@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?

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…
.-= Scott Hanson´s last blog ..T and A Politics =-.

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….

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”.

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.

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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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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