The gay entertainer and choreographer Jorge González says, according to his own account, that he and his niece were subjected to racist insults during a train ride. The incident reportedly occurred two years ago on an ICE journey from Hamburg to Berlin, according to his management in response to inquiries from the German press agency. In a RTL interview, the “Let’s Dance” judge had previously described the incident.
A man sat in the seat González had reserved and refused to get up, González told RTL. “He looked at my niece and said: ‘And you, you don’t speak, go back to where you came from.’” His niece replied with quick wit that she came from Nienburg on the Weser, the Cuban-born González recalled.
González: Fellow passengers and the train attendant helped
He told reporters that the man had simply pity for him, “because he apparently seemed embittered and out of touch.” González added: “What touched me most was the support from fellow passengers and the train attendant that day. Some people, especially women, stood up and corrected the man.” The train attendant also removed him from the seat and warned that she would call the police at the next stop if he did not moderate his behavior. “I felt a lot of sympathy and civil courage there.”
A Deutsche Bahn (DB) spokesperson told reporters that the incident was not initially known to them; he added in general terms: “Racism has no place on our trains—neither toward our customers nor toward our employees.” The account González described was troubling, “so something like that should not happen to any passenger on a train—and certainly not anywhere in public space.” González’s management said he chose not to report the incident at the time.
“I don’t want to hide”
Asked about experiences of hostility based on his skin color, language, or homosexuality, he said he rarely encounters such in public. “I do notice, however, that such taunts and threats in my circle of acquaintances are actually more frequent now than before.” In social media, there are always people who insult or threaten him. “When something like that happens, I report the account—and that’s about it.”
Some friends and his team take things a bit more seriously and want to shield him more, but “I don’t want that. I don’t want to hide or pretend because of cowardly people.”
