Archives for November 29th, 2004

A headline from Slovenske Novice, October 26, 2004.

Here’s a headline you’ll never see in the United States:

"Black like the devil, they butchered lambs"

It’s from a story that recently ran in Slovenia’s biggest daily newspaper, Slovenske Novice, about two black dogs that went berserk on a farm and killed some lambs. The fact that this was the top story in the country is already interesting enough. The choice of words, though, is even more so.

It’s safe to say that no professional news organization in America (or elsewhere in the west) would ever use the phrase "black like the devil" — not even to describe dogs. Slovenia is a different story. For one thing, the population is 102% white. For another, the concept of "political correctness" hasn’t been established here.

Case in point: Mladina, the popular left-leaning magazine. A few years ago, it published a photoshopped image of the American ambassador to Slovenia (who was black) wearing a star-spangled condom over a titanic schlong. (NSFW picture)  The U.S. embassy protested and the ambassador later told the newspaper VeÄ?er:

I think that if an American magazine
had done the same thing, it would not be done with such distaste and
racism. The fact that some magazine publishes a caricature of me
does not bother me, but if it is racist, then it bothers me very much. (via)

Of course, I can’t think of a single mainstream American magazine that would ever run that picture. Time magazine caused a big stir just by darkening O.J. Simpson on one of its covers — I can’t even imagine what would happen if they photoshopped him inside with a huge wang. Pandemonium, probably.

Also: the blue word in the headline ("kri") means "blood." I find it extremely funny that they included it.