Sunday, September 13, 2015

The Bavarian Minister of Inner Affairs and his racist compliment

While being in a talkshow to discuss the pressing issue of refugees and successful integration, the Bavarian Minister of Inner Affairs, Joachim Hermann, complimented the pop singer Roberto Blanco as ''wonderful nigger'' during the course of the show.
Before dropping this questionable compliment, the minister elaborated extensively on the ''brutalization of language'' used by many actors involved or feeling involved with refugees.  Hermann is known for inappropriate statements. Moreover, Hermann's party - the CSU (Christian Social Union) - favoured to use political incorrectness as rhetorical device in the past. As this year the 100. birthday of the famous CSU politician Franz-Josef Strauß - who extensively used political incorrectness - is celebrated, Hermann's statement could be grounded on this tradition.

However, after the talkshow the minister tried to justify his statement with indicating that he only used the term ''nigger'' because the term was used during the call of an audience member. He claims that he otherwise never uses this word. Nevertheless, his questionable compliment caused a tremendous outrage. The pop singer in question said that he first of all wanted to thank the Minister for the ''wonderful'', but as Hermann is ''an intelligent man he should have said 'coloured' instead that would have saved him a lot of trouble.''

by Sarah Kubiak 

Sources: 
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/reaktionen-auf-joachim-herrmanns-neger-aeusserung-13779271.html

http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article145872701/Roberto-Blanco-will-lieber-Farbiger-genannt-werden.html

2 comments:

  1. Great example of a politician who does not realize the impact of such statements. It is quite obvious that addressing someone with 'wonderful nigger' would cause any form of revolt from the audience. In the past there have been many cases of similar 'mistakes' from public figures. Just google: "nigger remark" (or include "schandal"), and you will find many. Jil Gile, Rick Santorum, Enda Kenny and many more were also nailed to the public pillory for stating 'nigger' in some speech or statement.

    We all know that the 'n-word' is a very loaded term, which can (and will) cause revolt - especially when used by white politicians. These men should learn from the past and have to realise that the 'n-word' apparently is never OK to use. In this case the English proverb says it all: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

    - André Duijkers

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  2. I wonder if Hermann used this word as an attempt at a tribute to his party's tradition, or whether it was a it of a slip of the tongue. Or perhaps it was both, when he tried to respond like his predecessor would have done but taking it a bit too far.

    In any case, I agree with André: the use of this word is never OK. Hermann was probably not trying to offend anyone, but that is what happened. Therefore, from both a PR and a human perspective, I would advise him to admit to the hurt he has done and - if he has not already done that - apologize to everyone he has offended.

    - Lotte van der Sijs

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