The racist video of European Commission

Two years ago a video-clip published by The European Commission created a very bad buzz. (you can watch the video HERE). The advertise was supposed to promote the enlargement of the European Union toward the youth. But the video only stayed online for 2 hours before to be removed by the Commission. A lot of viewers criticized the video, accusing it to be racist.

The video takes place in an abandoned factory, a white girl dressed like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill is supposed to represent Europe. In front of her three different opponents arrive, apparently they come from Asia, India, and Brazil (three emerging countries). They seem to be very aggressive toward the white woman, and each of them is dressed with a traditional outfit from his country, and attacks the woman with martial art, sword or capoeira. But the woman remains calm, even if she is threatened; she just closes her eyes and splits several times to create a circle around her opponents, and takes the power back from them. The video ends with the slogan “The more numerous we are, the stronger we get”.

Obviously this video was very clumsy since it can give the idea that Europe wants to take the power (and wealth) back from the emerging countries. The outfits, the way of fighting and the aggressiveness of the three men give a trivial and boor image of these countries, in a threatening position, in opposition to Europe which is depicted through the images as a modern and thoughtful Union.

Moreover the intertextuality refers to Kill Bill which is a very violent movie from Tarantino and it adds a sense of hatred, and war to the ad. Even if at the end everybody seat and seem to be more peaceful, it is only thanks to the European woman, and it delivers the idea that without the EU there would be only aggressiveness and chaos in the world.

We can be very surprised that such a video was aimed to be used as a promotion of the EU, and that no one noticed the racist issue of it before broadcasting the video. Anyway the audience immediately complained about it and a lot of European media criticized it afterward, showing that such an important institution as the European Commission should really be more careful about the messages they try to deliver to the audience. 

Marie-Jeanne Layec