Posted on 08/25/2022 5:05:04 AM PDT by FarCenter
Another day, another online outrage over "cancel culture." German Twitter lit up with instant indignation this week after a German publisher announced it was pulling two children's books from its line-up amid accusations of racism and cultural appropriation.
Both books were inspired by Wild West stories from the wildly popular, and increasingly controversial, 19th-century German writer Karl May.
The books imagine the childhood of May's most famous creation: the fearless Apache brave Winnetou, a fictional Native America chief who made his first appearance in 1875 and whose adventures have been retold in numerous novels — May's books have sold around 200 million copies worldwide — as well as in several movies and even an animated series.
The new titles were to accompany the release of "The Young Chief Winnetou," which hit German theaters August 11. Now there are calls to pull the film as well.
Film still from 'The Young Chief Winnetou': Young boy dressed as a Native American, pulling a bow and arrow The recently released 'The Young Chief Winnetou' is also criticized for romanticizing North America's genocidal colonial era
The publisher, Ravensburger Verlag, citing "lots of negative feedback" around the "romanticized" and "clichéd" depiction of Native Americans in the books, dropped the titles from its program and apologized if it had hurt anyone's feelings.
The blowback was quick, and predictable. #Winnetou has been a trending topic online since with the majority of posters furious over what German tabloid Bild, with characteristic restraint, termed the "woke hysteria" that was "burning the hero of our childhood at the stake".
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Whew! At least they aren't romanticizing Germany's genocidal colonial era. (cf German genocide in northwest Africa under the Kaiser)
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“You’ll notice that it is the haters of humanity who are always trying to reform it. They want to feel superior to the general run of mankind.”
― Taylor Caldwell 1900-1985
How many Native Americans live in Germany?
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