[The Non-Euclidean Blog] Black Europeans on the Stump

[NEB]

Maybe I should call them African-Europeans. At any rate, a couple of Europeans of African extraction have made headlines lately. Joachim Crima is running for local office in Russia, and isn't afraid to use a racially-tinged Russian metaphor to his advantage:

"I want to make the lives of people who I consider my compatriots better. I am ready to work from morning until evening to resolve their problems," he told Russian news service Ria Novisti. "In other words, I am ready to toil like a Negro."

The cringe-inducing phrase is an all-too-common expression in Russia that Crima has adopted as his campaign slogan to convey his work ethic to potential constituents.

Oh, ABC. Your claim to objective reporting makes us laugh when you sprinkle your articles with editorials like "cringe-inducing" and "all-too-common." Anyway, the AP says that Crima, originally from Guinea-Bissau, knows he doesn't stand a chance, but is having a good time.

Meanwhile, a German of Angolan extraction is disturbing brown-shirted ghosts in his bid for public office:

The situation escalated Wednesday when the NPD's [National Democratic Party's] national leadership held a rally in Schall's adopted hometown of Hildburghausen. Party Chairman Udo Voigt tried to speak with Schall "and persuade Mr. Schall that he is needed more in Angola than in Germany," the NPD said in a news release.

The NDP's website calls Schall his party's Quotenneger. That'd be quota Negro, or token black, if you like. And here I thought Europe was the bastion of progressive politics. Silly me.

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Posted By NEB to The Non-Euclidean Blog at 8/14/2009 11:50:00 AM