Statement
As the father of one of the two girls whose courageous intervention in 2013 sparked both a national and international debate on language, racism, and belonging, Mekonnen Mesghena reflects on acts of child-led civic courage, a responsive and solidaristic public, and the transformative power of political engagement.
What began as a child’s question evolved into a powerful catalyst for a deeper reckoning with the racist continuities embedded in everyday life, culture, and language. Mesghena accompanied, supported, and helped elevate this intervention from the beginning—bringing it to international platforms.This text was written for the Solidarity Migration Summit hosted by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation. It was published as part of a broader collection of contributions that highlight successful political practice, impactful activism, and empowering interventions—stories of resistance, solidarity, and transformative action.
Winter 2013. Germany descends into collective hysteria — not over social inequality, far-right violence, or the everyday realities of racial discrimination. No, the spark was a seven-year-old Black girl daring to question racist terms in a children's book. That alone was enough to set the self-proclaimed Kulturnation into an uproar.
What followed was a well-rehearsed litany of white defensive reflexes:
“It was never meant that way.”
“I grew up with it — and it never did me any harm.”
“I never saw it as racist.”
And perhaps that is precisely the problem.
The media sounded the alarm: “Censorship!”, “Language police!”, “Cancel Culture!” The feuilletons erupt in heated debate — almost exclusively in white voices — whether Black children are even entitled to feel offended by racist language. They spoke about them, not with them. Their perceptions and feelings are judged instead of being heard. What was once said, it seems, must not be questioned — even if it excludes, degrades, or harms others.
But the real scandal for this indignant intellectual class was this: Otfried Preußler himself, author of The Little Witch, sided with the child. Without fanfare, without defensiveness — he agreed to remove the offending terms. Humane, wise, empathetic. A quiet act that spoke louder than all the frothing outrage.
Two Black children — seven and nine years old — held a mirror up to this society. One with her letter to the publisher, the other with her open letter challenging the racist reporting in mainstream media. With clarity, courage, and conviction, they exposed a debate in which a privileged majority cast itself as the victim simply because it could no longer unilaterally decide what counts as discrimination or racism. Two children demonstrated more democratic maturity than many a literary critic or writer.
Solidarity was not far behind. From across progressive sectors of society, from migrant communities, and from international voices, support came swiftly. While Germany’s mainstream media conjured a full-blown culture war, international newspapers and broadcasters called the issue by its name: “Germany’s Racist Hysteria.” And they weren’t talking about the children — but about the old white establishment who treated the evolution of language as an existential threat to their culture.
This episode makes one thing clear: language shapes reality. And those who push back against racist language are not attacking freedom — they are defending it.
What is needed? More listening. More empathy. And greater courage to relinquish old privileges.
Because anyone who sees the feelings and intelligence of a child as a threat to their culture has understood neither culture — nor decency.
Timnit Mesghena reading at "Werkstatt der Kulturen"
Letter written by Ishema Kane in 2013
