Racism Report 2003 - Zara

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Page 20 Cases: Media Racism Report 2003film‘s producers. The Viewers‘ and Listeners‘ Council has not yet answered. ZARA wrote a letter of complaint to thefilm production company.757677787980at the end of May 2003 the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community of Vienna) wasWhenZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitforced to begin the liquidation of infrastructure due to a lack of money all daily newspapers reported on the fact.In the online forums of the newspapers (especially Die Presse and Der Standard) there were sometimes highly anti-Semitic discussions taking place: (Example 1: „Not one cent for this Jewish mafia!“; Example 2: „When you listen toMuzicant like this you get the feeling that a Jew is more affected by the loss of money than by the loss of parentsand grandparents.“; Example 3: „Why in the world should the Republic of Austria, which by the way had nothingwhatsoever to do with the murders of the Nazis - so often mentioned here as in other places in the most unfittingplaces (...)“; Example 4: „Never forget that both ethnic groups are Semites, therefore brothers, both the Arabs as wellas the Jews. And in both religions the destruction of all unbelievers (Goyim) and the grabbing of their wealth is verynear the top of their wish list.“ The postings were documented by Ms. K. and fill 10 A-4 pages. Ms. K. therefore askedZARA to do something. The online editorial office of Der Standard finally stopped this discussion and all postingswith the following explanation: „Due to the large number of anti-Semitic postings derStandard.at/Politik sees itselfforced, by way of an exception, to allow no postings on this article. We ask for your understanding. You have theopportunity to send us your opinion via „Feedback“.ZARA sent a letter of thanks to the editor of Der Standard.B. from the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) published a commentary in the daily newspaperMr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-ArbeitDie Presse. He made a central theme of the door entrance policy of Vienna locales and explained the EU guidelineand the deadline for an anti-discrimination law which was due in 2003. The postings which readers wrote online asa reaction are to a large extent aggressive and partly racist (Example: „The so-called multi-culti doesn‘t work in theanimal kingdom and doesn‘t work with people either - as much as some unworldly people would wish for it and tryto create by talking about it.“). However, primarily they show that there is a great deal of uncertainty and ignoranceabout the fact that a racially motivated door entrance policy is a punishable offence (Example: Doormen make surethat in their view there is a suitable selection - so? When will there finally be a network against silly thinking?“)ZARA documented the case.article about the death of Cheibani Wague was published in the online forum of the daily newspaperAnZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-ArbeitDie Presse (see separate report above). 99 commentaries with partly very racist content were written on this articleby readers and published. (Example 1: „A few days ago a dead body in Nigger Village, yesterday fire alarm in NiggerVillage, every day a new ‚surprise‘ in Nigger Village. What will be next and who is taking responsibility for the NiggerVillage? If Häupl [trans. note: the mayor of Vienna] had a bit of sense he would raze this circus to the ground immediately!“Example 2: „Especially with Africans you should not wait until they first commit a criminal offence AND arecaught but they should be deported immediately as a precaution as is common in Australia and the USA.“)For the next article, „Memorial (in Africa Village) Burned Down“ racist postings were no longer published by DiePresse editorial office.H. sent us a cartoon out of the Kronen Zeitung of 15 January 2003: Herr Strudl: „Drug dealing is firmlyMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitin the hands of black Africans. And if it‘s racist to point it out, then I‘m a racist.“ ZARA only documented this messageand undertook no further action. A ZARA counsellor commented, „Because we could write a letter of complaint tothe Kronen Zeitung every day and that is well beyond our personnel resources.“June 2003 the well-known German Michel Friedmann (Vice-president of the Central Council of JewsInZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitin Germany) was in the media due to a drugs incident. Friedmann‘s alleged drug abuse was also discussed in theAustrian media. On the homepages of the daily newspapers Die Presse and Kurier there were also crass anti-Semiticpostings by readers.ZARA asked both print media to remove the postings and this was done.F. discovered a newspaper article in the Kitzbühler Anzeiger in which it was recommended that AfricanMr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitart objects, which are „jinxed with black magic“ should be thrown away or burnt: (...) African cult objects may bringan exotic touch to the living room but they are often jinxed with black magic. These extremely destructive powers canlead to much unhappiness, quarrelling and disharmony in a family. If you have such statues or cult objects from primitivecultures throw them in the dustbin or burn them. They do nobody any good if you pass them on as a gift!“ZARA wrote letters of complaint to the editor in chief and the author of the article. A clarification was receivedfrom the director of the Kitzbüheler Anzeiger, Mr. Höbarth: „(...) Thank you very much for your letter about discriminatorystatements made about African cultures by Mr. Kunstowny. I would like to inform you that the author, Mr.
Racism Report 2003 Cases: Media Page 21Kunstowny, provided us with these Feng Shui articles. They represent the opinions of the author and not those ofthe publishers. Nevertheless I would like to inform you that I personally do not share these views and unfortunately(we are a small newspaper) I was not in Kitzbühel at the time and could not read this article before it went to print.Rest assured that it was in no way our intention to call into question a people or a culture. I also assure you that thiswas a one-off series and until now nothing similar has occurred with us and shall certainly not occur in future. I amsending Mr. Kunstowny a copy of your letter and the distancing opinion of the publishers. (...) I hope that I have beenable to make clear that the article reflects the opinion of the author and not that of the publishers. (...)“ZARA thanked Mr. Höbarth. However, Mr. Kunstowny did not react to a letter.E. is a native-born Austrian married to an African. She wrote a letter to the Kronen Zeitung aboutMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitthe death of Cheibani Wague which was surprisingly published in the newspaper with her full particulars (addressand telephone number). Ms. E. approached ZARA since she had been bombarded with threatening racist letters andobscene insults for days. Ms. E. had also already approached a lawyer. She is considering reporting some people tothe police. .81K. reported pages with racist and neo-Nazi content on the website www.uboot.com. These are so-Mr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitcalled nickpages on which registered users introduce themselves and which they can design themselves. ZARA sentthe addresses to the office at the Interior Ministry for reporting cases of Nazi agitation. In addition Mr. K. reportedthe addresses to the operators of the website www.uboot.com.. They regretted the incident, removed the relevantnickpages, blocked the users and promised that they would „approach the authorities (...) with the available data.“82R. reported that in the chatrooms of www.freechat.de people repeatedly made racist and neo-NaziMr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitcomments and sometimes used unequivocal screen-names. ZARA did some research and was able to tell Mr. R. thatthe incidents witnesses by him were against the general terms and conditions of the operator of the website andtherefore asked him to report the incidents directly to the responsible administrators there. Two weeks later Mr. R.got in touch again since his reports had not really made any difference. The ZARA counsellor asked him to documentfurther incidents with screenshots or print-outs of the chats and to send them. Mr. R. answered that this was notpossible for him. ZARA pointed out that without concrete evidence it is not possible to take further steps and so thematter was left to rest.83K., while doing research for university work, by chance came across a homepage containing anti- 84Ms.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-ArbeitSemitic and racist articles and pictures: www.ostara.org. Here the Holocaust and the murder of Jews in gas chamberswas denied, „white“ people portrayed as superior etc. ZARA research discovered that the domain is registered inthe USA and it is therefore impossible to undertake any legal steps against it. The DÖW (Documentation Centre ofAustrian Resistance) (see www.doew.at) informs: „The www.ostara.org homepage has already been known to us fora long time. It is one of the most notorious anti-Semitic, racist and neo-Nazi homepages. It has been in existencesince1996/97 and is currently on the server of the US-American neo-Nazi group NSDAP/AO. So far at least one
Page 3 and 4: ContentsIntroductionPreface by the
Page 5 and 6: Racism Report 2003 Introduction Pag
Page 7 and 8: Racism Report 2003 The Death of Che
Page 9 and 10: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Public Sp
Page 21: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Media Pag
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Page 27 and 28: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Racist Gr
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Page 39 and 40: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Work Page
Page 41 and 42: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Housing P
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Page 45 and 46: Racism Report 2003 Cases: Against Z
Page 47 and 48: Racism Report 2003 Full Reports Pag
Page 53 and 54: Racism Report 2003 Focus Issue: Rac
Page 65 and 66: Racism Report 2003 Our Demands Page
Page 71 and 72: Racism Report 2003 Equal Opportunit
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Racism Report 2003 List of contribu
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The ZARA team at the counselling ce
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