Europe Racism: Outrage in France as magazine calls black minister ‘monkey’
PARIS: A weekly newspaper with a front page comparing a black government minister to a monkey hit newsstands in France, despite legal objections and a nationwide outcry over the racist slur.
Amid mounting concern over similar recent incidents, the far-right satirical publication 'Minute' went on sale with a cover featuring a picture of justice minister Christiane Taubira and headlines which read, "Crafty as a monkey" and "Taubira gets her banana back" on Wednesday. The text is deliberately ambiguous — the term "crafty as a monkey" in French can be used as praise while getting your banana back is roughly the equivalent of recovering the spring in your step. Taubira herself described the newspaper's words as "extremely violent" and "denying she belonged to the human race".
The provocative cover page was also an obvious reference to two other recent cases of Taubira being publicly likened to a monkey, incidents which have triggered much soul-searching among liberal commentators over a surge in intolerance. Minute's front page provoked an outcry among politicians with them calling for the magazine's editor and publisher to be prosecuted for incitement of racial hatred.
Amid mounting concern over similar recent incidents, the far-right satirical publication 'Minute' went on sale with a cover featuring a picture of justice minister Christiane Taubira and headlines which read, "Crafty as a monkey" and "Taubira gets her banana back" on Wednesday. The text is deliberately ambiguous — the term "crafty as a monkey" in French can be used as praise while getting your banana back is roughly the equivalent of recovering the spring in your step. Taubira herself described the newspaper's words as "extremely violent" and "denying she belonged to the human race".
The provocative cover page was also an obvious reference to two other recent cases of Taubira being publicly likened to a monkey, incidents which have triggered much soul-searching among liberal commentators over a surge in intolerance. Minute's front page provoked an outcry among politicians with them calling for the magazine's editor and publisher to be prosecuted for incitement of racial hatred.
Source http://timesofindia.com/world/europe/Outrage-in-France-as-magazine-calls-black-minister-monkey/articleshow/25783584.cms
Comments