Well-Meaning German Soccer Team Protests Racism ... With Digital Blackface

Meet Deinster SV, a close-knit soccer club competing in Germany’s eighth division. In a recent incident, two of the club’s black players (and despite what you see above, there are only two) were subject to insults and even physical violence at the hands of some locals. Shocked and horrified, the club wanted to band together and make a show of support. And so they dug up the team photo, ran the pic through Photoshop, and slathered on a bunch of fake black skin on the white players’ faces and hands.

Here’s the message Deinster attached to the photo when they uploaded it to Facebook, as translated by Google Translate:

Our friend and fellow player Emad was on Saturday, on racial grounds, insulted and beaten. This is just sad!

Violence against refugees is pathetic!!

Emad and Amar - you are one of ours, just like anyone else from Deinster Sports Club, and we are pleased that you are with us!!!

Germany doesn’t have the United States’ specific racial history of minstrel shows or tradition of blackface, so it would be a stretch to call this intended act of solidarity outright racist. What everyone should be able to agree on here, though, is that the resulting image looks very strange, very funny, and is actually very sweet. But maybe don’t do this again.

[ BBC]