Posted on 09/15/2011 7:29:26 PM PDT by Olog-hai
German comedian Martin Sonneborn is well-known for jokes bordering on the tasteless. But a satirical political billboard of him posing in blackface makeup as US President Barack Obama is sparking outrage.
“Ick bin ein Obama (I am an Obama),” reads the poster at Berlin’s central Ernst Reuter Platz square, in an apparent play on John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. On the poster, a “black” Sonneborn smiles as he raises his arm in the air.
The billboard is the latest in Sonneborn’s campaign for his satirical political party Die Partei ahead of state elections in Berlin this Sunday. It’s meant to make fun of the entire German political establishment and go up to the edge of propriety — another poster is entitled “MILFS against Merkel” and the campaign has also mocked the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party.
But the latest one is upsetting to some because of the racial connotations of blackface theatre in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries based on ugly stereotypes. Blackface consisted of white performers painting themselves black for degrading minstrel shows. It quickly died out in the United States after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
another poster is entitled "MILFS against Merkel"
There was the Stone Age, Iron Age, Space Age, and now the early 21st Century is the Offended Age.
Yeah, that is pretty damned offensive.
Minstrel shows died out only after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s? How did we miss all those minstrel shows of the 1960s?
Unless of course he meant to imply that Obama is a white man in black makeup.
German humor. Meh.
0bama is such a jerk that I don’t think I could ever defend him against any defamation. He deserves the contempt of the second rank despots that is only surpassed by the first rank monsters of the 20th century.
Quite right. He got the hands wrong. Next time, remember, the palms are PINK.
4 years of an expected automatic Guilting when the Race Card is thrown every 90 seconds has completely shattered my PC give-a-sh!t.
After watching this Arrogant, out of control example of Affirmative Action trash this country, and the reactions of black racists, (95% at last count.), racial rankings, based on true colorblind testing, aren't such a bad idea, anymore. And if 50% wind up digging ditches because they are illiterate and completely outside American cultural norms, sucks to be them.
The free ride is over, and they can thank Barak and his AA massaged college and post grad grades.
You must be young, because I remember blackface minstrel shows in the 1960s.
“Amateur minstrel shows continued to be performed in the 1960s and high schools, fraternities and local theater groups would usually perform the shows in blackface. The amateur minstrel shows in blackface finally died out in the US in the late 1960s as African Americans asserted more political power, but even today minstrel shows are still used as a theme for amateur productions.”
http://black-face.com/minstrel-shows.htm
Come to think of it, Benny Hill did some TV minstrel sketchs into the 1980s, and these shows are still being broadcast today.
I’ll have to take your word for it. I’m not as young as I’d like to be, and lived in different parts of the US as well as overseas during that period, and don’t remember attending or hearing of a minstrel show.
Benny Hill was a show from England, not the US.
Archie Bunker did a blackface sketch in the 70s. But he was lambasted for it by Mike.
I would love to tour the south land
In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I’d love to tour the south land
In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I’m dying to be a star and make them laugh
Sound just like a record on the phonograph
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
He said his name “Bojangles” and he danced a lick
across the cell
He grabbed his pants and spread his stance,
Oh he jumped so high and then he clicked his heels
He let go a laugh, let go a laugh
and shook back his clothes all around
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles
Mr. Bojangles, dance
He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs
throughout the south
He spoke through tears of 15 years how his dog and him
traveled about
The dog up and died, he up and died
And after 20 years he still grieves
But those Benny Hill shows are broadcast on RTV in the US, so it is not like blackface is now censored. While not politically correct, blackface is still around. Remember that incident with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson in the 90s?
During Mardis Gras, the Krewe of Zulu parade in blackface, and one can buy blackface Zulu artwork in New Orleans. Might be shocking to someone who has never been in NO before, but it is still part of the culture.
Yeah, okay (and by the way I’ve been in NO plenty including in the 1960s).
I was thinking of blackface minstrel shows offered as straight-up entertainment for the general public, as in days gone by, and not as a spoof or social commentary as for example in “All in the Family.”
I swear, these idiots over there never cease to make me ashamed of my German ancestry.
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