Arsenal legend Jens Lehmann has been sacked from his role on the Hertha Berlin board, after describing Dennis Aogo as a ‘token black guy’.
The former goalkeeper has made a huge blunder in not only sending this message to the wrong person, but using this disgraceful term into a group chat which Aogo himself has access to it seems.
Lehmann has since posted on his Twitter that he has apologised to the former German international, talking of his admiration for his work.
In einer privaten Nachricht von meinem Handy an Dennis Aogo ist ein Eindruck entstanden für den ich mich im Gespräch mit Dennis entschuldigt habe. Als ehemaliger Nationalspieler ist er sehr fachkundig und hat eine tolle Präsenz und bringt bei Sky Quote.
— Jens Lehmann (@jenslehmann) May 5, 2021
It certainly sounds as if we haven’t heard the last of this, as the conversation that this comment was supposed to be in could well shine a bad light on further parties.
While Hertha Berlin have already moved to strike him from their hierarchy, Sky are yet to remove him from their list of pundits which you would expect would be a possibility depending on a possible investigation.
I don’t imagine this full convo will ever be released to the public, but Sky should be building an investigation into this I imagine.
Regardless of the findings, Lehmann’s stock will no doubt take a huge hit, and he may well be forced to explain his comments further.
Hertha are certainly taking no considerations and released a statement of their own.
“Jens Lehmann’s contract will be terminated with immediate effect. This also means that his mandate on the supervisory board will no longer apply,” a spokesperson for the investor group told Die Welt(via ESPN).
“We personally regret this, but it is not compatible with the principles of Tennor and [investor] Lars Windhorst. Especially against the background that we have many people of colour as employees.”
Patrick
He deserves all the flak that is heading his way.
The world is just turning from bad to worse,sacked for just calling a black guy black&there are more pressing issues in our world today that requires urgent attention
Yes there are.. Racisim or the appearance of it is one such issue
I don’t mind being called black coz I am. As long as we don’t use demeaning words or insults. This applies to any race. Your skin is there, visible, black, brown, white etc. Unless you hate it, then you might be offended. I don’t think there is an issue in this. Unless there’s something else we are not told.
Would you be happy being called the “token black”?
My other comment got removed by admin saying that im the token black guy in my group and it’s def not racist
Thanks admin….promoting certain agendas by removing comments
I assure you I have not removed any such comment….
So,calling a black guy black is racism….calling a spade a spade has become racist….OMG.I got called ” white guy” thousands of times without even thinking this is racist,coz is not.We live in the days of black being white,good being bad,normal being un-normal,real being unreal,etc.What you see in front of your eyes is not what you see,is what ” the society” want you to see….1984 is more real than ever.
Antonioro I’m still studying your comment above
Is that really racist ? Or is it just a bit of a disrespectful remark. There is racism and there is badly worded comments. We really do have to tread on eggshells now as far as racism is concerned. I do not condone racism but it does get silly sometimes.
FYI He wasn’t terminated for calling the player “black”, he was terminated for the use of the term “token” in combination with the word “black”…this is a very derogatory statement, which was frequently used, especially in the US, following the introduction of Affirmative Action legislation…it suggests that they simply had this player on the roster to give the appearance that the club wasn’t acting in a prejudicial manner when it came to the recruitment of players…this term is normally used when there was only one individual of colour in a particular workplace environment…oftentimes this was done to appease governmental agencies who would be policing such matters or to secure some sort of financial remuneration for complying with the aforementioned legislation…as such, this was incredibly racist!!!
Hertha Berlin have many Black and non white players, they have a mix of different nations. It was a detrimental statefor sure, even arrogant but to say it was racist, im not so sure.
“statement for sure”
I understand totally the importance of your post. I’m not sure of the tone or context of the remarks. It may have been said sympathetically but if not, then JL deserves what he got.
I largely agree with you that it is a racist statement, and incredibly ill-advised for someone in that position, however I’d just be cautious about applying US racial concepts to something that happened in Europe. I’m not aware of any affirmative action legislation in Germany but of course their history is very different. It seems like a term that came out of the US, perhaps popularised by things like south park?