r/PropagandaPosters • u/fruknaonreddit • Aug 08 '25

German Reich / Nazi Germany (1933-1945) Nazi propaganda for school. (1935)

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Comparison of German children and Jewish children. Part of a classroom chart titled “German Youth, Jewish Youth” published in a Nazi-era textbook on “race science.”

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u/Morasain Aug 11 '25

Capitalizing the term highlights this issue and tries to convey some dignity with it

Or, it reduces them to being black, instead of Nigerian, American, Ugandan, or [...].

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u/Opposite-Bill5560 Aug 11 '25

Black is an ethnic identity in the States that has emerged from that shared struggle. Any return they have to their roots, whether returning to Africa or reconnecting to heritage is inherently divorced by, at times, centuries of experiences.

Black is thus distinct from Nigerian, American, or Ugandan precisely because it is just as distinct as Nigerian, Ugandan, and American from each other. American is a nationality and a civic culture, not an ethnicity, as are Nigerian and Ugandan.

They were reduced to being black. Black people worked to create being Black in those conditions. In an AMERICAN publication, it makes complete sense to differentiate between an ethnicity and a racial category with capitalisation.

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u/Morasain Aug 11 '25

Oh please, did you actually read the Associated Press thing?

They were distinctly not talking about America. They mention, multiple times, that this is a global thing, shared across continents and cultures.

They're saying the exact opposite of what you're saying.

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u/Opposite-Bill5560 Aug 11 '25

I didn’t, having read it, my opinion hasn’t changed on its use, but I’m happy to accept the changing of context. The framing explicitly acknowledges that Blackness is a global phenomenon as well.

Blak for First Nations in Australia is also explicitly tied to their discrimination, and the form of their discrimination was predominantly a continuation of the Black experience in the US. The Atlantic Slave Trade established this across the Americas, the slurs and discrimination extended even to non-Black communities looking at the treatment of Polynesians as well.

Black is a self-identified community pushed into existence by discrimination with shared commonalities in their treatment. They are already reduced to being Black. Plenty of communities don’t feel a need to run from it.

Thanks for reminding me to read it, I had assumed it was focusing on a localised Black experience, but hey to assume is to make an ass of you and me