Sunday, April 15, 2007

Philosophical Question of the Day: Is racism rising or just its reporting? Thoughts?

German army in 'racist video' row

German peacekeepers in Kosovo
The German army has faced a series of scandals in recent years
A video aired on German TV has shown an army recruit on firing practice being ordered to pretend he was in New York's Bronx facing hostile African Americans.

In the grainy 90-second video, the instructor tells the soldier to swear as he fires his gun.

US civil rights leader, Al Sharpton, said it was outrageous to depict blacks as "target practice".

New York officials say they are saddened and frustrated that the Bronx district is depicted so negatively.

"Clearly these folks don't know anything about African-Americans or the Bronx," said Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion Jnr, who recently returned from a trip to Germany to promote tourism to the district.

He has demanded an apology from the Germany military over the clip.

Skulls

During the filmed training session, an instructor tells the soldier: "You're in the Bronx, a black van pulls up in front of you and three African-Americans get out and start really insulting your mother... act!".

The soldier then fires his gun several times and shouts obscenities in English, as the instructor encourages him to curse even louder.

The clip was filmed in a forest in July 2006, near the barracks of the northern German town of Rendsburg .

The German army said it has been aware of the video since January and was investigating it.

It is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the German military.

A group of 18 army instructors are on trial in the country accused of abusing and humiliating recruits during training in 2004.

Last year, German newspapers published images of German soldiers serving in Afghanistan posing with skulls.

Original article posted here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The German government promotes and supports bigotry in order to suppress minorities. Look at what they are doing to religious, racial and ethnic minorities presently. Times have not changed much and it is because of the prevailing pseudo-science of psychiatry and eugenics which has kept this bigotry alive and well.

The world is watching Germany, and we will not let history repeat itself.

Anonymous said...

The German government promotes and supports bigotry in order to suppress minorities. Look at what they are doing to religious, racial and ethnic minorities presently. Times have not changed much and it is because of the prevailing pseudo-science of psychiatry and eugenics which has kept this bigotry alive and well.

The world is watching Germany, and we will not let history repeat itself.