Remarks by Gunter Grass have Germans churning over the matter of race. The novelist said Sunday that a policy on asylum-seekers that had 4,000 Turks in refugee camps demonstrated the country's "closet racism." The government shot back that Germany has taken in more refugees than any European nation, and said Grass "plumbed an all-time intellectual trough" with his remarks. Grass refused further comment, but Social Democrat chairman Oskar Lafontaine defended him, saying, "Grass' criticism should be taken seriously."
'Closet Racism'
Remarks by Gunter Grass have Germans churning over the matter of race. The novelist said Sunday that a policy on asylum-seekers that had 4,000 Turks in refugee camps demonstrated the country's "closet racism." The government shot back that Germany has taken in more refugees than any European nation, and said Grass "plumbed an all-time intellectual trough" with his remarks. Grass refused further comment, but Social Democrat chairman Oskar Lafontaine defended him, saying, "Grass' criticism should be taken seriously."
