Would wish this discourse ended. But I couldnt help it but post this. But as the global conversation continued, nuances and cracks started to appear. Firstly, though Spears believed the men in the photo to be German, others on social media suggested they may have been Swiss fans there to support Ghana. One theory is that their blacking up was a well-intentioned - albeit clumsy - gesture. For Spears, regardless of where they were from, or who they were supporting, they were representing an offensive caricature. If you want to cheer for Ghana, you can wear a Ghana shirt, he says. In Germany itself, there was relatively little discussion of the image on social media or the mainstream media in the country. But what debate there was, was completely different in tenor. No-one wants racism, but you have to ask, Is this really racism? says Sascha Michel, who teaches at the University of Koblenz in Germany, and tweeted about the image. Dressing up is common at carnival time, Karneval, in Germany. People dress up as all sorts of things, he says - police officers, sailors and animals, for example, as well with blacked up faces. He sees no difference between them, and argues that people who criticise blacking up are being politically correct. Some on social media began to share an image of a black fan with white face paint at a World Cup game, using the hashtag #whiteface, and questioned - perhaps ironically - whether that was racist too.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 03:19:31 +0000
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