UNICEF Can Kiss My Black… Face

Lost in translation

by j. brotherlove

I know I mentioned people can’t expect to know all the nuances of a culture over at Washington Blade. But this is ridiculous. Via the blog Black Women In Europe (BWIE) here is UNICEF Germany’s ad campaign meant to bring attention to the need for better education in Africa.

WTF is that all about? But wait, there’s more.

Anyone who was shocked or confused about Keep A Child Alive’s “I Am African” campaign can’t be happy about this.

I can’t even put my thoughts into a meaningful sentence without using expletives so I’ll quote BWIE:

Besides claiming that every single person in “Africa” isn’t educated, and doing so in an extremely patronising way, it is also disturbing that this organisation thinks blackfacing kids with mud (!) equals “relating to african children”.

Thanks sister. FYI, the copy on one of the ads translates to: “some teachers suck. no teachers sucks even more.” So very true. But it doesn’t not suck as much as this ad campaign.

More comments and reactions at Women of Color Blog.

(hat tip: Karsh)

Wow, that is as vile as it it gets,but, since this is Germany, and Europa as a whole no real suprise since they still see no harm in it. One would think that someone at Unicef would have told them that its offensive.

Better education with mud on your face, OK.

Who says UNICEF has it together? Or ever did?

Vigilance, vigilance, vigilance. And if someone calls me paranoid, I just say, Yup. Got to be with all the reasons… such as this one.

I, whose ancestors were torched in a Russian synagogue and others, some years later, fried in the ovens of the Third Reich would not point a finger at Germany or Europe or the Pope. I don’t have enough fingers to point to all the collaborators and willing executioners — the plain folks (like me) who watched, bore witness to atrocities, and did NOTHING. This pathological stance continues today and yes siree, in this wonderful USA, too.

When I was in kindergarten in Germany, we learned a nursery rhyme called “Ten Little Niggers” - who come to Germany and get killed one by one until the last one goes back to Africa to marry and have ten more children (then the nursery rhyme loops).

Considering that (and countless other personal stories), this is actually quite progressive. Honest. Definitely NOT surprising.