lost to illiteracy, or whether the kid who would otherwise find a cure for cancer is labouring in a mine instead etc. You don't have to agree with the utilitarian take to observe that Lina is living proof that this is not a purely hypothetical argument but actual, real world statistical inevitability.

in reply to earthling

@appassionato @fishhead_125

Hard to say without knowing more about the setting. Some Madrasas do teach foundational literacy and numeracy skills similar to early grades in formal schools, and in some countries you can transition from the former to the latter. In which case, yes, of course that's education. In other cases, no, nothing remotely resembling a formal school curriculum is taught, never mind high-order reasoning. But that's not specific to Madrasas.

in reply to The gallant knight

@burningTyger

You're kidding, right?
I deal with that by not going out of my way trying to whitewash the plain reality that German society, media, and politics are steeped through and through with white supremacy.

The very first question any of these people ask if anything bad happens anywhere is โ€œWhere are they from? Was it an asylum seeker? Is his name Mohammed or Ahmad?โ€, but suddenly it's let's give them the benefit of the doubt itโ€™s just innocent respect for privacy to show absolutely zero fucking interest in ethnic background? By every single one of the journalists involved, independently of each other? Man, if only weโ€™d give the victims of racism one tenth of the benefit of doubt given to racistsโ€ฆ

in reply to Bilal Barakat ๐Ÿ‰

As I said, I know what you're getting at. The people constantly asking where the criminals are from don't ask where the overachiever comes from. It sucks for the right reasons.
Let's move away from this particular case. When is it ok to ask someone where they are from? I'm reading lots of articles where they don't want to be asked. Should it be added to articles anyway?
I know, I piss off people with my questions, but I'm truly interested in other people's ideas.
in reply to The gallant knight

@burningTyger

Look, I think this still insists on a fake dilemma.

One of the most natural thing to ask someone like Lina is about their earliest educational experiences, etc. It would automatically and organically come up that she was born in Afghanistan and moved to Germany at age whatever. It is also a totally on-topic question to probe the fact that she achieved what she did in a language that is not her native language. There is nothing intrusive or harassing about those questions in that context. On the contrary, especially in light of what is being reported about it obviously takes active effort and wilful blindness to make her background invisible.

Being interviewed as an over-archiever, or the person who saved a passerby's life, etc. is a totally different situation from being pestered by randoms looking to establish that you are not "really" German. If you're interviewing a random person on a random topic unrelated to migration, say a Professor who just won a grant, of course you shouldn't go in with โ€œSo where are you 'really' from?" a propos of nothing. But if you're asking salient questions that bring it up, or if their migration history is known (e.g., because of where they obtained their first degree) and you have a topical question related to that, of course you can ask. And then respect whether they want to talk about it or not. People don't owe you an answer to the question where they are from to satisfy your curiosity, but you do owe it to them not to make it invisible if they decide it's relevant.

There is no real-life dilemma here or need to look for complications that aren't there.

There's only a simple rule: don't be racist and don't pander to racists.

in reply to The gallant knight

@burningTyger

May I ask: do you have trouble deciding when it is or isn't appropriate to someone whether they have children?

Similar situation: it's personal, and potentially rude and intrusive to ask, even illegal in some settings, and yet perfectly reasonable and topical in others.

If you somehow manage to navigate that, just try and tap into that intuition you already have once it comes to the origin question. All the best.

in reply to Bilal Barakat ๐Ÿ‰

hallo @tagesschau werdet ihr es besser machen und die afghanische Herkunft von Lina Heider erwรคhnen? Besser als der Westdeutsche Rundfunk? WDR
www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinlโ€ฆ
in reply to Bilal Barakat ๐Ÿ‰

Sadly normal, because for many only native germans deserve a mention.
Except we all migrants...

I came to Germany about 55 years ago and can assure you that racism is getting worse. recent inflaming Speeches by Merz among many others amplify the problem. It is not just AFD.

German Media, controlled by Bigots Racists promotes and encourages hatred, the worst being the newspaper for the dumbest-of the dumb, B*ld.

This entry was edited (1 hour ago)
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