“The only reason to vote Black. / Time for Green.”
The Green Party in the town of Kaarst has put up this poster, the color black in German politics is generally used to represent the Christian Democrat Party of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to Spiegel International:
The poster is meant to highlight the Greens’ support for same-sex partnerships, said the local head of the Greens, Christian Gaumitz, according to the daily Rheinische Post. “We only put up a small number of these posters. The response has been very big, but the majority of people share our understanding of the subject: that it’s provocative, but not tasteless.”
Locals have complained that the poster is racist and tasteless, according to media reports.
I’m pretty flabbergasted. What are your thoughts?
(via a stupified Bowleserised)
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I personally find it pretty tasteless, but also relatively typical for Western Europe.
All of the above…it made the news here in Canada…ciao
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I’m not even sure I completely get it.
But it seems pretty bizarre to me.
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I think it is very questionable (racist) but the thing is, I am pretty sure the majority of Germans wont see it as such. They might be totally flabergasted that others are offended by this. Typical German mentality if you ask me.
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Ummmm. I don’t think I get the point of this.. and find it shocking / potentially racist, and at a minimum- offensive. “Vote for the black party if you like *ssholes? Is that it?! This wouldn’t fly here.
Several commenters here find it racist or at least potentially racist. What does that mean?
No one has explained yet in what way it’s racist. I personally am not seeing any racism here. Would someone please enlighten me?
Here’s my take on it the poster:
“Schwarz wählen” is central to the pun. It can mean “vote for CDU/CSU” in politcal context or just plain “choose (the) black (anything)” in other contexts. From the green party’s perspective, “choosing black” politically is never an option — of course they think you should vote for the Green party.
Unless we’re not talking about politics. Then, “choose black” for love, if that’s your thing. Especially if you’re of the same sex.
Racist? Not seeing it.
Tasteless? Likely. I like the picture on its own merits, but it tests my boundaries for political appropriateness. I don’t find the message tasteless at all — my beef is with the imagery, depending on where it’s used. Seeing outside a church or school would naturally make a different impact on me than, say outside a gay bar on <shameless plug>September 5th in Munich on That Queer Expatriate’s Queer Expedition with the WEBMU crew.</shameless plug>
Provocative? Sure. That’s often par for the Green Party course. Take a look at this image…
http://www.gruene-gifhorn.de/uploads/pics/animierter_wahlkam.gif
… for some campaign poster samples. I found it on http://www.gruene-gifhorn.de.
provocative? yes! sexist? maybe. racist? no.
the clue is that the CDU is associated with the colour black — and they are against legislation in favour of same-sex marriage. whereas the green party is pro-gay marriage and all the legal rights that go along with it. meaning for example adoption. so i don’t see this topic tasteless in any way. yes, they may have chosen a different (read ‘boring’) poster, but twouldn’t have set our tongues wagging.
ps. i wish i had a firm bottom like that!
pps. yes, i am german.
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Thanks for the more clarified explanation Cliff. I was a bit confused by the image also but it helps to have some background into the political parties here. I also found a tasteless political poster in Berlin featuring Angela Merkel yesterday. Must be the season!
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I get the intended message, but I agree with Rhona and Cliff that it crosses too many boundaries. I see this a lot in Germany - many people don’t seem to know when enough is enough and are shocked when others object.
I don’t know that it’s racist, but a huge poster of someone’s bottom is certainly not going to persuade me to vote green (if I could, that is). Just a bit silly and not in good taste for a political campaign.
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I also get the intended message, I know what they are trying to get across, but I think this is a questionable way of doing it. And what’s racist about it? As Cliff said, apart from the “Only Reason to Vote Black” translation, it can also be translated as “The only reason to choose black,” which with the image, made me think “The only reason to choose a black person is for sex,” not for a job, a political office, a friend. That, I think, is the racist undertone. I know it wasn’t meant, and many people don’t see it, but I doubt I’m alone in seeing that message in the poster as well as the intended one.
I get the intended message. Absolutely tasteless. But I can also see how this would be construed as racist or offensive by many people. Perhaps not so much by Europeans, but by Americans (especially black Americans), yes! The obvious implication is that black people have sexy behinds. This is tied in the mind to “the only reason to choose black”, and if you think to the metaphor they create it’s easy not to stop at “CDU/Black party”.
I’ve noticed that Europeans are not so sensitive to race and cultural differences as Americans… perhaps because this was abused so badly in the early history of the United States (ahem, slavery). Most Americans have a strong ingrained reflex not to say anything offensive… and this poster sets off my warning bells.
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I don’t think it’s racist (me being a western white male) (I know that always matters in those discussions). At least it’s not intended, the Greens are the last ones to be racist.
Can it be understood in a racist way? Well, I think almost nobody (over here) would, other than people really sensitive for that, for whatever reasons.
I think almost everybody will just recognize a bad pun and go on, without even thinking as far as you, Christina, to “The only reason to choose a black person is for sex” (for me, the image would rather convey “love” than “sex”, but maybe that’s just me).
What I pretty immediately noticed was the hint at homosexuality.
(And now I’m trying to wrap my mind about the idea of a pro-gay-marriage racist)
I don’t like the poster (other than for visual reasons - I’m a guy, after all). First of all, I don’t think we need sex (or hints at it) in election campaigns. Then, I don’t like campaigns centering on “don’t vote the others”.
There have to be better reasons for voting for anybody.
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Wow, I didn’t get the racist part at all. I interpreted the picture, when linked up with the “schwarz wählen,” to mean that girl chose that other girl, who happened to be black, and that more emphasis was on the same-sex aspect than the racial one. But my personal experience with racism is next to nothing, so I guess that informs what I see.
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I don’t know.. I’ve thought this over a bit, and while I’m hesitant to label it as outright racist, it definitely does not inspire warm fuzzy feelings on my part. I’ve tried to narrow the reasons why down to 2 things.
First, it’s not just the message or the pic, it’s the combination of the two. I mean, if you want to make a point about “not choosing/ voting for black”, aren’t there plenty of other black colored things with the right connotation that could’ve been used??
Two, you kinda have to think a bit to get it— not something I’m opposed to, mind you, but not something you really want in an ad somebody’s going to see just passing by.
Then again, I can also say that those impressions definitely come from the “American” side of my nature. (The German side, notably, has no problem with a naked posterior.) Ultimately, it just kind of leave me slightly confused and a bit uneasy….
Put me in the racist camp on this one. Joking about skin color out of context is racist, period.
Via a mention on the German blog Schockwellenreiter, I found that the Green faction in Kaarst has posted an explanation of the poster. I say if you need to explain a poster, it has failed.
A commenter at the Schockwellenreiter also posed the question… where are those hands coming from? They don’t seem to be attached to a body at all…
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Hello! I find this picture very tasteless. I am not sure if it is racist? I can imagine that a black person would be offended by it. It implies that black people are good for sex but not political decisions. I could not imagine seeing this poster here in the United States.
@Dave: I agree with you that Americans seem to be more sensitive to race and cultural differences. However, this seems to be at a superficial level. There are some people I got to know who I thought were very charming and nice. After the get to know you part was over I learned some (let me call it interesting) character traits about them that shocked me deeply. Somebody called me a “Nasty old Kraut” once. He meant that as a joke but I did not think it was very funny. He was surprised I found this offensive. I heard people use racist expressions like “Jewbags” or “Jewbastards”. They used it as a normal and conversational expressions. Just like you would order a coffee at Starbucks. I was like “What the Fu**?”
@Rhona: I think with you generalization that most Germans would be surprised that others might be offended by it shows some prejudice from your part. Do you know all or most Germans?
I guess the poster can’t be so effective when I had to read through a couple of explanations in this comment section to actually get what it means. Admittedly, I am a pretty uninformed when it comes to German politics though. Generally, I am pretty turned off by any political ads that objectify women as a means to make themselves noticed. Greens seem to be falling to the level of PETA to get themselves some publicity lately (they are also the ones behind the Merkel cleavage thing).
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I am with Christina on this. There are other readings that you just can’t entirely turn off (clearly not intended), but still enough to make my skin crawl. There would have been other ways to shoot this, von mir aus, showing just as much skin that might have hinted less at possession and made me less uncomfortable.
I’m really tired and started reading commentary before I started really thinking about the poster, so I hadn’t even processed the same-sex angle yet. I was thinking - good thing they used grabby girl hands, because grabby white man hands on that backside would have pushed this thing even _further_ over the line.
Keep in mind that the Greens love to provoke.
Their Chairwoman, Claudio Roth, recently called the Oktoberfest the “world’s largest drug scene” (for their excessive consumption of beer). They want to provoke die-hards and conservatives, and use that cosmopolitical and homosexual Picture to do so.
Maybe it’s weird… but yeah, that’s about it I’d say.