‘Onkel Barack’?
According to Times Online’s Alice Fishburn folks are all in a tizzy over this edition of Die Tageszeitung.
Even those of us without German can probably make a stab at the words printed above the White House: Uncle Barack’s Cabin.
The edition has caused a scandal in Germany. Although the left-leaning paper claims that the headline was meant to be satirical, many are upset.
I went to TAZ’s site to try and find the article that accompanies this pic myself. I couldn’t find it so I’m not sure which edition this is. I’m also not sure what to think of it. I do know that I personally have to be careful putting my US-based racial views into a Swiss or German situation: Quite a lot of the time it just doesn’t register with the listener.
I’m reminded of someone here who asked me that since it was offensive to blacks to say “neger” did that mean he couldn’t say “Arnold Schwarzenegger”? To this day I’m not sure if he was serious or not. In any case, I don’t even try to explain stuff anymore. Take this photo I snapped in Berlin a while back. I didn’t even try to explain to anyone how offensive just seeing a street with this name was:
Germanic sarcasm doesn’t pull punches. In the view of some, stating something that would sound totally crass and racist to US ears, is actually a way of making fun of it. Yeah, it confuses me too.
I can’t state what I think of the cover until I find a copy of the article. I wish Fishburn had provided more information. But, until then, what do you think? Should the paper issue an apology?
Just found: Here’s Der Spiegel’s report on it. Says it’s from the Thursday edition, which I guess is today.
Image: Cover ganked from Times Online.
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Pingback by TNMD: ‘Onkel Barack’? < rashundatramble.com — June 13, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
The intention of the title is not clear and remains inexplicable. Similarly therefore, the question of an apology is not at all clear just by considering the title. Is it a warm hearted “bad taste” joke? Is it s cold blooded attention getter to boost dwindling print news sales?
Clearly, people got upset and so that much is apparent - and that is what the authors could have prevented. And that is why they should consider to clarify the basis of why at all that they think that was funny and they must apologize.
There was another instance where apparent ambiguities and awkward alliterations are the source of considerable chagrin and thus should be avoided for greater audiences:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%22niggardly%22
Comment by Wolf — June 14, 2008 @ 5:10 pm