Greens lawmaker Katrin Göring-Eckardt apologized for the post made after Germany’s 2-0 win against Hungary. It comes after a survey showed 21% of Germans would like to see more white players on the national team.
German lawmaker Katrin Göring-Eckardt on Thursday deleted a social media post commenting on the skin color of German football players after it was met with backlash.
She apologized for the post made after Germany’s 2-0 victory over Hungary in their second Euro 2024 stage match on Wednesday.
Göring-Eckhardt is a member of the Greens and vice president of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.
“This team is truly exceptional. Just imagine if there were only white German players,” the German lawmaker reportedly said in the now-deleted post on platform X, formerly Twitter.
The article won’t load for me, but I’m sensing ambiguity, judging by the few comments.
I’m guessing she’s suggesting that the team would actually suck if it were all-white.
Were bigots outraged here?
I’m guessing she’s suggesting that the team would actually suck if it were all-white.
Yep, though it was worded a bit ambigious. But that wasn’t really what the backlash was about …
Were bigots outraged here?
Guess again.
I’m dizzy.
“This team is truly exceptional. Just imagine if there were only white German players,” the German lawmaker reportedly said in the now-deleted post on platform X, formerly Twitter.
After removing the post, Göring-Eckhardt apologized, saying: “I was upset that 21% of Germans would prefer to see more ‘whites’ in the national team.”
“I am proud of this team, and I hope that we can convince the remaining 21%,” she added. “I’m sorry about the way I worded it.”
She said something that could be taken the opposite of what she meant, so she deleted it and apologized…
I have zero idea why people in this thread are upset about that.
Too many people these days think if you apologize it means the other person “wins” I guess. They’re not interested in talking about stuff, just having slap fights. So someone acting like an adult just breaks their brains. They can’t imagine someone handling it like a reasonable person.
Heard.
Yeah, the situation makes sense.
It’s just the comments don’t seem to have anything to do with the situation.
I’m guessing that’s what she meant, but I think no matter which way she meant it (either that the team would be worse all-white or better all-white), it’s not a good comment to make either way as I don’t see how skin color relates to skill.
The players on the team are there because they’re the best available.
If you changed that based on race, then it’s racist.
She meant that if the team picked the best white people, the team wouldn’t be as good.
Just like if the team picked no white people, it wouldn’t be the best.
I legitimately don’t get why people think it’s racist that she pointed out the team won while being mixed race, and might not have won if they tried to have a racially homogeneous team over just the best available players.
Like, can you explain your logic for saying her pointing out making race more important than skill would lead to a worse team is somehow racist?
I genuinely want to understand how you got to that conclusion, and no one else wants to explain how they did either.
Where did I say that it’s racist? I said it’s not a good comment to make, purely from a logical standpoint.
Why do I think it’s not a good comment to make? Because I don’t think there should be any relation made to skin color at all in this case. Some of the best soccer players in the world/country just happen to have a certain skin color.
She makes it seem like an all-white team would definitely be worse (or better) compared to the current lineup, even if there were 11 white players objectively better at soccer than all other players that could’ve made up the team.
She could’ve said “the team is as good as it is because we didn’t discriminate between skin colors when picking the best players”. That would’ve brought her intended message across.
Oh ok.
So you think she said this in a vacuum, because you didn’t hear what the racists had been saying?
That would make sense. With zero context, it’s hard to understand.
She could’ve said
Yes, she’s aware it didn’t come across well…
That’s why she deleted it and clarified…
Like, you know she’s a native German speaking, and sometimes when someone is speaking a second language things come across not as clear?
Apparently she tweeted it, didn’t she? So even if she tweeted it as a response to an ongoing discussion on X, this tweet would’ve been read by many as-is, and the tweet itself wouldn’t have provided a lot of context.
With that being said, I still don’t think her original statement logically made a lot of sense.
That’s all I’m saying bud :) just my opinion.
She’s praising the team for recruiting based on skill, not color. A 1/5 of Germans believe the team isn’t white enough.
Why the fuck apologise for that? Did some bigoted fucksticks get upset? Good.
Because what she said could be taken as her supporting the racists…
And well adjusted adults apologize after saying something the wrong way…
Seriously, I don’t understand why you’re so upset. Did you read the article and not understand what was happening?
Did you never learn to apologize for miscommunication?
Do you always just double down and if anyone ever apologizes you think they “lost”?
I am downright intrigued for why you think apologizing is a bad move here…
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So is Quokka your other account, and you’ve just been talking to yourself?
Did you think I replied to you?
Did you think I was talking about you?
Are you just replying to every comment in this thread?
I really don’t understand what you or that other account are doing, if you’re the same person it starts making a little more sense. But I really don’t think any of this is going to be productive.
Just trying to understand what’s going on here and why people are upset someone apologized for phrasing something poorly.
Did you think I replied to you?
Huh, for some reason I was. No idea how that happened. My apologies.
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I don’t know… whenever I heard this sentence it was followed by an example of someone being racist.
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Well, first of all the statement could be interpreted either way (either meaning a fully-white team would be better or worse).
But no, it was not backlash from some bigots. It was the “anti-bigots” that think you’re a bigot for mearly mentioning skincolour.
I can’t find a quote from the OP linked DW article, so I found this.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/deutschland/goering-eckardt-hautfarbe-tweet-dfb-fussball-100.htmlEDIT: It is in the original article posted, it’s just the OP comment that is misleading. Read the article, and forget the OP comment.
Diese Mannschaft ist wirklich großartig. Stellt euch kurz vor, da wären nur weiße deutsche Spieler.
My amateur translation as neither English or German first language:
This team is really great, imagine (for a moment) if it was only white German players.Seems like she is trying to defend the fact that it’s not an all white team. But IDK, seems somehow inelegant the way she writes it. But maybe my German isn’t good enough?
I think she should have stopped at just saying the team is great, the second part just seems like a weird response to racist complaints that there are too few whites on the team. Just saying the team is great, is probably the best counter to racism IMO.
Your German is on point. It was very badly phrased.
Thank you. 😀
She is the god damn vice president of the Bundestag how the hell does she not have staff to check her social media post?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
She apologized for the post made after Germany’s 2-0 victory over Hungary in their second Euro 2024 stage match on Wednesday.
Göring-Eckhardt is a member of the Greens and vice president of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.
Göring-Eckardt was referring to a survey by the public broadcaster WDR that showed that one in five Germans would like to see more white players on Germany’s national football team.
WDR said it commissioned the poll after producers encountered racist statements about German football players while filming a documentary on the national team.
Göring-Eckardt’s initial post was criticized by other lawmakers, including the deputy leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), Wolfgang Kubicki.
The FDP and the Greens are both junior partners in the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats (SPD).
The original article contains 301 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
