I read that synthetic blood has been successfully created. This is good news for ethical vampires — no more surviving on rats, Louie… Which reminds me, I read a couple years ago that Tom Cruise was looking into buying rights to do another Interview with a Vampire movie. I’d download that. I’m interested in how the new They Live remake is going to be, but I just don’t think it needs to be remade.
I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for people whose houses are turning demonic due to using cheap Chinese drywall. I hope it will serve as a lesson to buy local –slash– buy American in all things. Part of the reason America is falling apart is that it’s used its wealth inertia to create a culture that is far too import heavy, achieved by exploiting nations who pay their workers less and have less regulation (all for the sake of greed and having pointlessly big houses and endless possessions). Until we have global equality in terms of standard of living, global trade and globalization in general is bad for everyone in different ways — except of course for the corporatocracy that scrapes its hefty house percentage off the top.
Maybe I’m being too “sensitive” but I really get bothered when I see the term “Krautrock” like I did in this recent BoingBoing post. I actually got censored in the comments there by their moderators, which underscores what I was trying to say — that ethnic slurs against Germans are acceptable. The term “Krautrock” was invented by British DJs and sources from the slur “Kraut” (some German bands like Faust later used the term as well, but came to reject and regret it when it went mainstream)… When I was a kid I spoke with a German accent as it was my first language, and when we moved to a small community in which many kids came from families that bore the scars of war, I was regularly beat up by kids ten years older than me on the school bus for being a “kraut”.
So I pointed out in the comments that using the term “krautrock” is about as sensitive as using the term “nigger music“. Someone responded that German bands used the term (which is a dubious claim — at best I’d say “accepted”) and I responded that plenty of black artists used “nigga/nigger” — which doesn’t give some white yuppie the right to throw it around without pissing people off. The moderator at BB admonished me for my comments, censored the first one, and outright deleted the second… Nice… So I guess their policy is what I’ve experienced — that certain kinds of ethnic slurs are more acceptable than others. I’m assuming that the poster of the entry just didn’t know any better (a la gypped or jewed), but the moderator is a jackass. That said, it’s been my experience that being a moderator has the emergent property of jackassery, so it’s probably not an innate quality.
I’m trying to read a bunch of XUL documentation but my legs hurt a lot and it’s really hard to focus…
20 Comments
whole heartedly agreed upon.
Mh, “Krautrock” is widely used to discribe some sort of german music in the late 70s and early 80s. I’ve never heard a german complain about that term, and I am german, living in germany.
Ehh, maybe I should have read this before I emailed you and I would have seen your tie in with the BB article. And yes I completely agree with you, and their moderating policy is more than a little wonky.
I love the BB stories and such, but hypocrisy runs amok when it comes to their moderating policy. We’re all only human though.
It’s more about the slang being used and not being looked at as offensive because its being directed toward Germans-
If more than one, lesbian/jewish band were released and people dubbed it Kyke March, I tend to think some people would be a little bent out of shape.
swords do have two sides.
I also find it humorous that “niger” was moderated but “kraut” was not. Albeit, in this society they may not weigh the same, but it’s no less hypocritical.
HEY! thats the pic my GF used for her tattoo!
‘kikemarch’ i can see…but ‘krautrock’ is offensive?
so whats so wrong with ‘kraut’? i wasnt aware that was a slur, or maybe one as bad as calling someone Irish. i mean, KMFDM uses it all the time.
so what is the hidden meaning behind the word that is so problematic?
also, i can see ‘jewed’ being offensive to some, but being offended by ‘gypped’ seems incredibly oversensitive. i also dont think ‘kraut’ come anywhere close to ‘nigger’ in offensiveness… but, im not German.
i do think some minor slurs dont need much reaction as new generations forget thier negative intent. but then there are some that are so heavy or connect to unresolved wrongs that should be handled carefully.
“Kraut” is the equivalent of “gook” — it’s an ethnic slur linked to war. Kraut absolutely is offensive.
I don’t find it that offensive (I’m German) – but maybe that is because we Germans are pretty used to be bashed and to bash ourselves because of our past.
I think the experience of a German living in Germany is very different than the experience of a German living in anglo culture… Just as it’s different to be an African American from being an African in Africa.
Speaking of great Vampire films that are being remade…
The recent swedish film Let The Right One In is arguably one of the greatest Vampire films ever. Every frame is a masterpiece.
Scarily though its rumored for a Hollywood remake.
This entry made me think of Picnicface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVjGsW0zXJw&feature=player_embedded
Ive got that VHS tape in my room! Great vampire movie! Good history too!
gotcha, thanks for the explaination. i honestly had no idea ‘kraut’ was used in connection to WW2, and i hate nazis!! but obviously not all Germans are that.
the comparision to ‘gook’ makes alot of sense.
A remake of They Live? Good god, when will hollywood quit raping my childhood?
Shannon,
I guess it must have been hard to grow up in an anglosaxon evironment as a german, but honestly I think it is not worthwile to be bothered by terms like Krautrock. Real british who invented the term have a certain black humour and if you understand that a little better you won’t be angy about them as they actually don’t take themselves too seriously. I also left Germany and lived in places all over the world (currently in Hong Kong). British humour never bothered me. What bothers me are stupid countryside people who make jokes about you but do even not know where Germany is located (Can you drive there by car? (this question you here frequently in corn field regions of America.)).
Rolf
Rolf, of course you can drive to Germany.. Doesn’t take more than a couple hours! ;)
And maybe you’re right about the difference regarding humour. I don’t find typical American fart-humour/very obvious humour particularly funny, so I can imagine that many americans feel the same way about the very black humour of northern europe.
But in Scandinavia I actually think the shared view on humour, and the fact that we love to make (sometimes quite personal, borderine cruel) jokes about each other and ourselves is what keeps us so close together. But I can definatley see why others who doesn’t appreciate black humour and self irony would get offended by it.
I feel as if, in the U.S., I have never had the chance to be proud of my heritage even if in during WWII my family was already over in the U.S.
I just tend to keep quiet about it unless someone asks where my last name comes from.
I can’t explain people or their reactions, I can only deal with it.
Jackassery is neither emergent nor innate — it is simply an evaluation.
Words are equivalently not inherently offensive or not offensive. Again these are evaluations. Here we have some germans saying kraut is no problem and other people saying that because kraut is linked to war it is absolutely offensive. And kraut is only equivalent to nigger if whatever it is that the genemans experienced in relation to this term was as systemic as whatever it is that black experienced under slavery in the U$A.
Well, there’s “equivalent” and there’s “exactly the same”. Gook and kraut have very strong parallels.
Post a Comment