Wednesday 05 May 2021
Racism, Covid, Homosexuality
Jens Lehmann, the quota idiot
A comment from David Needy
Hertha’s supervisory board member Jens Lehmann describes Dennis Aogo as a “quota black”, the association dismisses him. Lehmann stigmatizes the former German national player as a puppet – and uses the methods of the right-wing extremists. It’s not his first offense.
Jens Lehmann was a successful professional footballer. In the national team, he caused a lot of cheers at the summer fairy tale. But the goalkeeper was always good for dropouts. Whether he kicked players who were lying on the ground, pulled opponents by the hair, or complained about the upbringing of ball boys: Lehmann was just as good at exhibiting extremely unpleasant behavior as holding soccer balls.
Since his active time was over, Jens Lehmann has not intercepted any crosses and no longer destroys opposing chances to score. But he maintains his repulsive behavior. After a racist statement in the direction of the former German national player Dennis Aogos, Hertha BSC threw him (via investor Lars Windhorst) from the supervisory board. The only correct response. Lehmann was no longer tenable for Hertha BSC. Long time. Lehmann’s thinking and values are incompatible with a club and a society that stand for cosmopolitanism and diversity.
As early as 2014, the ex-goalkeeper advised homosexual footballers not to come out. “Strange,” said Lehmann, he would have reacted to a gay team-mate, because: “You shower together every day.” But his ex-teammate Thomas Hitzlsperger, who made his homosexuality public after his active career, is one “who is firstly very intelligent, and secondly from his style of play, he would not have given the occasion at all that one could have thought there was anything. ” The criticism of the subtle-homophobic statements was justifiably extremely snappy.
In May 2020, Lehmann will then become a member of the Hertha BSC supervisory board when the club is trying to regain a little international flair after Jürgen Klinsmann has left. However, Lehmann came into the focus of criticism as a person who played down the Corona because he did not understand why football fans are not allowed into the stadium. Hertha didn’t care much at the time, Lehmann became an in-house quota idiot. Because the former keeper continues: Because some infected players had shown no symptoms, the virus would be “not so worrying for young, healthy people with a strong immune system”. Shortly before Christmas, Hertha’s supervisory board member followed up and made an inappropriate and belittling comparison between flu and corona deaths, which is a slap in the face of the thousands of victims, relatives and helpers. The capital club does not react again.
Lehmann does it like right-wing extremists
So now follows Lehmann’s racist statement. And then massive criticism and the expulsion from Hertha BSC. The former German national player Dennis Aogo is now an expert at the TV broadcaster Sky and has been playing in the team of the Ü32 of the capital club in the association league since last summer. In a private WhatsApp message, Lehmann describes him as “qotschwarzer” (sic!). He uses so-called tokenism (the English word “token” stands for sign or symbol, but also for game piece).
Hertha’s ex-supervisory board member reduces Aogo to his skin color and says that Sky only uses the ex-kicker as a symbolic effort as an expert, because the TV station wants to show itself to be cosmopolitan with a person of color. Tokenism is about the minimal acceptance of minorities in the white, male majority society. Lehmann uses methods of right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists, who use them to put down minorities, and stigmatizes Aogo as a puppet without personal responsibility. With this statement, Lehmann does not see Aogo as a person, but as a tool. As a toy.
The former goalkeeper then gave a half-baked reaction via Twitter, which only he took as an excuse. There was “an impression” (what kind he does not name), for which he “apologized in conversation with Dennis”. Aogo is “very knowledgeable” and brings “Sky Quote”. That’s it. No clarification, no apology for the use of the racist term and thought. Rather, it follows from his two sentences that Aogo should still have been insulted as “quota blacks” without his expert knowledge. Regret looks different, even though it wouldn’t have made the situation any better. Lehmann is more like someone who has been caught but does not see his mistake.
The former goalkeeper’s catalog of values seems completely over. With his statements, he offends homosexuals, victims of the corona pandemic and their helpers – and now also people of color. That is the only reason why the derogatory term “idiot” is allowed at this point. Jens Lehmann should clarify as quickly as possible which ideas he is using and what he can do with them – before he hurts even more people.
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