Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/09/17

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Subject: [Leica] The KKK: Kaiserliche und Koenigliche Kaffeklatsch
From: marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)
Date: Wed Sep 17 15:48:45 2008
References: <C4F6EE56.3626%manolito@videotron.ca> <A7481BC1-13AC-4076-84F4-90FBD4CE7490@pix-that-stimulate.com>

At 05:33 PM 9/17/2008, Tarek Charara wrote:
 >Wow. That's a) insulting and b) a very stupid remark
 >
 >
 >Le 17 sept. 08 ? 23:26, EPL a ?crit :
 >
 >> Germany = Racism R Us.

Hmm.  Germans are particularists to a fault -- 
those in Pomerania look down on those from 
Bavaria, and all Germans seem to sneer at "those 
crazy Swabians", the Newfies of the 
Fatherland.  But trying to assign to the Germans 
a special state of  disfavor for "racism" is just 
silly.  The French are equally silly on such 
points as are the Russians and the British seem 
to viscerally believe that "wogs begin at Calais".

I agree that Lee has probably had a shitload of 
culture shock to accommodate -- US management has 
trouble getting past the serving of beer in 
lunchrooms.  And I suspect some of his 
subordinates probably do have a bias against him 
because of his origin but, I suspect, this might 
perhaps be more due to his USian roots than his 
Oriental genetic background.  The Germans and 
Chinese had an extremely close relationship in 
the Interwar period, after all, and many German 
firms, from Mauser to Leitz to Zeiss Ikon, 
marketed there extensively.  To be fair, it did 
take Zeiss more than twenty years to find an 
Oriental capable of serving as a final inspector 
in the "Round-Eye Room" at the Contax SLR 
lensworks in Kyoto, and he was a Chinese national from Hong Kong.

The accusation that the Germans are racist is 
neither stupid nor dumb but it is a meaningless 
statement as it ignores the reality that most of 
us are racists and most of us live in racist 
nations.  So what?  Don't wait for others to do 
it but think for yourself.  Shucks, I will admit 
to having some German friends (though I rarely 
repeat this in polite company) and, on several 
occasions, contrary to my Highland roots, I've 
even had actual ENGLISHMEN and ENGLISHWOMEN -- 
folks from the southern part of Britain, mind 
you, REAL Anglo-Saxons -- SLEEP UNDER MY 
ROOF!  If I can rise to this, surely an 
occasional German can rise above particularism 
and, perhaps, there will come a day when a 
Parisian acknowledges that France includes Languedoc.

For that matter, to most of those who live in the 
Western Hemisphere, we in the US and Canada are 
either "Nordamericanos" or "Anglos".  Go figure.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



Replies: Reply from glehrer at san.rr.com (Jerry Lehrer) ([Leica] The KKK: Kaiserliche und Koenigliche Kaffeklatsch)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] The KKK: Kaiserliche und Koenigliche Kaffeklatsch)
In reply to: Message from manolito at videotron.ca (EPL) ([Leica] Re: In depth article on Leica - Slow to Refocus)
Message from tarek.charara at pix-that-stimulate.com (Tarek Charara) ([Leica] Re: In depth article on Leica - Slow to Refocus)