Obamamania, lost in translation

A German company’s new line of frozen fried chicken called Obama Fingers is sparking outrage on both sides of the Atlantic and inspiring a new debate on racist stereotypes.

By Jessica Dorrance

After Barack Obama’s victory last fall and inauguration in January as America’s first black president, Obama-fever swept the globe.

And of course, with it came the unending array of products relating to the popular leader including T-shirts, mugs and even a Dutch-produced “Obama flower.”

However, a German company’s release in March of a new line of frozen chicken strips, called Obama Fingers, suggests there are aspects about Obama and American culture that get lost in translation.

The chicken fingers, packaged in a box showing the product against a blurred American flag and the Golden Gate Bridge, have sparked outrage in both Germany and North America: Many are calling the product racist, saying that it plays on a bigoted stereotype about black people and fried chicken.

In the United States, at least two politicians, Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) and New York State Senator Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), have already publicly condemned the product.

“Without a doubt it does raise concerns that are rooted in the history of racism and stereotypical types of characterizations of African-Americans," Perkins told The New York Daily News. "It reminds us that [Obama's] victory does not automatically end that which we've been struggling against."

One blogger on Gawker.com suggested the company add watermelon sorbet to its Obama line. Another website, Brandfreak, anointed the product its “offensive food item of the day.”

Judith Witting, the sales manager for Sprehe, the company that produced Obama Fingers, told Spiegel Online that the connection between her product and the racist stereotype never occurred to her.

"It was supposed to pay homage to the American lifestyle and the new U.S. president," she said. "We noticed that American products and the American way of eating are trendy at the moment.”

For some, however, Sprehe’s explanation of the reasoning behind their product falls short.

“I think it is absolutely typical for a German firm,” said Natasha Kelly, editor of X, das Magazin für AfroKultur, a German magazine specializing in African culture. She characterizes the product as unequivocally racist, adding that saying “oops” is not an excuse for ignorance and racism. “The problem that we have here in Germany is that there is no awareness at all about black topics and black history in general and no institutions dealing with black culture. The [black German] community has been fighting for over 20 years now to be heard but it’s just not happening and that's why these kinds of things happen repeatedly.”

This is not the first time during Obama’s rise to power that Germans have gotten into trouble for playing into racist stereotypes.

Last June, just after Obama won the majority of Democratic delegates, formally putting him on the way to the presidency, the leftist German newspaper Die Tageszeitung ran a picture of the White House on its front cover with the caption: “Uncle Barack’s Cabin.”

The caption refers to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which many credit with generating and perpetuating racist stereotypes -- despite its positive role in the abolitionist movement. The novel’s protagonist, for instance, Uncle Tom, has become a pejorative way to refer to blacks that are subservient to white people.

"The headline is intended to be satirical," deputy editor-in-chief Reiner Metzger told Spiegel Online in response to the subsequent indignation about the cover. "'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is a book that all Germans know and which they associate with issues of racism. The headline is supposed to make people think about these stereotypes. It works on many levels."

The Obama cover was at least the second time the alternative paper, known for its outspoken positions on issues such as xenophobia in Germany, the environment and globalization, had made the literary allusion in connection to a black American politician. In 2004, the paper ran a story about Condoleezza Rice’s appointment to Secretary of State titled: “Uncle Tom’s Rice.”

The persistent use of such stereotypes, most of which would be considered unacceptable in the American mainstream press, is due to a different understanding of what counts as racism in Germany, said Henrik Hartmann, project manager of the Berlin-based Institute for Cultural Diplomacy He explains that Germans either don’t realize such stereotypes can be bigoted or just don’t consider them “serious” racism.

“It does invoke a racist stereotype,” said Hartmann of the Obama Fingers controversy. “But I think Germans don’t consider subtle racism really racism. When we talk of racism in Germany, it’s always about physical attacks on people who are black: That is the public discourse on racism. “[The products, on the other hand] are not racist – they’re funny.”

In the past, other products  have also been named in a way that wouldn’t fit with sensitivities that exist in American culture. Hartmann cites the example of the popular German dessert that first appeared in the early 20th century, the Schokokuss or Schaumkuss. The Schokokuss, made out of a marshmallow-like filling coated in chocolate and sitting atop a waffle, was traditionally called a Negerkuss (Negro kiss) -- although many manufacturers ultimately avoided marketing it under that name.

Average German consumers tend to brush off the darker implications of such labeling. It’s a sign of reconciliation,” said Stefan Baumann, a Sprehe sales manager, of the Obama Fingers. “We would have never named something after Bush. But we love Obama.”

And with that regard, Germans like Kelly are still hopeful about changing German attitudes toward race, identity and stereotypes.

“This is our time especially in countries like Germany where we don’t have [a lot of racial awareness] to strike – to make the mainstream aware that Germany has a black history too,” said Kelly. “The most important thing for me is to be able to tell my kids that they can do anything. [With Obama,] we finally have a world idol.”

As for the fate of Obama Fingers, perhaps true disciples of Obamamania will note the irony of a company marketing frozen fried chicken under the banner of a man who champions healthy, locally-produced food – and stick to buying expensive arugula.

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