"The word race ( rasse in German), for example, often remains untranslated, as the German word is considered taboo because of its common usage to refer to animal breeds and its historical adoption by the Nazis. They noted that this has an interesting effect: racism and its contemporary understanding are widely framed as an American problem, something which, here, has already been eradicated and relegated to the past (Nazism)."
"Similarly, as ICE is committing its violent raids across the US and resistance is becoming more prevalent, many commentators on social media are making comparisons to the Nazi's tactics of mass abduction and deportation. It's comforting, it seems, to position these histories as existing elsewhere, rather than facing their legacies and continuity at home. ICE has its roots in US American slave patrols and indigenous residential schools. This kind of terror is also homegrown."
German usage often borrows English race terminology because the domestic word rasse remains taboo due to animal-breed connotations and Nazi adoption. That linguistic choice encourages framing racism as an American problem and creates emotional distance from local histories of violence. Comparisons on social media to Nazi tactics can reinforce externalization rather than recognition of domestic continuities. ICE-era raids and resistance reveal connections to US slave patrols and indigenous residential schools, demonstrating homegrown systems of terror. A Vienna museum exhibition stages installations that refuse exoneration, using caution-taped scaffolding and explicit phrases to challenge excuses and demand accountability.
Read at Berlin Art Link
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