Worüber wir reden, wenn wir mit jemandem nicht reden wollen. Zum Spannungsverhältnis von Rassismuskritik und Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität

Public discussions concerning the cancellation of a planned lecture by the controversial chairman of the German Police Trade Union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt, at the Goethe-University Frankfurt provides an example to reflect on current discursive-political shifts towards the right in Germany. We develop this reflection along three motives, namely the non-performativity of antidiscrimination proclamations, the (re)normalization of racism, and the liberal insistence on the privileged role and value of freedom of expression vis-a-vis other democratic values. We insist that debates on the relationship between antidiscrimination and freedom of expression must not privilege the latter against the former, and approach the question of who is provided access to a public scene itself as a subject of political dispute. Furthermore, we argue that such debates should be understood against the backdrop of a current swing to right-wing politics and its implications for public discourse and political argument.