More on the World's Most Controversial Petit Fours

Who knew that a post about insensitive pastries would unleash such a fine and lively discussion? My thanks to all participants. Just to respond to a couple of points:

1. My role is not to convey American values to my students, or any other national values, for that matter. I am there to provide them with information and analytical skills that will be useful to them. That means explaining American values, to offer insight into the country whose law they are studying, but not cheerleading. I would never be so naive as to suggest that my personal ideological preferences don't influence what I teach, but I try to let my students decide the merits of controversial questions.
2.  As for the pastries in question, I posted them to call attention to a quirk of German culture that I've addressed before. To me, I see it as another sign of German society being several decades behind the US, in ways both charming and not-so-charming. Think of Mickey Rooney's cringe-inducing 'Chinaman' in Breakfast at Tiffany's, for example. Nobody would dream of doing something like that in the US today, but as the comments have shown, blackface is still fine in Germany.
3. I don't see my role as a moral apostle, although I may make some ironic comments, as I did in the post above (by channeling a stereotypical cracker's delight at finding these pastries). I try to avoid seeing Germany through American eyes as much as possible. (Suggesting that one or another country has the sounder policy on a particular point is different from arguing that one country is morally superior). The only time I'll knowingly haul out the moral mace is if some German starts self-righteously denouncing the United States for its alleged pervasive racism. If and when that happens, will I feel constrained to point out that Germany (1) still doesn't have anti-discrimination laws with teeth; (2) tolerates various kinds of racial stereotypes. Of course, racial discrimination remains a problem in American society, as it does in every society. But I find that Germans are much less wont to simple-mindedly moralize about the US than they were prior to 2008. 
4. Since the 1980s, I've been skeptical of American-style political correctness, which I think tends to exaggerate questions of personal taste and bad manners to matters of state. I went to college in the late 1980s, the high point of p.c., and remember the seemingly endless debates about what preferred terminology was for various ethnic groups, or how big the cultural center for group X was going to be, or whether Professor Y should be censured for making an allegedly sexist comment during class. It got so bad that hundreds of campuses passed blatantly unconstitutional speech codes threatening drastic punishment for students and employees who were alleged to have made insensitive comments or statements. Students were being threatened with expulsion, or professors with career homicide, simply because of one stray comment (often reported only by hearsay). Fortunately, courts struck down these codes, but for a while there, the ability to voice controversial opinions was under threat -- and by people calling themselves 'liberals'.
5. The other suspect thing about political correctness is that it can distract from questions about fundamental, systemic inequality. I recommend Walter Benn Michaels' book The Trouble with Diversity, in which he argues that 'diversity', while a fine and wonderful thing in itself, often distracts from much deeper inequalities in American society. The important question is not how many black or gay students there are at University X, it's why University X's tuition fees have been skyrocketing, shutting out the lower middle class. A law firm or lobbying firm can be diverse as heck -- and will strive to be so, since that makes for great PR and salves the consciences of the more 'liberal' partners -- but it will still be serving corporate interests.
6. As for my personal attitudes, I try to be a tolerant enough guy, but I also enjoy the odd off-color joke and ironic provocation, and have neither the will nor the energy to constantly censor myself. People should be judged on what they do, not what other people guess that they might be thinking. Perhaps it's unfortunate that some people have backward attitudes, but it's a much bigger problem -- and an unquestionable evil -- when people are discriminated against in public life based solely on their race, ethnicity, orientation or gender. Along with many gifted colleagues, I actually did stuff to combat racial discrimination in the US. And any number of people can confirm that I have often spoken out publicly in favor or stronger anti-discrimination laws in Germany. To me, the real scandal is not insensitive pastries, but the fact that Germany's anti-discrimination laws don't yet have enough real-world financial bite to change behavior.

Comments

[M. Möhling]

just a test, typepad seems to be in distress. Or it's me, again.

[Ralph]

"But I find that Germans are much less wont to simple-mindedly moralize about the US than they were prior to 2008."

My perception as well. After Bush's election, there was a sea change.

My take on this controversy: overblown. Don't know you personally, Andrew, but my impression was that you were being ironic, "channeling" (as you put it).

Not that I don't respect your sensitivities, Curtis.

[renke]

interesting discussion

I think one can experience different cultural/political point of views here.

Andrew (and others) blame inclomplete German anti-discrimination laws - I (from my German POV) see some of them (and the pressure to oblige more extreme forms of PC) as gag orders.

Compare this to laws in Germany about the Third Reich, it is e.g. punishable to deny the Holocaust; something seen by Americans as censorship and endangering the freedom of speech.

[Andrew]

@Curtis: You've made your point with eloquence, and our standpoints are clear. I do, in fact 'get it'. in the sense of understanding the arguments in favor of always and immediately objecting to ethnic caricatures, no matter what the context. I simply disagree with them.

Perhaps you consider me a hopelessly backward, unenlightened cretin, to which I say, join the club!

[Curtis]

You still don't get it, do you Andrew? This is not about censorship or political correctness. This is about freedom of speech and the personal responsibilities it entails.

If I were walking by a bakery, whether it be in San Francisco or Tokyo, and I saw them selling little swastika hotcakes, there's no way I would march in to purchase, consume the product and then publicly boast about it, no matter how "delectable". But then again, that's just me. I readily concede that we're different persons with different histories, but what use do all your past protesting and picketing serve, if at the end of the day you still patronize and support racist ideology?

I can imagine that to you as a white man, black painted faces might seem harmless and cute, but to us blacks it's a matter of life and death. We did not ask to be put into this situation - in fact we were forcibly drafted into it 500 years ago and have been struggling to survive with our dignity in tact ever since.

If you're so righteous and tolerant, then do the right thing and refuse to support all forms of racism, regardless of the context. I personally try to do the same, for at the end of the day I'm ultimately responsible for the decisions I make and I'm the one that has to be able to live with my conscience and sleep with it at night.

Well, I see that we've arrived at my stop. Time for me to get off this bus.

[schorsch]

ps: forget what I said about my post being filtered. I think I just forgot to put in the code thing...my bad

[schorsch]

I agree with almost everything you posted but saying that German society as a whole is several decades behind America...seriously?! backward quaintness is the best German society can do? Some of the things you might find quaint and backward are pretty advanced in my book. And yes, I also agree about the sneseless and uniformed America bashing - I usually keep pushing the bashers to actually support their arguments with credible sources, this usually shuts them up.
Anyway, I defended yout original post as satire but my post got filtered presumably because in it I wrote the N-word (I said it should not be used...)I find the wikipedia entry for "mohr" quite interesting by the way.

[michael]

I have become pretty convinced that the German society is more racist than the American and also many other European societies, at least in certain respects.

The way we treat the biggest group of immigrants is pretty appealing but at least there is some progress there. Racism against black people, however, seems to be very strong, even if it’s not so visible because there aren’t that many back people living in Germany.

I had this German teacher who tried to convince us that the word “Neger” is completely harmless. In class. Really. I’m pretty young, so this happened in the 21st century, not fifty years ago. A German teacher, someone who should be aware of the power of words and also should know that intent is not magical.

There is also this little ice cream shop in my hometown (called “Eismohrle”, I think) which advertises with the most stereotypical and disgusting depiction of a black person I can imagine (worse than what you saw in the bakery). Nobody seems to take offense. My hometown is close to a US military base so I’m fairly certain that dozens of Americans have seen that shop and I’m frankly ashamed because of that. (When the shop opens again in the summer I already promised myself that I will finally confront the owner, if only to make myself feel better.)

Those are only two examples of what I perceive to be a deeply racist society. And nobody seems to notice that or even acknowledge it and be very offended when someone points it out.

[lukas]

Andrew, what's your take on the failed Noah Sow reading in Fulda then? http://www.noahsow.de/blog/2011/10/27/festival-du-racisme-in-fulda/