After transport companies in other cities, the NVV also abolishes the term “fare evasion”. The word has no racist origin. Is the step correct?
Kassel – Ruth Hunstock knows how discriminatory the term “fare dodging” can be. When the girl from Kassel was little, she often heard the sentence on the tram: “Ruth is driving black today.” An allusion to her dark skin color. “For me, the term has a very negative association,” says Hunstock, who, with her initiative “Side by Side – Afro-Germans and Black People in North Hesse”*, has ensured, among other things, that the city of Kassel outlaws the N-word*. The term “fare dodging” is now also being dropped.
As early as July last year, the North Hessian Transport Association (NVV) decided to dispense with the term. Unlike other transport companies such as in Hanover*, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, the NVV did not communicate this. Only after a request from our editors did a spokeswoman confirm the step: “The social debate about terms such as ‘fare dodging’ that are perceived as discriminatory shows that it is important to use language carefully.” The NVV would like to contribute to this now.
NVV abolishes the term “fare dodging”: The term probably comes from Yiddish
At the Kasseler Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (KVG), all information media were renewed for the timetable change in December, according to a spokeswoman. There it now says “Driving without a ticket” and “Driving without a valid ticket”. In the area covered by the NVV, the term “fare dodging” can still be found on stickers in vehicles. For example, it was said: “We see really black for fare dodgers.” These slogans are now to be gradually replaced. This will take some time because, according to the spokeswoman, “the exchange cannot take place while driving, but only when the vehicles are parked for a long time”.
Hunstock praises the NPT for its openness. For them, the decision is “another step in the right direction towards discrimination-sensitive language,” as stated in a statement from their initiative. She is aware that the term has no racist origin. Some linguists suggest that the term comes from the Yiddish term “shvarts” (“poverty”). Others refer to the Rotwelsch, the scene slang of social fringe groups, where “to blacken” meant to smuggle. From the crook’s language, “black” has therefore developed as a synonym for “illegal”.
Elsewhere, too, the term is dispensed with: the police speak of “cheating services”.
Hunstock knows that. Nevertheless, the activist, who is also committed to renaming the approximately 90 Mohren pharmacies* in Germany, says: “Language is evolving. Today, people associate it with skin color. White is always positive and black negative.” So there is undeclared work, slush funds and bucks.
Elsewhere, too, there is no fare dodging. For the North Hessian police, the term is “too colloquial”, as a spokeswoman for our editorial team says. Instead, officials use the phrase “cheating benefits” in press releases. This is what driving without a ticket is called in the Criminal Code.
When asked, a spokesman for the Federal Police also assured that “the term in question is not used”.
However, anyone who enters “fare dodging” in the press portal will receive several reports from the federal police with the word that should actually be taboo. The speaker cannot explain this. The situation will be examined accordingly. (Matthias Lohr) *hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
