The latest is a car wash in Blagoveshchensk called “Obama” that promises to wash away all the black dirt from your car. Jokes about the color of the skin of the American president are now a leitmotif in Russian pop culture. Sign of a latent racism sometimes disguised as harmless irony.
The car wash is a marketing gimmick that works in Russia. It makes you smile and is not considered offensive. But the problem is just that. It is in the minds of those who think it’s funny – even for targeted colored people – to make harmless and recurrent jokes about the color of the skin. Just like that Prime Minister who, talking with the then Russian president Medvedev, called Obama “handsome, young and tanned guy“. There is not necessarily the intention to offend. But perhaps those who have been subject to this irony for generations are quite fed up with it.
Banan Obama
There are plenty of episodes like this. There is the dark chocolate ice cream called Obamka, “Little Obama”, produced by a company in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan. There is the calendar seen in Kazan, again Tatarstan, depicting a baby chimpanzee with the face of Barack in the arms of two adult chimpanzees, like posing for family photos. There were posters in the city of Perm with Banan Obama looking at a banana while frothing at the mouth. There was the laser projected by some students on the American embassy facade in Moscow for his 53th birthday, in which a banana was going in and out from his mouth. There was the Redbull event in Moscow where four “blacks men” – one masked as Obama – were chasing a big banana. And finally there is the “Obama chmo!” meme, Something like “schmuck, schmoe”, which invades both the online and offline world. From stickers to T-shirts, it is also was painted on the Russian runway of Latakia, Syria, so big to be seen by American satellites.
An amusing idea
Apart from the last case, however, most of the time there is to believe in a sort of good faith. The ice cream company discontinued the Obamka stick and his manager said that “the name was chosen not to make a political statement, but because they thought the idea was “amusing”. The Kazan store has withdrawn from sale the calendars, saying that it was the first time such a thing happened. And Vadim Shevchenko, a member or Redbull Russia communication department, said that “Of course it’s not an expression of racism. If you had been there you would understand. The situation was absolutely friendly and happy“.
Non c’è dubbio che i ragazzi mascherati da Obama e colorati di nero che inseguivano la grande banana si stessero divertendo. E magari pure tutta la gente lì intorno. Ma è proprio questo il problema. L’indice di una società che non riesce a liberarsi di un razzismo sottopelle e che a volte esplode in superficie. Un modo di pensare che non ritiene offensivo raffigurare una persona di colore come una scimmia o con una banana in bocca. Una pseudo cultura pop che – sull’onda dei rapporti politici con gli Usa ai minimi dai tempi della guerra fredda, della crisi ucraina e dello scontro con la Nato – non trova altro di meglio che prendersela con il colore della pelle del presidente degli Stati uniti.
@daniloeliatweet
The latest is a car wash in Blagoveshchensk called “Obama” that promises to wash away all the black dirt from your car. Jokes about the color of the skin of the American president are now a leitmotif in Russian pop culture. Sign of a latent racism sometimes disguised as harmless irony.
The car wash is a marketing gimmick that works in Russia. It makes you smile and is not considered offensive. But the problem is just that. It is in the minds of those who think it’s funny – even for targeted colored people – to make harmless and recurrent jokes about the color of the skin. Just like that Prime Minister who, talking with the then Russian president Medvedev, called Obama “handsome, young and tanned guy“. There is not necessarily the intention to offend. But perhaps those who have been subject to this irony for generations are quite fed up with it.
