When Franz-Elias Schneck put on the traditional Pakistani costumes, he really only wanted to advertise his course.
Schneck is studying empirical cultural studies and Indology in Tübingen, and he shot a short quiz video for his university's Instagram channel.
"Hello, I'm Franz," says Schneck into the camera, "I'm going to describe my course to you today without giving its name."
Schneck got a shit storm. Other students accused him of making fun of Pakistani people, of glossing over their experiences of discrimination, of practicing cultural appropriation. Schneck, wrote the commentators, could not, as a man with a German-sounding name, put on traditional Pakistani robes just to do a funny quiz.
Even today, two months later, Schneck is still shocked.
This is also due to the fact that the 21-year-old's origins are anything but privileged.
Schneck belongs to one of the most heavily discriminated minorities in Europe: the Sinti and Roma.
Its early ancestors are believed to have come from the Indus Delta in southern Pakistan and western India.
"How many Sinti were called Franz and were still murdered?" Commented Schneck on the shit storm with a view to the Third Reich.
He tried to explain his story to the angry Instagram users, but it didn't help - the university deleted his video.
Large gaps in knowledge and interaction with Sinti and Roma, including on campus
Schneck is not only studying empirical cultural studies and Indology, he is also the youngest founding member of the first Sinti and Roma student association in Germany. The association was only a few months young when the University of Tübingen deleted Schneck's video. When he protested and it didn't help, Schneck Dotschy asked Reinhardt for help. She sits on the board of the newly founded association. The video was only uploaded again at their request. “It wasn't about the teaching staff at all,” explains Reinhardt, “but about the students among themselves.” The shitstorm had shown that there was still “no sensitivity to antiziganism and the rich history and culture that extends into the Sindh “, So Reinhardt.
Reinhardt co-founded the association because it was important to her that Sinti and Roma are finally noticed on campus. She herself is best known as a jazz musician and works as a speaker at the Documentation and Education Center of German Sinti and Roma. There are large gaps in the knowledge and interaction with her ethnic group that have to be filled “with realistic information”, she says. "And that also includes reflecting on the very early roots of the Sinti and Roma."
“If this student association had existed in my time, I would have got help and written my diploma thesis on Sinti and Roma. Unfortunately, I didn't dare, ”says Radoslav Ganev. Ganev heads the Munich association "Lichterkette", which campaigns against racism. The 36-year-old political scientist is also a member of the board of the new student association. As a student, he says, he always lacked a place where he could find role models and advice that would help Sinti and Roma to complete school and successfully study despite all the adversities that a discriminated minority faces . Like him when he was working on his diploma thesis, many Sinti and Roma still do not dare to show their identity. The fear of disadvantages at university and later at work is too great."The higher the level of education, the higher the hurdle to say," explains Ganev. Even as a child, his parents warned him: Don't show that you are a Rome. An experience that Franz-Elias Schneck and others confirm.