So is the Tageszeitung’s “Uncle Barack’s Cabin” headline today stupidly racist, or just racist? “Uncle Tom” has been an insult for, what, a century and a half now?
Spiegel Online International: German Newspaper Slammed for Racist Cover Davos Newbies: Tin Ears Davids Medienkritik: Die Tageszeitung: “Uncle Barack’s Cabin”
Update: An opposing view (in German) from Markus Tripp (who I follow on Twitter), who links to the discussion at tazblog, the newspaper’s own blog.
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O.M.G.
That is awful.
But it seems to me that it’s not intentionally racist as much as shockingly ignorant.
It’s like some editor guy at the Tageszeitung took an American Lit. course in 12th grade and one of the choices to write about in his Klausur was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” — but he opted for some other book instead.
Wow… that is awful.
I’m with cliff1976 though: shockingly ignorant.
Remember, germany is the country where the confederate flag is on the door of a gay bar in Leipzig.
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