If you’re in the automotive business and can understand German, then A M und S (as the cognoscenti know it) is the must-read bi-weekly. Auto Motor & Sport offers features with brilliant technical detail about the snazziest innovations and highest-tech automotive gadgets. For me, it’s always a chore, never a pleasure. The Stuttgart- based periodical is dour and relentlessly auto-centric. If something is pro car industry, then they like it, if not . . . they don’t. Reading AM&S is as about as much fun as a listening to a cocktail party-goer going on about the Swabian way of sweeping sidewalks. Anyway, here’s my beef . . .
Auto, Motor und Sport has a weekly “Tops und Flops” column. They offer predictable bullet points, such as, “Good news: Clunker culling program means Opel selling more cars than in past five years” and “Bad news: European Union will not help auto industry.” But what’s this in last week’s print edition? “Black-Out: US President Obama says Americans Invented the Automobile.” Are they crazy? Is “Black-Out” supposed to be funny or what? Probably. Are they racist? Certainly not. Are they stupid like Berlusconi (who congratulated America for having a “nicely tanned” President-elect)? Stimmt?
Huh???!
It was the French, of course, in 1769, with Cugnot’s Fardier a Vapeur.
I did some googling, and it appears Obama really did say that we invented the car. But, shoot, I think Obama can be excused for his mistake. He has enough on his mind right now.
Honda Civic.
The official car of union loving libs that would not under penalty of death drive a union made car.
Are they racist? Certainly not.
Okay, not that I care one way or the other, but was there something in the content that makes you say that with absolute certainty?
We better get Reverend Al on this one stat. At least Jackie Mason will be relieved the pressure is off…
Honda Civic.
The official car of union loving libs that would not under penalty of death drive a union made car.
+1. Most excellent demographic observation.
Oh man, my fellow Germans are getting on my nerves today. Here’s a piece about a new product being sold in Germany: fried chicken à la “Obama Fingers”,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,612684,00.html
I maintain that these are examples of crass naivité and backwardness, not of virulent racism. How do I know? I don’t.
I’d say the the “Black-out” by AMS is absolutely beyond the pale, so to speak. Especially in Germany, where most people think it’s racist to call a black person a black person. They think “Farbiger” (colored) is less offensive.
Calling “Obama Fingers” racist is a bit of a reach. Tasteless would be more like it.
Is Berlusconi racist? He certainly is.
I’m sure that Obama meant “first mass-produced car” as in the Model T…
Be a deb8er, but not a h8er, people.
I maintain that these are examples of crass naivité and backwardness, not of virulent racism.
I concur. A friend over there shopped in a music store once. All the Hip Hop was located in the “Black” section. [facepalm] Good Grief.
This is of secondary importance, but I feel the question must be asked. How exactly does a Swabian sweep steps?
How exactly does a Swabian sweep steps?
How? Very thoroughly. The neighbors are watching.
When? When it’s his turn. In many Swabian rental buildings, a certain renter has “Sweeping Week” duty (Kehrwoche,) designated by a sign at his door. Must sweep hallways, stairs etc. During the “Big Sweeping Week” (Grosse Kehrwoche) the sidewalk in front of the house has to be swept also.
Enforcement: Peer pressure.
Don’t you think you are overly sensitive? “Black-out” is a word used in Germany quite normally. And use of this word shall already be racist? Or “Obama fingers” – when I read the article from the Spiegel, you must already be quite into the american culture before understanding that fried chicken had been associated with Afro-Americans in the US. I lived there 18 months of my life and never had such association.
“Politically Correct” seems to be the main line of your article – but in the end, that turns out to be ridiculous. And by the Way: Bertel Schmitt thinks it’s alright to write that the british minister thiks that the “Krauts” have done a good thing on the clunkers. Who is being prejudiced?
To Robert Farago: this is no flaming.