The Mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, has triggered violent opposition with the use of the N-word. He compared it to the Star of David.
The mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, caused a scandal before a conference in Frankfurt am Main on Friday evening. Palmer was scheduled to be one of the guests at the “Controlling Migration, Shaping Plurality” event. Statements made by the Greens politician before his speech provoked violent reactions from students.
Video footage shows Palme using the N-word several times before the event. He then tries to justify himself, but his words are drowned out by the loud shouts of those around him. Among other things, they shouted “Nazis out” and clapped their hands. Palmer echoed this, saying, “I don’t want any Nazis in this country”.
Palmer: “It’s nothing but the Star of David”
But Palmer didn’t stop there: “You judge people by a single word. That’s no different than the Star of David,” says Palmer in the recordings. At the event itself, as shown by videos shared on social networks, Palmer used the N-word several times.
Palmer argued that context mattered. If you use it against a person standing in front of you because they have black skin, it is “a justiciable insult”. There is no need to discuss that. However, if one discusses whether Astrid Lindgren’s novel will be called South Sea King or – Palmer uses the N-word here – then “that is a perfectly legitimate use of the word.”
Students organize counter-event
This is a position he insists on. “Because the simple speech act does not provide any information as to whether the person is a Nazi or not.” In addition to the protests in front of the building, there were apparently also contradictions in the room. According to a report by the “FAZ”, several participants in the conference are said to have held against it. The moderator of the event is said to have left the room with the words: “Mr. Palmer, I don’t want anything to do with you anymore”.
The conference was organized by the “Global Islam” research center. In addition to Palmer, the psychologist Ahmad Mansour and the deputy federal chairman of the German police union, Manuel Ostermann, were also invited. The cooperation partner was the non-profit Hertie Foundation.
Asta spokeswoman Nabila Saya told the “Frankfurter Rundschau” that the conference was “politically motivated”. In the morning there had been a demonstration by the left university group SDS. As an alternative, the Asta organized its own conference in the adjoining building under the title “Decriminalize migration, live plurality”.
Among other things, Palmer caused a stir because of his statements on migration. Last year he sparked discussions when he criticized on Facebook that “half of the refugees who were able to work” did not work. He recently warned that the high number of asylum applications could overburden the German social security system.
