Black Lives Matter movement fuels racism debate in small German town
Tensions are running high in a debate over the coat of arms in the northern Bavarian town of Coburg. Two women in faraway Berlin have launched a campaign, saying it is "a racist image" with "no place in today's world."
Critics are arguing that the crest includes a racist depiction: Saint Maurice, also known as the "Coburg Moor," is a Black man with attributes clearly viewed by the creator as stereotypical for the people of Black Africa: thick lips, a slight underbite, and frizzy hair, as well as a large creole earring. The image can be seen throughout the town, featured on facades, signs and — every couple of meters — on the top of manhole covers. He first appeared in Coburg's coat of arms at the end of the 16th century. However, today's version dates back no further than the 1950s.
Moor's head adorns the gate to Coburg's town hall
It is a discriminatory illustration and a throwback to the colonial era, say Juliane Reuther and Alisha Archie. Both live in Berlin but are originally from the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria where Coburg is located. The two women started an online petition calling for the coat of arms to be redesigned. The image obscures the fact that all Black people are different and instead implies "something exotic, some sort of wildness," says Alisha Archie. "It's a racist image and it has no place in today's world."
But that assessment leaves many in Coburg shaking their heads in disbelief. One local woman asked if Reuther and Archie just have a little bit too much time on their hands up in Berlin. Another resident said the "Moor" is part of what Coburg is all about, and that that is the way that it should stay. Down at the mayor's office, the tone is similarly undiplomatic, with the whole debate dismissed as "pointless." After all: how can anybody speak of Coburg as racist given that the patron saint of the town — a figure of veneration — is Black.
The Coburg Moor is featured even on manhole covers all over town
Honor or discrimination?
Honor and reverence are the also terms used by cultural scientist Hubertus Habel. He wrote his doctorate on urban symbols and cultural history in Coburg. He had also dug deeply into the background of the "Moor" and is convinced that the figure symbolizes Saint Maurice, a Black African Christian legionary who was executed for his commitment to his faith. This is why Habel believes that the "Moor" in Coburg's crest is "absolutely inoffensive because of the esteem and high regard that it expresses for the saint."
Alisha Archie says the Coburg Moor is a racist image that has no place in today's world
Alisha Archie responds by asking how can people talk of honor, "when a racist image is used to represent the figure."
Juliane Reuther
Hubertus Habel argues that in the Middle Ages the notion of the "Moor" was probably used in Coburg as "value-free or a term of positive estimation." But Susan Arndt, a specialist in literary studies and cultural science from the University of Bayreuth, disagrees: "From the very beginning, the term was used dismissively. That is from a white Christian perspective with discriminatory intent." The term, she adds, was never used in a neutral fashion.
Arndt, who is also a researcher in the field of racism, says that the debate over the use of the term "Moor" reminds her of a similar debate a few years ago surrounding the n-word in Germany. "I see parallels and patterns repeating themselves." In the earlier debate, she explains, people had also argued that critics of the discriminatory usage were missing the point and that the word in question was not meant to be so demeaning. Arndt concludes that it is a discourse where "no real debate about racism is possible."
Back at Coburg town hall, there is indeed very little appetite for a challenging discussion. Requests for interviews on the troubled topic of the "Moor" are politely turned down. The feeling is that what there is to say has been said; DW's interview was also rebuffed. Residents of the town have in the meantime started a second Internet petition with the title: "Coburg's Moor is here to stay. Save the patron saint in our coat of arms." And the appeal already has more supporters than the earlier petition calling for change.
The fact is, says Tahir Della from the Initiative Black People in Germany, is that society really does need a proper debate. Places where, for instance, Saint Maurice is of such central importance ought to be able to use his name. But he adds: words like "Moor" are simply redundant these days, regardless of the background nuances. For Blacks there is no debate: It is discriminatory.
"It's like calling somebody an idiot and when he complains that it's completely unacceptable, you just go on trying to explain why it's ok. That's precisely what is currently happening."
Tahir Della
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Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland Bun Initiative Black People in Germany
posted
In Sweden there is a bridge called the "Morian bridge" or "Blackamoor Bridge", flanked by two statues who are called "Morianer" (Moors)- The bridge is located in a park in Stockholm (the capital of Sweden). So far there has not been any larger complaints or protests about it. The statues have even prompted a story about a Swedish woman falling in love with them.
quote: Morianbron (Swedish: Blackamoor Bridge) is a small bridge in the gardens of the Ulriksdal Palace in Solna, Sweden, named after the pair of sculptures of so-called blackamoors (e.g. black Moors) standing by the bridge.
Arguably the smallest bridge in the Swedish capital, it also passes over the indeed small stream Igelbäcken flowing through the gardens. The low wooden bridge is on either side flanked by two bronze sculptures painted in black of two black men dressed in loinclothes pulling a fishing net passing under the bridge. The two sculptures, moulded in the early 19th century by the sculptor Per Lundgren, were brought to the Ulriksdal Palace from the royal gardens at Hagaparken. There, they were standing by the network of canals that once flew through the park.
According to an amusing story, a lady standing on the bridge fell in love with the two men and, not being able to choose between them, threw herself into the stream to end her pang of love. The anecdote not only suits the romantic and picturesque environment, it also reflects the fancy for exotic people prevalent during the 18th and early 19th century, typically represented by artists such as Eugène Delacroix.
quote:Originally posted by Archeopteryx: In Sweden there is a bridge called the "Morian bridge" or "Blackamoor Bridge", flanked by two statues who are called "Morianer" (Moors)- The bridge is located in a park in Stockholm (the capital of Sweden). So far there has not been any larger complaints or protests about it. The statues have even prompted a story about a Swedish woman falling in love with them.
quote: Morianbron (Swedish: Blackamoor Bridge) is a small bridge in the gardens of the Ulriksdal Palace in Solna, Sweden, named after the pair of sculptures of so-called blackamoors (e.g. black Moors) standing by the bridge.
Arguably the smallest bridge in the Swedish capital, it also passes over the indeed small stream Igelbäcken flowing through the gardens. The low wooden bridge is on either side flanked by two bronze sculptures painted in black of two black men dressed in loinclothes pulling a fishing net passing under the bridge. The two sculptures, moulded in the early 19th century by the sculptor Per Lundgren, were brought to the Ulriksdal Palace from the royal gardens at Hagaparken. There, they were standing by the network of canals that once flew through the park.
According to an amusing story, a lady standing on the bridge fell in love with the two men and, not being able to choose between them, threw herself into the stream to end her pang of love. The anecdote not only suits the romantic and picturesque environment, it also reflects the fancy for exotic people prevalent during the 18th and early 19th century, typically represented by artists such as Eugène Delacroix.
Interesting story & art though there's no such thing as "exotic people", it's just more arrogant/colonialist thinking to hype Whites as "normal folks". It's overdone & played out like "Black Africa" & now "Sub-Saharan Africa" is belittling & demeaning.
-------------------- Tehutimes Posts: 115 | From: north america | Registered: Jan 2014
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quote: posted by Tehutimes: Interesting story & art though there's no such thing as "exotic people", it's just more arrogant/colonialist thinking to hype Whites as "normal folks". It's overdone & played out like "Black Africa" & now "Sub-Saharan Africa" is belittling & demeaning.
In Sweden Black people in those days were seen as a curiosity since they were not so many, at least not in Sweden itself. Sweden had a couple of colonies (New Sweden in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, Saint-Barthélemy in the Caribbean and Cabo Corso in Ghana) but they were relatively short lived and most Swedes never visited these colonies. Black people (and also Asians and Native Americans) in Sweden were rarely seen, and were considered rather alien and "exotic" and were sometimes treated as curiosities. Some become rather popular. It seems they seldom got as hated as in for example USA. Thus it was for example never forbidden for blacks and whites to marry (in Saint-Barthélemy, were most Black people were held as slaves other rules applied. Even the terminology concerning black people were different there). Someone estimated that from the 1700s to around 1900 no more than around 100 black persons came to live in Sweden. First later in the 1900s that number would increase. Today there are perhaps 200,000 people of African descent in Sweden, most of them are immigrants or children of immigrants. Most African immigrants arrived within the last 40 years.
The attitudes against Black people in Sweden have changed back and forth. In the 1700s and most part of the 1800s they were seen as curiocities. Later racial biology changed the attitudes somewhat so some saw them as some kind of threat against the purity of the white race. Today they are discriminated, but there is a will among our authorities to rectify discrimination. Then we of course have some xenophobics who do not want any immigrants, or people with other skin color, at all.
Even the indigenous population in Northern Scandinavia, the Sámi people, were once seen as alien and exotic and they became subject for Christian mission and other "civilizing" measures to adapt them to the majority culture. Today their culture are more respected but there are still clashes with the majority culture regarding land rights and similar.
-------------------- Once an archaeologist, always an archaeologist Posts: 2683 | From: Sweden | Registered: Mar 2020
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