What She Called Her

There’s a video from 2015 of a woman at a protest in Heidenau, screaming at Merkel as she arrived. Not just angry—screaming a slur at her. The word out there in daylight, in front of cameras and police, like it’s normal. Like everyone gets it.

What got to me was how comfortable she felt. The people around her had her back. They’d built a space where that was acceptable. Where the refugees are invaders, where Merkel’s the enemy, where the media’s lying to everyone. All that hatred is just logic now.

You watch it and think maybe they’ll feel ashamed later, that seeing themselves will wake them up. But they won’t. They’ll feel right. They’ll feel like they’ve finally said what everyone’s thinking. Maybe that’s the worst part—that they might actually be right about that.

By 2015, there was no going back from people screaming like that in public. Not because it was new, but because they weren’t afraid anymore.

I didn’t have words for it.