Yep, apply liberal mud for good blackface

In The New York Times today:

“Skulls Confirm We’re All Out Of Africa”

Well, apparently UNICEF Germany, like The Guardian, might have already gotten the memo:

But maybe they also took it a little too seriously? (curtsy to Black Women in Europe, via African American Political Pundit)

BWiE also includes a letter from a Black German media watch group:

dear all,

This link was forwarded to our media-watch organisation by disturbed readers:

http://www.unicef.de/4500.html

This is an actual ad-campaign by UNICEF Germany!

This campaign is „blackfacing“ white children with mud to pose as “uneducated africans“.

The headline translates “This Ad-campaign developed pro bono by the agency Jung von Matt/Alster shows four german kids who appeal for solidarity with their contemporaries in Afrika”

The first kid says:

“I’m waiting for my last day in school, the children in africa still for their first one.”

second kid:

“in africa, many kids would be glad to worry about school”

third kid:

“in africa, kids don’t come to school late, but not at all” (!)

fourth kid:

“some teachers suck. no teachers sucks even more.”

Besides claiming that every single person in “Africa” isn’t educated, and doing so in an extremely patronising way, it is also disturbing that this organisation thinks blackfacing kids with mud (!) equals “relating to african children”. Also, the kids’ statements ignore the existance of millions of african academics and regular people and one again reduces a whole continent to a village of muddy uneducated uncivilized people who need to be educated (probably by any random westerner). This a really sad regression.

Bottom lines of this campaign are: Black = mud = African = uneducated. White = educated. We feel this campaign might do just as much harm as it does any good. You don’t collect money for helping people by humiliating and trivilaizing them first.

There’s more at the BWiE site.

Gee, I better get on this question of when blackfacing = whitewashing (or is it the other way around?)! But really, what we do when even the good intentions are hurtful and tiresome?