Even after the decision to withdraw several children’s books due to allegations of racism, the German company Ravensburger faces severe criticism. Hundreds of Instagram users expressed their incomprehension about the decision and accused the company of censorship or giving in to criticism.
“Hurt Others’ Feelings”
The company had announced that it would stop delivering the books “The Young Chief Winnetou” to the film of the same name. On Instagram, this was justified with user feedback that showed “that we hurt the feelings of others with the Winnetou titles”. According to a spokesman, one is now convinced that in view of the historical reality, the oppression of the indigenous population, a “romanticizing picture with many clichés” is being drawn.
In contrast, the German “interest group authors” spoke of “publishing self-censorship” in view of Ravensburger’s step. “What is published and disseminated is what the social networks like,” it said in a written response yesterday. “The criticism cannot be constructed enough so that a self-incriminating pose of dismay is not immediately found, which ends in self-censorship.” This devalues the freedom of the media and art “in a scandalous way”. “In any case, with such withdrawals from book projects, the freedom of journalism is over, and so is the freedom of art.”
“Problematic Discussion”
The discussion about cultural appropriation, which recently led to concert cancellations by white musicians with dreadlocks in Switzerland, also plays a role here. The German ethnologist Susanne Schröter finds the current discussion about cultural appropriation problematic. “The scandalization of cultural appropriations reveals a number of absurdities. One concerns the consequences of thinking through the required restrictions on use. Then, for every object, every style, every form of cultural expression, the authors would have to be identified and you be limited to these authors,” says the professor at Frankfurt’s Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.
For Schröter, cultural appropriation is basically something positive. “People have always adopted things from others when they thought they made sense.” The entire history of mankind is a history of cultural appropriations, without which there would have been no development.
Source: Nachrichten
