File(s) under permanent embargo
Reason: This item is currently closed access.
'Black Shame' - the campaign against 'racial degeneration' and female degradation in interwar Europe
The ‘Black Shame’ campaign used stereotypical images of ‘racially
primitive’, sexually depraved black colonial soldiers threatening ‘white women’
in 1920s Germany to manufacture widespread concern and generate panic about
the presence of tens of thousands of occupying French troops from colonial Africa
on German soil. The campaign, which originated with the German government,
quickly developed a momentum of its own and became an international
phenomenon, spanning the political divide and incorporating figures from the
Left and Right, trades unionists, Christian groups, women’s organisations and key
public figures including Edmund D. Morel and Bertrand Russell. It had followers
throughout Europe, the US and Australia and was promoted through the modern
media. The author here explores the ways in which the racial, sexual, class and
national stereotypes that fuelled the campaign interrelated and reinforced one
another, creating ‘interlinked discriminations’.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
RACE & CLASSVolume
51Issue
3Pages
33 - 46 (14)Citation
WIGGER, I., 2010. 'Black Shame' - the campaign against 'racial degeneration' and female degradation in interwar Europe. Race and Class, 51 (3), pp. 33 - 46.Publisher
SAGE © Institute of Race RelationsVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publication date
2010Notes
Closed access. This article was published in the journal Race and Class [SAGE © Institute of Race Relations] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306396809354444ISSN
0306-3968Publisher version
Language
- en