It's OK to Root for Germany

[soccergirl63]

Wall Street Journal journalist's Matthew Futterman, "a Jewish-American of a certain age", beautifully written article about his weird feelings rooting for Germany.
Article by Matthew Futterman

Source: Wall Street Journal "It's OK to Root for Germany"A version of this article appeared June 25, 2012, on page B8 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street

Comments

[icanseenow]

Good article, but I was a bit miffed he said "Özil is Turkish", etc. Maybe that's just me, though.

[connorblond]

This. It rubs me wrong somehow. Because, he may be off Turkish descent, but he has a German passport.

[icanseenow]

If he were 100% Turkish, then I'd have been the only German kid in my primary school class and all the other 20+ kids would have been "foreigners". Because obviously being foreign means being born in that country & growing up there. *Headdesk*

I don't mean to say people can't identify themselves as they wish, but that is their own choice, not others. I certainly remember my friends felt torn between cultures that BOTH didn't fully accept them. How much that must suck.

[connorblond]

Yeah, and Özil chose to play for the German team even though Turkey offered him money to play for them - so he must identfy with Germany.

[perhonen]

well, you could also say he might chose the team that was more promising to get him a title. ;)

[connorblond]

You could. But he actually said in an interview that after coming up through all the German U-teams (the under this and that age) he felt that Germany and German football was his home, and the team where he felt he belonged. :)

[omgwtfbbqcandy]

I assume it's because he wasn't actually born in Turkey?
It's just a case of definition - In North America, second- and third-generation counts as still being of that heritage. If you have Irish great-grandparents, you are Irish. If your grandmother was born in Portugal and moved to Canada when she was 4, you're Portuguese. (well, unless you live in the States - then you're Irish-American/Portuguese-American etc.)
So to them, Özil still counts as being Turkish, even though he was born in Germany, and his dad has lived here almost all of his life.

[connorblond]

Hm. Still. It sounds wrong, somehow. And besides, he didn't say that with Boateng or Podolski, who was even born in Poland. He didn't call him Polish.

[jenny_jenkins]

Clumsy, but not vicious, I suspect. All the other players listed have a parent (or two) who are "German", Ozil is the exception, with both parents being of Turkish descent.

A bit clumsy though. It did jump out.

[omgwtfbbqcandy]

Yeah, I read that again after posting the comment - either lack of research or not wanting to repeat himself on his part is what I think it probably boils down to.

[icanseenow]

I know it's normal to say it in the US, but that doesn't mean I can't criticize it. I think it's very problematic. I know Özil identifies strongly with his heritage but it also means "you are not a full German and you will never be one".
In Germany, it's not like in the US where everyone has heritage from other countries. I'm German. My parents were German, my grandparents, and their parents, etc, etc etc. Back until there wasn't even a place called Germany.

People are easy to say you are "not German" not by your passport, but by you "foreign" looks & also partly by your name. And frankly, this is racist. Plain and simple.

[omgwtfbbqcandy]

of course you can criticize it! But I didn't read that kind of intent in your original comment, and just wanted to offer an explanation for the author's perhaps naive use of the term.

I can totally understand these arguments, and agree with most of them - it's VERY problematic here in Europe. But in Canada, people don't think twice about defining other people by their heritage, because no one defines themselves as purely Canadian. There's always an immigration background. (I'd argue with the States, but I never lived there, so I can't speak from experience.)
So the author had no ill-intent, just needs someone to perhaps educate him on the different ways our cultures perceive nationality! :)

[omgwtfbbqcandy]

it's so true! All of my friends in Canada knew their heritage down to the last 8th. I swear I even once heard someone claim to be a 16th Irish or something.
I notice it in myself, too - in Canada, I call myself German; in Germany, I'm Canadian. best of both worlds~ haha

[lady_teazle]

I would never count myself as Scottish or Irish. My ancestry is from those places, yes, but in no way am I Scottish or Irish, as a brief visit to either place would tell me - and the actual natives of those countries - who would quite rightly think me a foreigner. Oor more likely a damn American, depending on their view of America & American politics!

My mother despised what were then called "professional Irishmen" - those who'd emigrated from the Old Sod and kept a lot of the traditions (mainly drinking and support of either the Catholic or Protestant side of "The Troubles", one suspects), and who totally failed to realize just how American they'd become as the years passed.

[naobot]

It bothered me in the context of the article, since all the other players were referred to via their parents' heritage. Referring to people's heritage in North America -- at least in articles -- is almost always by using hyphenation ("X, who is Chinese-Canadian") or precise wording ("X, who is of Croatian heritage").

I know people will say "I'm X" all the time in casual conversation where X is their ethnic background, but articles should be more precise and sensitive IMO.