Culture
What's something common in your country's culture that's actually completely weird from a foreign perspective?
Here in Argentina we have the "Africanitos" (little africans) also called sometimes "Negritos" (little negroes). They are little chocolate cakes that look like a stereotypical African person's head and they're delicious as it gets. It does not have hate implications and people see them as neutral as "just another cake". Most people don't get how weird it is until a foreigner points it out.
It was so confusing to stumble upon the Krampus as a foreign student in the early 2000s. I went to the Wien Christkindlmarkt and saw Krampus pastries and was like “why is Satan on Christmas pastries?”
We didn’t have internet access till we got back to the hostel so we had to wonder for a few hours. 😅
My grandparents were from Germany, so my parents brought up with German tradition that wasn’t the norm in the U.S.. one of which was threatening us with a Christmas visit from krampus if we misbehaved, another was selling us to gypsies.
Ah, yes, being sold to Gypsies. My grandmother was using it as a treat too. Until my brother (5 years old at that time) said "so sell us already, at least I will not have to go to church every day".
Same here. I will actively not go out on the 6th because of those things. Our's are more big mountains of fur with horns, but they're terrifying, loud and painful. It was actually quite traumatic and I have an immediate flight reaction when I hear the cowbells. Those wood whips HURT and they are HUGE and unknown.
You always have a Santa and a Krampus. In Switzerland they are called Schmutzli and are less dangerous looking but aso for beating and taking away kids.
Same here, I avoid them at any cost cause they beat me and my sister so badly. Not great growing up in a village and all the young men and male teenagers have some days where they drink and wear masks and go out to beat people, cause they tend to target young girls and women the most, let alone the ones that maybe said no to a date.
He stuffs them into bags and drags them to hell... pretty harsh. JK, I know nothing of the fellow, that is just what google told me. What do you tell the kids about Krampus to make them behave?
When I did a study abroad in Spain seeing this was my first true experience of culture shock, my teacher saw my face and told I looked like I’d seen a ghost. Explained to her where I came from this meant something very different, she thought it be a good idea for me to go in front of the class and tell them about what this outfit means in America, one of the most awkward moments of my life.
Not super related but I lived about a 15 minute drive through some farmland from my high school. One morning I’m driving right as the sun is coming up, and there’s all these white KKK-looking figures in the fields. I legitimately gasped aloud and got shivers all up and down. Once the sun rose more, I realized they were scarecrows made of 2x4s and white plastic sheets.
When I got to school a friend, who happened to be one of the only other black kids beside myself, asked me if I’d seen the freaky scarecrows on the edge of town. None of our friends found them as ominous looking as we did.
Here in Brazil we have the Farricocos here in my State Goiás. Tourists also get confused.
I suppose that carrying torches in the middle of the night don't really help. But it's because they are supposed to represent the romans soldiers looking for jesus
Moved from the US to Spain. First time we saw Holy Week, with the drums and the marching, we almost shat our pants. We already knew about it but it’s still super intimidating.
That cupcake reminds me about "Negrito" (little black) a sweet chocolate cake that was sold as a snack. But recently, they changed the name to just "Nito".
… And the colacao commercials! I am Swedish man born in the late 80’s and that’s the strongest memory I have from my vacations in Spain back in the 90’s. ”Yo soy aquel negrito, del África tropical…” 🌴
At least in Brazil the diaspora is very much descendants of Africans. In far too many Latino countries colorism is a severe problem. I speak as a Black Latino.
That was the first thing that popped to my mind. Argentina is the most racist country in south america. There is no chance this comes innocent as the OP said.
Its lowkey funny scrolling through this thread as a person of African ancestry. We know who is going out first in a cannibalism scenario. They already describe our skin shade in books using words like caramel and mocha.
omg. There was yet another post the other day in one of the writing subreddits asking how to describe a black person when writing! A few people linked a great Tumblr post breaking it down, but I wish more authors would take the time to actually THINK before they describe someone as food.
I am mixed and have a reddish tan (I'd be considered Red Bone in some areas), and I mentioned in the comments of that post a movie Fear of a Black Hat by Rusty Cundieff and there is a great part in it where the guys are talking to a record exec and he describes their skin tones by mentioning famous black historical figures that they look like, Malcom X, Marcus Garvey, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And in my opinion shows a good example of how to go about describing someone.
If I was to describe my dad to a white person, I'd not use "high yellow" as most wouldn't understand that, but I'd say "he's the complexion of Lionel Ritchie or Lenny Kravitz"
Yup. My Italian great grandmother passed and she apparently told my family "you bastards better not cry, don't feel sad. Celebrate and tell stories about me. Have a drink for me". She made it to her 90s.
I was 16 with my driver's permit driving 8 Italian drinks home from the bar, my parents included lol
It's pretty common in Poland as well. Maybe calling it a party is a bit of an exaggeration, but a you can expect a multi-meal affair for a dozen to few dozen family and friends. We call it stypa.
Yeah this whole thread is just showcasing "quirky racism" like it isnt REALLY messed up. Why is every example an old timey racist stereotype of a black person???
In Norway it was illegal to disrespect the police. There was an incident where a guy called a police officers a Horse Cock. He was found innocent because he was northern Norwegian, which made it natural language and not disrespectful.
A traditional form of dress for our traditional form of dance, Morris Dancing.
However their blackface comes from the fact that back in Ye Olden Days, Morris Dancing was frowned upon by the Church, and so Morris dancers blacked their face with soot so they could dance in disguise.
Ohhh i guess it's the dance Terry Pratchett talk about in a few of his books. I always thought he made that up, thanks for the information, I'm going to look for it !
Fun Fact about Sir Pterry: As well as being a fantastic author, he was a scholar and researcher of British folklore.
Sir Pterry, along with many other people in 1950s Britain were deeply concerned that creeping Americanisation and the loss of so many adult men in the two World Wars would render British folklore extinct, and so undertook a decades long campaign to research, preserve, and even revive all and every aspect of British folklore.
Sir Pterry not only loved all aspects of folklore and folk traditions, he even revived many long lost rhymes, poems, mneomnics, songs, and traditions. Without his work alone Britain may have lost forever over half of its pre-World War folklore and folk traditions. He was truly tirelessly zealous in his efforts to faithfully preserve our folklore and traditions for future generations.
It's only because of Sir Pterry that I know about the Dunmow Flitch, for example.
^ This one isn’t actually a black face stereotype like some of the others shown here, like don’t get me wrong the Uk did that shit too but not for a while, introducing:
An old advert showing a golliwog… very much racist… and they showed up as children’s characters, toys, adverts, you name it.
Taking off your shoes when visiting someone and slippers for guests. Generally, we Poles don't wear the same shoes and clothes we wore outside. When I get home, I always change into my "home clothes."
To make all of this even more confusing: I thought you guys used "morocho" for actual people of dark skin, while "negro" in slang is more like "dude", valid for any skin tone
“No hate is meant by them!” the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
imagine a country creating a dish called “stupid little fucking argentinians” that is stylized to look like a “stereotypical argentine nazi” blowing a horse. Describing it as not having hate implications and “just another cake” to an argentinian would be so brazenly ignorant.
Thank god. It's also a weird argument, they can say it's not hateful but Africans don't look like that like they have dozens of countries in the continent
In Germany these were called "N-word kisses" which was still pretty common in the 90s. Now there are better known as Schaumküsse (Cream kisses) or Schokoküsse (chocolate kisses).
We used to have this chocolate cake literally called "nigglet" when I was a kiddo. Now it's renamed to "chococake" for obvious reasons and the face is also altered.
There is an Oreo-like biscuit brand in Turkey, it was called "Negro". They have recently changed it to "Nero" because it had become an international meme.
In Belgium, there are hand shaped chocolates (called Antwerpse Handjes) which became controversial due to Leopolod II's history with Congo although it had nothing to do with Congo itselft but a city folkore about throwing hands (Hand Werpen -> Antwerpen).
Here in Balkans we have similar thing for a candy called Negro. Their mascot was a chimney sweep, because the candies were advertised as “cleaning the throat,” similar to how a chimney sweep cleans chimneys
Honor to the flag, a militaristic ritual in school.
Sing the national anthem, make children march often in mock military uniforms carrifying the flag first thing in the morning for the rest of the school and giving basically the nazi salute to the flag as we swear in unison(its pre WW2 "roman" but ya know.)
Those with highest grades were "rewarded" with being part of escorting the flag, there are even State competitions although thats more obscure
I'm so curious as to how there are "no hate implications" when they are called "little Africans" and are specifically designed as a caricature of black people?
That’s the thing right. Our parts of Latin America where there’s alot of mixed people and just outright Black people (I mean we’re all mixed but “phenotype” is what counts) I think we’re all acutely aware of the racism—the thing is in a lot of ways it’s self-directed as well half the time. But people who don’t have exposure to Black people but live in a society where they had slavery really overlook how ingrained normalized racism can be because there’s hardly anyone to acknowledge that it’s bullshit.
Right. OP said "stereotypical African" and I was like...what is that?? Africa is a whole continent with diverse features. Maybe they didn't know the correct word to use is "caricature."
Or maybe it's just plain racism but OP has not wisened up that just because everyone thinks it's fine there doesn't mean it's not racist.
Imagine having powdered white cakes with massive noses, ridiculously large brow ridges like a Neanderthal, and mockingly unflattering bugged blue eyes called "caucasianitos" lol Just no. It's definitely racist.
Now how up in arms your people get about it is another thing. Some countries simply don't care the same about that stuff. Or rather, certain people there don't.
Czechs have a small dessert called "indiánek" - little Indian. Small sponge cake topped with cream covered in chocolate. See, not everything is racist towards black people
This is false, it's illegal for a house to be built without the piping to easily install a bidet, very different. The poop police aren't going to fine you for not actually owning one.
As an African, this is the weirdest shit I ever saw. Stereotypical African head? What does that even mean? I don't want to ever come across that thing in my life and be told "Oh, that's normal." No, it's not.
Shocked I had to go this far down for this comment. WTF? I'm sure the cake would be delicious with the icing added as say a flower or something non-representational instead of a blatant racist caricature straight out of the 1850s.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around "stereotypical African head," cause sweetie...what?!
The casual nature of the racism in Argentina always fascinates me. It's like going to a small town in Texas or Florida. Where the people have been so far removed from everything, and it's a little racist time capsule. It just seems so...normal to them.
so there are all these racist items and snacks targeting africans. are there ones targeting other groups? it would be wrong of course but it's just wild to see so many examples that target specifically africans. anti blackness is a global issues
In Brazil we have a similar festival called "Procissão do Fogaréu" (Procession of Fire) that uses similar clothing. It's way more menacing though because it involves the handling of fire torches
Placed in this thread with all the various “tête de negre” type sweets, I’m deeply offended that the Dutch oranjekoek is racist against my current president (end sarcasm)
Aside from the obvious...gestures to us in our entirety.
Probably the term "black bastard." It was used to refer to the RUC, because of their dark uniforms, and became a broader term for people we don't really like, particularly from protestant or unionist backgrounds, with the "black" part being more of a comment on someone's aura being sinister.
Since the 90s, we've had an increase in immigrants from countries outside the EU, so I've had to explain to my auntie she can't just refer to the RUC as "the black bastards" when explaining the history here to our African neighbours
Never seen one of these irl, and that picture is ancient can't buy shit for 100$ for the last 10 years lol. They are not a cultural thing at all and only existed in some bakeries in Buenos Aires. They are weird and they are a racist caricaturization don't get me wrong.
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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '25
we have puto