DIE WELT Detects Apartheid in the U.S.

Certainly a memorable moment:

Two black coaches are front and center

(...) Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it all the way to the NFL’s marquee game yesterday when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship. About four hours later, his pal and mentor, Tony Dungy, joined him there when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title. For the first time in the big game’s 41-year history, not one, but two black head coaches will be on the sidelines. “It means a lot,” Dungy said after a 38-34 victory over the New England Patriots. “I’m very proud to represent African-American coaches.”

And here's the headline of Germany's daily WELT:

Super Bowl as Victory Against Apartheid

BTW, number of politicians with an immigration background* in Angela Merkel's cabinet:

None. Zip. Zero. Nil. Nought.

Number of German state presidents (Länder-Ministerpräsidenten) with an immigration background*:

None. Zip. Zero. Nil. Nought.

Quick: name any three top politicians in Germany with an immigration background*! Or: name any Muslim top politician in Germany!

Anyone? Hello??

Where's the victory against apartheid, racism and religious discrimination in Germany?

(* Of course, immigration from the Netherlands, France, and other Western European countries doesn't count here.)

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Comments

[joe]

There is only one race in germany. I think that has been discussed before. Therefore in the land of soical justice something like this can never occur.

[Helian]

It's hard to be too upset about this particular variant of hypocrisy. All these years, as Europe's America-bashing pecksniffs have been pulling long faces and tut-tutting about race relations in the US, their own underserved, abused, segregated and ghettoized minorities have been creeping up past their ankles, their knees, their necks, and will soon start choking the professionally virtuous Europeans every time they open their traps to spout more self-righteous blather about race relations in the US. We're starting to see firsthand how "virtuous" they are in dealing with their own minorities, and it's not pretty. Poetic justice is sweet.

[kid charlemagne]

Freaking unbelievable. And keep in mind that the WELT is a "conservative" paper from the supposedly pro-American Axel Springer publishing house.

[George M]

“Super Bowl als Sieg gegen die Apartheid.“ I don’t think this was a hit against the U.S. I think it is more of a case of Die Welt being out of touch with the U.S.

It reminds me of an incident that I witnessed 5 years ago where a German woman in her late forties asked an African-American “How’s it going, soul brother?” Condescending?....maybe.... out of touch?....I’d say thirty years out of touch

[Gunter]

This is what I mean when I have little concerns regarding the religious influence of muslims in Germany. They are allowed to build their mosques in many cities since the people don´t mind them like they don´t mind children playing at playgrounds. It´s ok as long as they don´t make too much noise. But giving them resonsibility? Hell no!

[Gunter]

I wanted to write responsibility in the post above.

Many hostile feelings towards america among my collegues result out of the comparably strong influence of religion in its society. So they consider americans to be backward. Maybe this gives you an idea how BACKWARD they consider the muslims to be :)

[Jake]

Wow, what a stunning example of total ignorance. It's sad what's happened to Germany. A once great country stumbling toward irrelevance.

[Pamela]

Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, John Lewis, Barbara Jordan (in St. Peter's house now), - all of them - are stunned. Simply stunned.

To say nothing of Mike Tomlin (new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers).

Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods.

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena (tennis).

blah blah blah.

Do any Germans here even BEGIN to feel their intelligence is being insulted?

[joe]

Pamela,

This is a bit off topic but interesting none the less. Look at the maps on both links.

http://www.gmapalumni.org/chapomatic/

http://tjic.com/?p=5076

[Deist]

Its a sad thing journalism has declined to a kind of "short fiction writer" job where you mix some information or facts with a lot of personal bias.
Sad thing indeed.

Anyway ... do me a favour and use correct analogies next time ok ?
You should have asked the question:

"Number of black coaches in the Bundesliga" ?

:-)

[kalif]

hello,
i just have recently discovered this blog. its really interesting to see different perspectives on german media coverage.

ot: what is so bad about the article as a whole? sure, i wont argue that the headline isnt exaggerated. but the rest of the article tells a story of a succesfull system, the art-rooney-rule, which has balanced an inequality in the nfl. i dont read the article as anti-amerikan.
for me, it tells how amerikan society has managed to give black people the chance of getting into positions which were out of their reach before that rule was implemented. quite a good achievement, if you ask me.

[alexogh]

BtW: this is how they see us, italians, a nation of mafious in their opinions...

http://zuender.zeit.de/2006/28/italien-finale-mafia

Kind Regards,
a spaghettifresser
Alex

[Scott_H]

Welcome to the party "Welt." As Pamela points out, you're just a few decades late with your "headline" -- not to mention the fact that your use of terms is incorrect.

As an aside, does anyone else find this definition of "apartheid" from Britannica interesting...maybe even ironic?

"apartheid: Policy of racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in South Africa."

http://www.answers.com/topic/apartheid

[kid charlemagne]

Welcome, kalif. I think most people here are reacting to the headline, not the article itself. I find it is often the case in the German media that the headlines send a more negative message about America than the articles they accompany.

[Fred H]

Hi Kalif, welcome!
Journalists are well aware that most people don’t have time to read every single article. I, for example, read about five to ten percent of the daily newspaper, but I read almost every single headline. That means that for practical purposes (about ninety percent of the time) the headline often IS the article as a whole. And remember, journalists are well aware of this.
Also, I disagree with your characterization of the headline as "exaggerated". Personally, I would say "false". For me, describing the NFL as apartheid goes one step beyond exaggeration and steps into the realm of fantasy, propaganda, and ignorance. Or, perhaps you and the author are just too young to remember what apartheid really was? I think that to describe the NFL as apartheid also belittles the real apartheid.

[edvars]

The funny thing is, that most Germans are very proud of, that Germany never had any Racial Discrimination Laws(besides the ones in the third Reich of course). I have often discussed this issue with my German friends, and most of them seems to divide the Nazi past from their own way of thinking. But!, You just have to watch German commercials for a few ours, then you will notice how Italians, Hawaiians and other ethnic groups are portraited as funny and naive, contrary to the way white Germans are shown. Arrogance is the primarily problem here, and always was.

[James]

Also, never mind that it was the US who took a strong stand against the racist South African nation during Apartheid. What was West Germany's stand at the time? Probably similar to the current all-talk with Iran, but continue to do big trade. By the way, anyone ever been to Namibia? If you're ever interested in seeing a Swastika presented in public, go there! Namibia was a German colony and German is still widely spoken.

I used to work in London and knew many South Africans who found it necessary to ridicule the US' stance on their Apartheid system. Ironic as the discussion took place in the country who killed 10s of thousands of them and invented the concentration camp during the Boer War. But I digress...

Germany will gain my respect when they sacrifce trade in the name of their beliefs and rhetoric.

[Helian]

@kalif

"ot: what is so bad about the article as a whole? sure, i wont argue that the headline isnt exaggerated."

As Germerican points out, this is one of the oldest tricks in the book for the German media propagandists. They throw red meat to the haters in the form of America bashing headlines, knowing that most of them never read further anyway. The rest of the article is much more "balanced," except of course, for what is left out. In this case, for example, after shamelessly referring to "aparteid" in the US, there is not the faintest hint of a mention of race relations or the situation of minorities in Germany. There is, of course, good reason for that. The comparison would not be flattering to Germany.

If you have an open mind, it won't be hard for you to pick up on this phenomenon. Just visit the SPON and STERN websites for a couple of months, find the America bashing headlines, and then read the articles. You'll see the same thing repeated over and over again.

[Pamela]

joe, that map is hilarious! Altho I'm not sure how accurate - Saudi Arabia has the GDP of Tennessee? But the funniest part is West Virginia = Algeria. That's about right - and when you think Robert Byrd has delivered more pork to that state than Hormel, you gotta wonder.

Back on topic - I wonder what the headline will be if Condi gets her wish and becomes commissioner of the NFL.

HA!

[PlutosDad]

I always find it silly to read stuff like this coming out of France and Germany, two countries with much worse per capita anti-immigrant and anti-white violence.

[Helian]

"I always find it silly to read stuff like this coming out of France and Germany, two countries with much worse per capita anti-immigrant and anti-white violence."

It really blows the "objective criticism" argument out of the water, doesn't it? For the European hate pedlars, racism is just another club to bash America, just another item in the anti-American dossier. If they really cared about the problem, they could never be shameless enough to pontificate about the racism of others while entirely ignoring the racist discrimination that pervades their own societies. They're so busy bitching about the US, they're not even aware of their own shamelessness. So much for the "objective criticism" canard.

[Pamela]

@PlutosDad
I always find it silly to read stuff like this coming out of France and Germany, two countries with much worse per capita anti-immigrant and anti-white violence.

What anti-immigrant or anti-white violence has there been in France or Germany pray tell? The banlieue violence in France has been perpetrated by immigrants and it is not anti-white - it's anti-authority/anti-France.

Am I misunderstanding your post?

[Pamela]

@edvars
I have often discussed this issue with my German friends, and most of them seems to divide the Nazi past from their own way of thinking.

Well, if they are too young to bear any responsibility, I deem that a good thing. That is not a stain that should bleed down through history.

One of the most heartbreaking stories I've read here was posted by 'Paul', I think. While in Germany he fell in love with a German woman whose back story was:

She was born either very late in the war or after. But when she was about 6 years old, she was on vacation with her parents (in the Netherlands?) and a man overheard them speaking German. So he smacked HER in the face. Her parents did nothing - just accepted it.

There are so many layers to that story - parents not only not defending their child but teaching her to accept their guilt - and a man who would attack an innocent child because

- he was still to afraid of Germans to go after her father

- he wanted to hurt Germans where they were most vulnerable - their children

(In either case he was a bastard and so were her parents.)

Or something I haven't though of yet.

In any case, I'm glad to hear your German friends abjure not only the responsibility but the guilt. Germany cannot move forward without that.

[Pamela]

hello kalif, welcome. The reason I did not address your post earlier is that I needed time to read it with the attention it deserves.

First, your contention that the 'apartheid' headline is 'merely' an exaggeration is wrong. It is not an exaggeration. It is a slur.

There is in the article an intimation (if I'm translating this properly*) that whites collect money on the backs of black athletes. This is an unequivocal reference to the U.S. history of slavery.

*[Someone please translate 'Fernsehverträgen' and 'unterrangiger Assistenztrainer' for me - I got the assistant trainer part- unterrangiger not so much]

So. I do appreciate your reading of this article as giving kudos to America for 'it tells how amerikan society has managed to give black people the chance of getting into positions which were out of their reach before that rule was implemented. quite a good achievement, if you ask me.'

But to ascribe the credit for Blacks occupying position of head coaches in the NFL as being due to a rule is to exploit and demean them - as in 'they never would have made it without this rule that the generous whites put in place.'

Do you start to get it now?

[Pamela]

kalif, to put it in a nutshell:

These black men are economic slaves released from their bondage so that white owners can make money from them.

That is the meme.

[Don Miguel]

"But to ascribe the credit for Blacks occupying position of head coaches in the NFL as being due to a rule is to exploit and demean them ..."

Especially since both of them rose to their positions and arrived at the championship game due to one primary factor: ability. Dungy and Smith are both excellent coaches and have proved it since day one in their jobs.

[James W.]

@Pamela

"*[Someone please translate 'Fernsehverträgen' and 'unterrangiger Assistenztrainer' for me - I got the assistant trainer part- unterrangiger not so much]"

Fernsehverträgen - TV contracts

unterrangiger Assistenztrainer - low-ranked assistant trainer

[James W.]

Welt:
Doch während mit Jerry Reese (New York Giants) vergangene Woche ein weiterer Schwarzer für den Top-Manager-Posten eingestellt wurde, mussten zwei farbige Headcoaches (Dennis Green/Arizona Cardinals und Art Shell/Oakland Raiders) seit dem Ende der regulären Saison schon wieder ihre Entlassungspapiere in Empfang nehmen. Umso wichtiger ist der Erfolg von Dungy und Smith für alle dunkelhäutigen Bewerber auf Spitzenpositionen.

Why doesn't Die Welt mention that Shell and Green have not done what was expected of them...make playoff teams out of the Cardinals and Raiders. One could get the impression that they were fired because they were black.

Affirmative action keeps it being about race. How about the best qualified gets the job? Who decides when "racial equality" has been achieved and affirmative action is no longer needed? As Pamela has already pointed out, affirmative action only causes more problems... such as,"You only got this position because ..."

[Mir]

>> One could get the impression that they were fired because they were black.

That's usually the point of this kind of "journalism".

[kid charlemagne]

Most Germans are not familiar with "affirmative action" and have no idea what a large role it plays in America.

[James W.]

>> One could get the impression that they were fired because they were black.

That's usually the point of this kind of "journalism".

Oh, I know, Mir. That was just my shot at Socratic irony. ;-)

[PamM]

But ask the Germans to explain how American football is played and they'll give you a blank look! Heh.

Also, have they never seen any of the players? Many of them are black and make bucketloads of money like most sports stars. In fact, in basketball, there seem to be more black players than white, but you'll never see that in a headline. Racism in America is a common theme among the European chattering classes, yet they continue to ignore the racism/discrimination that goes on in their own backyards. And as several commenters have noted, the headline is most important in any story, as many people either don't have time, or don't bother, to read the entire piece.

[George M]

This is the way the story should be reported without regards to race:

Tony Dungy and team leader, Payton Manning, finally beat their nemesis, the Bill Billechek and the New England Patriots, after constantly being on the losing end in three previous post-season confrontations. Manning, who can be compared to Beckham in Euro soccer, has been rated the best quarterback in the league for the last 8 years. Like Beckham, Manning has always choked during important games. In last Sunday’s confrontation, Dungy’s team, lead by Manning, overcame a 21-3 half time deficit to beat their rivals, New England, 38-34.

Lovie Smith, who was voted “coach of the year” the previous year for vastly improving his team, the Chicago Bears, may now leave Chicago to replace legendary coach Bill Parcels at Dallas. The Bears organization mistakenly waited to the end of the year to make Smith an offer to extend his contract. Dallas is known as a team that is very generous with its player and coach salaries. Dallas also happens to be Smith’s hometown. Smith’s mother has publicly expressed her delight if Dallas were to offer him a generous contract.

Bottom line: both coaches are in their present positions because both earned it. Smith turned around a losing team to take them to the playoffs two years in a row. Dungy has had a good team built around the league’s best quarterback. Dungy has been out coached in previous playoff games, but has struck gold this time around.

[CynthiaBoston]

Alex the Spaghettifresser correctly points out the German media's shortcomings with regard both to sports and discrimination. A short Google search led me to Italians' reactions to German media coverage of last year's World Cup, with Italians being charmingly characterized as parasites, among other things. And Die Zeit's head is half-Italian, like me. Italian blogger and comedian Beppe Grillo came up also, renaming Der Spiegel as Der Strunzen (Alex, spiegaglielo tu, io non oso). This brought unpleasant flashbacks to the infamous Spiegel cover of the 1970's, with a P38 on top of a plate of spaghetti (Germany had no terrorism in the 70's, as we all know). The update was a deflated soccer ball on a plate of spaghetti in euro sauce.
Go Pats! Brady and Belichek rule!

[Thomass]

So if a couple Jewish coaches do well in Germany it will be reported as a Victory against Nazism?

[Pamela]

So if a couple Jewish coaches do well in Germany it will be reported as a Victory against Nazism?

No, it will be blamed on a Zionist/American conspiracy, you silly person.

CynthiaBoston, your post reminded me of something. A few years ago during summer vacation when (apparently) many Germans go to Italy, didn't Berlusconi pop off, telling Gerhard to just go home already and the Italians are tired of rude German tourists - who are badly dressed, too. So there.

I thought it was laugh-out-loud funny.

[CynthiaBoston]

Pamela:

Berlusconi pops off with depressing regularity. But he was speaking as a citizen and expressing his own viewpoints (most of which I don't agree with). But I must say that the media empire over which he presides and with which I am very familiar has never reached the depths of the German media as presented by this blog, in terms of barefaced propaganda and subliminal manipulation. And this brings up another point. The excessive, morbid interest Europeans show toward Americans distracts them from knowing each other, which would seem to be a pre-requisite for European Union. And without this union, you are likely to always be in a collective position of inferiority with respect to America. And maybe with respect to China and India in the not-so-distant future.
And Pamela. Italians do dress better.

[lars]

"Quick: name any three top politicians in Germany with an immigration background*! Or: name any Muslim top politician in Germany!

Anyone? Hello??"

currently there are 5 muslims in the bundestag.

lale akgün (spd)

ekin deligöz (greens)

hakki keskin (left party.pds)
sevim dagdelen (left party.pds)
hüseyin aydin (left party.pds)

other politicians with a migration background:

josip juratovic (spd) born in croatia
sebastian edathy (spd) india

josef philip winkler (greens) mother from india - he has both citizenships
jerzy montag (greens) jewish,born in kattowice, poland
omid nouripour (greens) born in iran, parents fled from there after the mullahs came to power

michaela noll (cdu) father was born in iran

source: http://www.das-parlament.de/2007/03/Thema/005.html

@ cynthia
face it, your average kraut dislikes everything and everyone, not just italians. well, 'we' seem to have a special love-hate relationship with italy.
if you've got the worng skin colour, look like a leftist or dress 'un-german' chances are high that you're lynched by some pro-german mob. germany has always been and, most likely, will always be a racist society. the only way the 'kulturnation' can define itself is by picking on others.

[blue]

Hi Lars, so you googled the same article as me. :-) To be honest, I have not heard of any of these members of parliament before. I think, the only better-known politician with "Migrationshintergrund" is Cem Özdemir, Green Party, Member of the European Parliament and former Member of the German Parliament.

On-topic: I do not know how hard/easy it is for blacks to gain a higher up position in the football league and I frankly have not cared before, but whoever tries to liken apartheid to the situation in the U.S. has never been to South Africa during the time that apartheid was enacted to its full extent.

[Pamela]

@CynthiaBoston
And Pamela. Italians do dress better.

I have to admit to a bias here. I met tons of Italians in Spain back in the early 1980's. While the Aussies were fun in an insane sort of way, the Italians were - I don't know - just beautiful. I'm so blessed to be born American, but if I had to change that aspect of my life - my second choice would be Italian.

If anyone really questions that, I ask you - what other culture could produce Sophia Loren?

And you want proof there is a God?

feh.

[CynthiaBoston]

Lars:

I am not the world's expert on Germans, but I must disagree with your comments. If I think (with the originators of this blog) that to condemn an entire country out of hand is wrong in the case of my country, the US, it is also wrong in the case of yours. Having said this, I think the average non-German is wary of Germans because of their history. You don't enjoy the presumption of innocence, but (for me at least) you don't deserve the presumption of guilt, either. Italy and Germany do have funny relations, and always have had- I recently read a bio of Count Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and Foreign Minister. He and Ribbentrop cordially hated each other.

Pamela: Who could possibly argue about the merits of Sophia Loren?

[alexogh]

Hi guys, Hi girls...
Nice what you say about italians!!
Thx Pamela!! It seems, you really like us!!
(BtW: not every italian dresses so good and looks so good...
ehm ehm for instance, I am pretty fat !!)
Jokes apart,
Here what makes me really angry is that this kind of journalism, as I pointed out, really lives on stereotypes:

I get upset for the reason of being so stupidly insulted: I am obviously not so stupid as not being able to recognize all of our defects:
(BtW for instance, the reaction of Berlusconi in the E.U. parliament WAS NOT TO BE EXCUSED (NO WAY!!) and I shame myself for such a politician...)
...but this is not a reason to claim that we are all shit mafious... is it ?
Do you know that for example, since I attached a small italian sign (a green-white-red flag) on the rear of my car here in Munich quite every day there is someone showing me the middle finger ? (Stinkefinger auf Deutsch) ? Do you know that in my previous company cantine there was a poster with a plate of spaghetti and carabine holes on the picture with the invitation "italian week" ? (Is this funny?)

BtW coherency would be then that, if this is funny, people should laugh also at the externation of Berlusconi in the E.U. or only germans can do this kind of Satire ??

The fact is, obviously, I think both nations should not!

But I see that if you speak about this kind of stuff, the average italian and the average german do not move away from their stereotypes:

-> Germans are all nazis (for the average italian)
-> Italians are all mafious (for the average german)

www.alessandroogheri.com
Alex