Originally posted by Henri
I don't think the distinction between what refers to the character of the
author and what refers to some feature suposedly shared among Germans is
that neat. Was he really making a completely random, unrelated statement
about Germans, only to carry on with whatever he had in mind immediately
after? Like, you know spanish woman have moustache and I like Phoronix
forums? I don't think so. Actually, I had read those sentences in the
same way Blackstar had before he (inaccurately) quoted them in the forum.
Anyway, my partner is an expert on racism questions. She tells me
it would be a stretch to consider that a racist remark. Not because
some prejudice about Asians and Europeans is common place, or
because some cultural differences as was suggested before, but because
there is not enough material to know what the position of the author
really is. If he had made explicit, for instance, that Germans are direct
in constrast to, say, French, that would be OK because there isn't an
asymmetric power relation between those peoples. If Germans were direct as
opposed to Turks, and a positive value were assigned to directness (which
normally is) we could start talking about something. Since I won't find a
more informed opinion than hers on the whole internet, I retract my
comment about those words.
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