Hertha's supervisory board member Jens Lehmann describes Dennis Aogo as a "quota black man" and the club fires him. Lehmann stigmatizes the former German national player as a puppet - and uses methods of the right-wing extremists. It's not his first insult.
Jens Lehmann was a successful professional soccer player. In the national team, he caused a lot of cheering at the summer fairy tale. But the goalkeeper was always good for dropouts. Whether kicking down players, pulling opponents' hair, or complaining about the upbringing of ball boys, Lehmann was just as good at engaging in extremely ugly behavior as he was at holding footballs.
Since his active time was over, Jens Lehmann no longer intercepted crosses, no longer destroyed opponents' chances to score. But he keeps his repulsive behavior. After a racist statement in the direction of former German national player Dennis Aogos, Hertha BSC throws him (via investor Lars Windhorst) out of the supervisory board. The only right reaction. Lehmann was no longer tenable for Hertha BSC. Long time. Lehmann's thinking and values are not compatible with a club and a society that stand for cosmopolitanism and diversity.
As early as 2014, the ex-goalkeeper advised homosexual footballers against coming out. "It's funny," said Lehmann, if he had reacted to a gay teammate, because: "You shower together every day." But his ex-teammate Thomas Hitzlsperger, who made his homosexuality public after his active career, is one who "firstly is very intelligent, and secondly, his playing style would not have given rise to the fact that you could have thought there is anything." The criticism of the subtly homophobic statements was justifiably extremely caustic.
In May 2020, Lehmann became a member of the supervisory board at Hertha BSC, when the club tried to regain some international flair after Jürgen Klinsmann left. However, Lehmann was already the focus of criticism as a person who played down Corona because he did not understand why football fans were not allowed in the stadium. Hertha didn't care much at the time, Lehmann became the in-house odds idiot. Because the former keeper continues: Because some infected players have not shown any symptoms, the virus is “not so serious for young, healthy people with a strong immune system”. Shortly before Christmas, Hertha's supervisory board member follows suit and draws an inappropriate and trivializing comparison between flu and corona deaths, which is a slap in the face for thousands of victims, relatives and helpers. The capital club does not react again.
So now follows Lehmann's racist statement. And then massive criticism and expulsion from Hertha BSC. The former German national player Dennis Aogo is now an expert at the TV channel Sky and has been playing in the Ü32 squad of the capital club in the association league since last summer. In a private Whatsapp message, Lehmann describes him as a "black man" (sic!). He uses the so-called tokenism (the English word "token" stands for sign or symbol, but also for game piece).
Hertha's ex-board member reduces Aogo to his skin color and says Sky only uses the ex-kicker as a symbolic effort as an expert because the TV broadcaster wants to show itself as cosmopolitan with a person of color. Tokenism is about the minimal acceptance of minorities in the white, male majority society. Lehmann uses the methods of right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists, who use them to put down minorities, and stigmatizes Aogo as a puppet without personal responsibility. With this statement, Lehmann does not see Aogo as a person, but as a tool. As a toy.
The former goalkeeper then responded via Twitter, which is similarly offensive in meaning and which only he himself sees as an apology. "An impression was made" (he does not name what kind; discrimination is not an impression anyway), for which he "apologized in conversation with Dennis". Aogo is "very knowledgeable" and brings "on Sky Quote". That's it. No clarification, no apologizing for the use of the racist term and racist thought. Rather, it follows from his two sentences that Aogo could still have been insulted as a "quota black guy" without his expert knowledge. Regret looks different, although it wouldn't have made the situation any better anyway. Lehmann acts more like someone who has been caught but doesn't see his mistake and justifies it.
The former goalkeeper's catalog of values seems to be completely gone. With his statements he insults homosexuals, victims of the corona pandemic and their helpers - and now also people of color. That's the only reason why the derogatory term "idiot" is allowed here. Jens Lehmann should enlighten himself as soon as possible about the ideas he is using and what he is doing with them - before he hurts more people.
