Schwarze Haut, weiße Angst and the Parallel Societies
While I waited for the bus, stomping my feet and fighting the cold weather, I noticed some frizzy scribblings ornamenting one of the columns supporting the bridge and the railways somewhere in Kagran. Either It was newly added by some bored teenager/passerby or I just didn’t simply notice it. The graffiti is the opposite of what I usually encounter every time I go to work. I mean, I know that Vienna was used to be the center of arts and all things like that centuries ago but vandalism is certainly the order of the day nowadays. You really cannot miss them. The vandals are rampaging. They like to put their marks everywhere and the city of Vienna is having problems dealing with them.
I don’t really mind them unless a) they start to “uglify” the new buses or train seats and b) they reek of racism/hatred of any kind.
With the point A not only they make the interiors of the vehicles depressing and disgusting (frankly my dear, it is not PUNK ROCK!, okay perhaps I am just getting older), but also a lot of money has been put to waste. With the point B it is a sign of a discontented youth trying to magify his/her hate through the power of words and by unleashing them will send everyone to panic. I mean, gee, Neonazis in the house! All right!
They are all over the place. They are splattered on the walls of the buses, on the trains, under the seats, even the street walls. And the “authors”? They move in shadows. They live, they eat, they work like the normal people. You cannot identify them unless they wear their “uniforms,” which is unthinkable today. Or they show up on your TV blabbering what is wrong with the foreigners without jobs and the best solution is to kick them out.
The first time I read them with my own eyes I was a bit amazed, my mouth agape. But this is the 21st century, right? And the people must have learned their lessons.
Unfortunately Vienna (or the whole Austria, or the whole Europe) hasn’t come to terms with it. Perhaps, parts of it. And this is the trying times. You mix glabalisation with unemployment equals everyone is fucked. Somehow Fortress Europe is afraid to acknowledge that it exists.
Racism exists everywhere, that is a fact. Still, there are a number of people living in this city who are struggling with their identity, shaking off the “Schuldgefühl”, forgetting the past, and worse, they could be the politicians who capitalise in this concept.
The words “Nazis, Bimbo, toten, Neger, Ausländer raus” are something you really cannot deny.
At the end of the day, I thank that Vienna is not Moscow, nor some parts in Russia, where cases of racism are frighteningly increasing, where haters smear synagogues and rabbis are beaten up during daylight and Asian students’ hostels are burned down while the Russian media keep their mouths shut, their eyes close, saying that it is not really happening.
And I hope that it won’t turn out like Paris.
Oh yeah, please tell me the truth. Do the Viennese really read Elfriede Jelinek???
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Being someone that lives away from Kagran 10 minutes by foot, I have to say, I think Donaustadt is comparably bad in terms of racism/vandalism/et al.
I’ve been beaten up 5 minutes away from my house (for no reason) and was robbed in the nightbus while it was full with people. This certainly happens everywhere else too, I haven’t sensed it at this rate elsewhere.
I blame education. We have the urban-rednecks, IMO.
is the vandalism getting worse? are the graffiti becoming more racist? are nazis employed in the same positions as reasonable people? facts, please!
i don’t read jelinek, but when another book of hers is adapted for a film, count me in.
right michael. i’ve never noticed so much graffiti being executed but in these parts of Vienna–Floridsdorf and Donaustadt.
am sorry to hear that some band of idiots beat you up. cliche as this might sound, but, shit really happens. i hope their karma will catch them.
well, nex, assuming you are a viennese and not an immigrant and assuming you don’t live in a district where the number of unemployed Viennese is higher than the rest or the “environment” you are in is different from mine…. then you probably miss the action.
“are the nazis employed in the same positions as reasonable people?” oh yes, they are. starting from the austrian politicians (okay, Austria is a democratic country and bad apples are known to exist along with the good ones) down to the H&M employees, then you will get the picture.
one person i know got an advice from the higher-ups to treat his men (from Turkey and eastern Europe) “differently.” What does that mean “differently”? of course, he didn’t. he treated them fair and not at all dfferent from his Austrian subordinates and comrades. life should be fair.
what’s wrong with jelinek? i admit her style is somewhat difficult to read. but she has opinion and is not at all pretentious.
yes, many politicians are right-wing and some are nazis, but those people who write defamatory graffiti … i just find it hard to imagine _they_ have proper jobs. maybe they do; i’d like to know. thus my half-serious request for facts (i know they’re hard to come by).
if there’s something wrong with jelinek, i wouldn’t know what it is, i haven’t read any of her books. i just don’t read that much nowadays, and when i do, half of the time it’s a cc or similarly licensed book in PDF form, but even when i resort to dead trees … there’s still so much material in my favourite genres i have yet to read; jelinek isn’t even considered. i enjoyed ‘the pianist’ (the film) very much though.
hi there nex. the incidents, like i mentioned above, are, thank the gods, far and in between. and hopefully they will not become daily occurrences.
of course, some practice racism with intent: that is they suffer from acute xenophobia. and they do it intentionally.
others are just plain ignorant without really knowing that they are committing it: being a racist.
one thing i like about living here is that there’s the open discussion of the past which accounts of so many information i didn’t know before. things that opened my eyes and not just some stupid perception especially if you are just reading the filtered news from the outside rather than experiencing it and hearing it.
further, one can see both sides. it was and still is an eye-opener for me.
This very graffito refers to a song by German punk band “Terrorgruppe”
Nazis im Haus
Opa Friedrich, Erdgeschoß, zeigt stolz seine Orden:
“Der Ami fiel uns in den Rücken - sonst hätten wir den Krieg nicht verloren”
Herr Lehmann aus dem ersten Stock spaziert mit seinem Schäferhund
Der pißt in die Sandkiste: “Da spielen doch nur Türken - na und ?!”
Nazis im Haus - Ich halt es nicht mehr aus
Nazis im Haus - Zieht doch alle aus
Nazis im Haus - Ich schmeiß euch alle raus
Nazis im Haus - Ich halt es nicht mehr aus
Für Oma Müller, dritter Stock, ist der Flur zu vollgeschmiert
Graffities, bunte Schmierereien - “unterm Führer wär das sich nicht passiert!”
Hauswart Schmidt reinigt bald das komplette Haus
Entfernt alle Graffities, bis auf eine: “Ausländer raus!”
Nazis im Haus - Ich halt es nicht mehr aus
Nazis im Haus - Zieht doch endlich aus
Nazis im Haus - Ich schmeiß euch alle raus
Nazis im Haus - Ich halt es nicht mehr aus
thanks for that aufklärung. but am not specifically referring to that graffito.