Brandenburg declared hotbed of racial violence by hawkish lobbyist

"There are small and mid-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would advise anyone with a different skin color not to go. They might not make it out alive," Uwe Karsten Heye told Deutschlandradio Kultur.

I suppose it chafes at any free citizen to know that there are places he can't go safely. Not only is it limiting and a negative reflection on the country, but it's damning for the neighborhood. If people don't think it's safe to go to a community, said community doesn't have much hope for the future. Until the artists (then gays (then Bürgers (then everyone))) move in, no one's going to really know, or care to know, much about the place.

When the neighborhood is Brandenburg, and when it's suggested you might not make it out alive, there might be a little exaggeration at work. Sure, people are racist there, and there might even be danger. But there's danger for anyone traveling anywhere, and it's a lot easier to play on people fears of the unknown when addressing rural areas. How do I know what's going on in, say, Altgaul? You got me. The World Cup cities, however?

Because, at its best, advice like this is tantamount to telling people not to leave cities, and no violence or racial understanding happens in cities, right? This guy is being ridiculous. Maybe Heye should be given the police tour of Rampart in LA, or Detroit's East Side. You don't get killed because of your race there (though there's a lot more skinhead killings in those cities than in Germany altogether), it's enough not to know anyone. But you won't hear many people parading that in the States, or disagreeing with it either.