This Austrian Politician Misses the Era of Racist Chocolate

Manfred Gail really likes his chocolate. In fact, the Austrian politician and chairman of the Ladendorf branch of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria likes it so much that he has decided to let the whole world know. Ever the grandstanding politician eager to spread his message, Gail felt it only right to include a bit of homespun enlightenment with his proclamation.

What in the hell else could possibly explain why Gail felt it appropriate to post a comment on Facebook lamenting the loss of "the good old days … when a popular sweet was still called Negerküsse" … or "Negro kiss"?

Swiss German-language newspaper Heute reports that the Facebook comment—in which the Austrian politician decried the change in name of a chocolate-covered marshmallow treat from the racist-as-fuck Negerküsse ("Negro kiss") to the more neutral Schokoküsse ("chocolate kiss")—was promptly removed by Gail soon after being posted. The marshmallow treat in question is similar to the presumably non-racist American standby Mallomars, and is quite popular in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Gail evidently prefers the old-school, racist name for the candy and would like to turn the clock back.

Another post, which seems to have also been removed, claimed that the Freedom Party of Austria had created a variant on the chocolate-covered marshmallow named "Schaumwaffel mit Migrationshintergrund," or "Foam Waffle with an Immigrant Background." Not particularly catchy, but certainly xenophobic. Oddly enough, although Gail made the effort to delete these two posts in response to protests, he seems to have forgotten to remove photos of both items from the FPÖ Ladendorf Facebook page.

The local politician told Heute that he couldn't understand why people would be upset by his postings and that he had "done it with a wink and it was only meant to be amusing."

Oddly, chocolate-covered marshmallow treats have a long and storied history of racism. In addition to Negerküsse, another chocolate-covered marshmallow candy was mass-marketed in Germany in the early 1920s under the name Mohrenkopf, which means "moor's head." Most companies that still produce the candy have since changed the official product-name to the more acceptable "chocolate kiss." Unfortunately, however, the old, offensive names have not entirely disappeared today, as evidenced by one Café Mohrenkopf, a café/bakery that can still be found in Munich's Oktoberfest.

In Finland, a marshmallow candy sold by a company named Brunberg originally used the name "Negro kisses" but has since changed the sweet's name to "Brunberg's kisses." The company seems to feel, however, that their racist packaging—which shows two black people with protruding red lips kissing—is perfectly acceptable.

When it comes to racist candies, we could go on and on. But let us just point out one last racist chocolate-covered marshmallow confection from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium known as Flanders. That area has a history of a sweet known as Negerinnetetten, which we are very sorry to say translates as "negress's tits." To bring the point home, in some iterations, the little chocolate cakes have a nipple-like protrusion at the top.

So Manfred Gail is the most recent in a long-line of people who obviously don't see the problem in selling treats with racist names. Who would think that sweets would be the place to air one's nastiest vitriol?

Can't we just leave the candy out of this?