Reporter in Blackface Comments on Obama

In President Obama's first international outing, one bit of Turkish television coverage leaves Americans puzzled: a Turkish journalist in blackface. (Video here. Click on "More Info" (upper right corner) for an English translation.)

What in the world is going on? Would Katie Couric don blackface for an interview with General Colin Powell? Is the Turkish reporter's stunt an example of blatant racism?

But, to repeat my question, what in the world (not just in the United States) is going on? Could Turkish viewers have imagined the response in the United States to this reporter's wearing blackface-that it demonstrates racism?

Cenk Uygur, an American of Turkish descent, on "The Young Turks" website (here) and on a video (here), discusses the Turkish reporter's choices from the perspective of an American who speaks Turkish.

Basically, he says that the reporter was drawing on a Turkish proverb that, depending on translation, borders on racism. It also seems that the program on which this report occurred is more about entertainment than serious news, like the "Weekend Updates" of Saturday Night Live.

I have no great revelations here. For revelations on this topic, I recommend an excellent article with updates in The New York Times (here). One of the commentators there says, that essentially, the Turkish reporter's blackface was a joke that broke down across cultural lines and was not meant to be racist.

"Translation" from one culture to another can be more difficult than translating from one language to another. George Bush famously held hands with and even kissed the King of Saudi Arabia in response to the King's culture. (What would have happened had the King, responding to George Bush's culture, drawn back in horror?)

At least in the United States, with our troubled racial history and with our first African-American president, racial markers are perhaps as basic as sexual markers, and they carry a great deal of baggage.

There is a picture (here) of a man in blackface at a "Norooz street festival" in New York City. Should we be offended? According to Wikipedia (here), this is a representation of the "traditional herald" of the holiday, who "uses face paint to make his skin black (black is an ancient Persian symbol of good luck)."

In a recent article, I discussed perceptions of racism in popular culture (here). We cannot dismiss these concerns as a matter of "political correctness." There is an oft-repeated story about the decline in sales of all Chevrolet cars in Latin America after the introduction of the Chevrolet Nova. Chevrolet, in its own advertising, was proclaiming that "Chevrolet no va." That is, "Chevrolet doesn't run."

As we all are running through this ever more confusing and ever more interconnected world, there are no easy answers as cultures and their values bump into each other. We can at best appeal to common sense and common decency (both rather uncommon assets these days) and learn from each other's mistakes.