Comments on: Media tricks on Bundeswehr racism story?

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:03:56 +0000

Bill, you’re welcome. That’s a great resource.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:57:14 +0000

Ron,

Thanks for the “hat tip” to our series of posts that may help to provide some historical background about race relations in Germany from a black German point-of-view (not me, I’m an American who is just managing that joint project).

This incident is being all but totally ignored in the mainstream TV news here in Germany whereas if the roles were reversed and a U.S. military instructor were caught on videotape instructing trainees to imagine some German ethnic or racial group during target practice the story would be frontpage news for days if not weeks as we have seen with a number of German media reports about the U.S.A. and “Americans” for years.

You (and your readers) may be interested in the dialogue about this racist incident over at my collegues blog the Atlantic Review, authored by Jörg Wolf in Berlin. Here is the URL to his “heads up” post on the story:

Recommended by Our Readers – 04/15/07
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/645-Recommended-by-our-Readers.html

By: Stefan

Stefan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:58:49 +0000

I can accept that. I think the central question here, rather than, “What was that D.I. thinking?” is, “What idiot allowed a guy to use a camera on the range in boot?”

Some things were meant to stay on the field.

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:59:18 +0000

You might be the only one who dares to say it. I mean, for sure -- the idea that every NCO should accountable on PC grounds for every motivating formulation (shall we say) that comes out of his mouth is absurd. I am sure it is indeed a military thing. But alas, Germans do not get, and probably are not entitled to, all that much slack.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:55:28 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks this is really funny? : )

I feel that more than just the phrasing was lost in translation. This is exactly the kind of ridiculous humor that I observed at USMC Officer Candidate School. It’s definitely a “military thing.”