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Black Is Not Beautiful: The German Myth of Race

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Abstract

This chapter about German visual culture focuses on the “blackface mentality” and the image of the colonized African native. Both phenomena reveal the hierarchal power relationships by objectifying all people of African-descent into one, monolithic racial stereotype and caricature. This racist visual culture fuels the Germans’ continuing negative attitudes, perceptions, and images of Blacks and Blackness. The chapter explores the pervasive employment of blackface as well as the image of the colonized African native in marketing and in a children’s book (Der kleine schwarze Sambo) and song, “Zehn Negerlin.” In addition to looking at the experiences of people of African descent living in Germany, she also examines the implications for the present influx of “darker-skinned” immigrants into Germany and Angela Merkel’s “Willkommenskultur” (“welcome culture”).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A few racist images have survived and have undergone a facelift of sorts. The facial features as well as the attire of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are now supposed to be less offensive. However, a black woman smiling, and selling pancakes, and a grinning, older black man, appearing as a waiter, evoke racial stereotypes from the past.

  2. 2.

    Blacks have also worn blackface.

  3. 3.

    There were a number of Americans who saw Obama as president, but they refused to accept the truth of his presidency or even his American heritage (the Birther movement).

  4. 4.

    This phenomenon will be discussed later in this essay.

  5. 5.

    This post has since been taken down, probably for its offensiveness (accessed June 16, 2016).

  6. 6.

    In the United States, the face of Aunt Jemima, is still used to sell pancake mixes and syrup.

  7. 7.

    Little Black Sambo is available through Target, but only online for $13.49, http://www.target.com (accessed November 2016).

  8. 8.

    In the United States, a similar counting song exists, “Ten Little Indians,” which counts up from one to ten and then back down again from ten to one. The theme of the song, ten “little Indians” reveals a racist narrative and the comic violence involves the appearing and disappearing of these figures.

  9. 9.

    The United States is undergoing something similar regarding Confederate monuments.

  10. 10.

    For example, In the United States this latent white nationalism acquired a more powerful voice in 2009–2010 with the emergence of the Tea-Party, the “take OUR country back,” and the Birther Movement against President Obama. Trump joined the Birther movement in 2011, and his 2016 presidential campaign was based on white nationalism and white grievance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Saint Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, MD, USA

    Susann Therese Samples

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  1. Susann Therese Samples
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Antioch University, Yellow Springs, OH, USA

    Philomena Essed

  2. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Karen Farquharson

  3. School of Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Kathryn Pillay

  4. Department of African American and African Studies, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Elisa Joy White

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Samples, S.T. (2019). Black Is Not Beautiful: The German Myth of Race. In: Essed, P., Farquharson, K., Pillay, K., White, E.J. (eds) Relating Worlds of Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78990-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78990-3_9

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