There are things that don't go that smoothly in this country.

These include digitization (fiber optics), local and long-distance transport (Deutsche Bahn) and anti-discrimination policy.

The latter needs to be explained in a little more detail.

A lot has happened in recent years.

An anti-discrimination law (official German: General Equal Treatment Act) was introduced.

Anti-discrimination offices have been set up in universities, companies and institutions.

So places to turn to if you are fired because you are pregnant, your professor thinks that as a woman with an immigrant background you should do cleaning rather than a doctorate, or if you are called a “gay” at your workplace .

(If you don't need such a position, be lucky.)

Now the position of federal anti-discrimination officer is finally to be filled.

That is the good news.

The bad is: the state of anti-discrimination policy.

Ferda Ataman was recently proposed for the office of anti-discrimination officer.

Ferda Ataman, known as a journalist and chairwoman of the association "Neue Deutschen Medienmacher*innen", which is committed to more diversity in the media (I was also supported by their mentoring program, by the way).

Ataman is also known for her polarizing statements ("I have an idea which population groups will be treated first in the hospitals when the ventilators are scarce").

Not even elected to office, Ataman's first act was to delete about 10,000 tweets on Twitter.

In addition to the expected baiting from the right against Ataman, there was also some justified criticism.

In an open letter from the “Migrant Women for Secularity and Self-Determination” initiative, it is said that Ferda Ataman has made discriminatory statements in recent years, particularly against migrants who do not share their political opinions.

In addition, they ignore the racism of migrants towards other ethnic-religious minorities.

Yes, people who experience racism can also be racist.

And yes, anti-Alevi racism, anti-Kurdish or anti-Black racism is also a reality in this country.

There is not only "white" and "not white"

In recent years, anti-racism has sometimes degenerated into an identity-political spectacle that only knows dichotomies, “white” and “not white”, “privileged” and “non-privileged”, “dominant culture” and “marginalized”.

This does not only apply to Ataman by far.

The Anti-Discrimination Act makes a universal claim, as it seeks to enforce protection against discrimination based on racism, gender, religion, origin, disability, age or sexual orientation.

Basically, it is only trying to achieve what is already written in Article 3 of the Basic Law, but looks different in reality: Mrs. Rezai cannot go to the cinema with her wheelchair because there is still no elevator, Mr. Trabelsi thinks so no apartment because of his Arabic name, and Ms. Müller keeps her partner a secret for fear that she will no longer be able to work as a Catholic religion teacher.

Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism everywhere

Another thing that's grabbing the headlines these days, along with the potential anti-discrimination commissioner, is the documenta, with its huge mural by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi, depicting a pig with a Star of David and "Mossad" inscription and a man with a yarmulke, cigar and SS symbols can be seen on the hat.

At first glance, these two issues have little to do with each other, except that anti-Semitism, while having a few essential differences from racism, also falls within the remit of an anti-discrimination commissioner.

But if you take a closer look, points of contact can be identified in both debates, the question of double standards: How do we evaluate racism and anti-Semitism, depending on who it comes from?

The statement by the group Taring Padi states that the imagery is culture-specific and related to their own experiences, as the figures are often used in Indonesia "to criticize an exploitative capitalist system (...)" and the work is only "made in this perceived as offensive in a specific context in Germany".

They fail to recognize that anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism, whether in Germany, Mexico or Indonesia, a country where hardly any Jews live.

And that there is a long tradition of "critique of capitalism" that comes in anti-Semitic images and whose motifs range from medieval Wittenberg via Yogyakarta to contemporary Kassel (keyword "Judensau").

Both the debate about the Documenta and the anti-discrimination commissioner point to blind spots in current anti-racist and post-colonial discourse.

And it is precisely in them that the conflict between culturalist and universalist positions is revealed.