Racism vs Sexism Made in Germany

Today I was surprised to read a shared German post by "Deutschland, deine Bildung" in Facebook.

This page with the support of a woman declares that "Eko Fresh owned Frau Kepetry [sic]".

Why do people think Eko Fresh “owned” Frauke Petry? I just see sexual objectification here.

Let’s introduce the main characters.

Mrs. Petry and Jörg Meuthen lead the AfD party. AfD stands for Alternative for Germany. It is a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic party. 

The media portrays the AfD as right wing extremists because of their beliefs about refugees and immigrants in Germany, especially those from a Muslim origin.

Although they are being called the worst thing since Hitler, this year the AfD has gained representation in eight German state parliaments.  

There has been an enormous backlash against the party. Recent party conventions have seen violent protests from a spectrum of left leaning activists. On the other hand a growing minority sees the AfD as the only antidote to Angela Merkel’s open-border policy and subsequent failure in handling the refugee crisis.

Eko Fresh is a rapper that had appeared in movies and launched a new album last month.

Why did she tweet this?

This tweet comes after Mr. Gauland, the vice president of AfD, allegedly commented on the German football player with immigration background Jérôme Boateng. He said that the people loved him as a football player, but they would not want him as their actual neighbor („Die Leute finden ihn als Fußballspieler gut. Aber sie wollen einen Boateng nicht als Nachbarn haben.“)

After this was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, many outraged readers stepped up in the social media sphere with the hashtag #Nachbarn. Although Mr. Gauland denied saying it and Frauke Petry already apologized publicly.

The #Nachbarn movement is valid but not realistic. If you look at it from an immigrant’s perspective it is apparent that this is pure virtue signaling. Renting apartments is something that unites immigrants. Germans want us as neighbors so badly that is extremely hard to get a place with price/quality relation that is affordable. Run down apartments can still be rented for high prices because we will rent them as a last resort.

If it was hard for me, a white European, to get an apartment, I can only imagine the prejudice and difficulties that a person that looks like Boateng would face.

I’m veering off course. I don’t want to talk about racism and the hardships of being an outsider. I want to talk about people who think it’s valid to fight racism with sexism.

@FraukePetry posted an apology for her party member “Jêrome [sic] Boateng is an amazing football player and rightly a member of the national team. I’m looking forward to the EC”.

@EkoFreezy answered with “@FraukePetry you are so sexy when you lie.”

This was loved by 4100 people and retweeted 1200 times. Sadly many of these posts were done by women, signaling their non-racist virtue, while being indifferent a woman’s public humiliation.

I wonder how they would feel if their bosses told them they look sexy when they are incompetent.

But why is this sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment can be described in many ways but is simply a discrimination based on sex.

Whether you agree with her politics or not, Frauke Petry is a very strong woman. She is in front of a growing party and people think it is ok to reduce her value as a person instead of having an intellectual argument.

Eko Fresh did this tweet in complete trust that people would just have a laugh at it.  Petry can’t be taken seriously because she doesn’t only lie but she is just a woman and whose only function in society is to look good for him. It’s ok to take away her politic and social status that her career path gave her reducing her to this sexy woman.

Can you imagine the same statement geared toward a male politician?