Black Shame' — the campaign against 'racial degeneration' and female degradation in interwar Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7996783
AuthorsIris Wigger (0000-0002-9443-8438, Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume51
Issue3
Pages33-46
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRace & Class (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-3968 • E-ISSN: 1741-3125
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0306396809354444
OpenAlexW1986061110
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited2

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

Archaeology · Colonialism · German · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Shame · Sociology · White (mutation · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law

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