Thread: Jackson: Fox Remark Opened Up Dialog

http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami

Jackson: Fox remark opened up dialogue

BY GINGER THOMPSON/New York Times
May 19, 2005

Five days after President Vicente Fox provoked a storm of outrage in the United States by saying that Mexican migrants do work that "not even blacks want to do," the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson said in a visit to Mexico on Wednesday that he welcomed the remarks, in a backhand sort of way.

"President Fox has opened a door," Jackson said in an interview. "Just like the bus driver who put Rosa Parks off the bus. He opened a door for us to talk about the system of denial." By that Jackson seemed to mean that Fox's statement, which he characterized as "offensive" and "inaccurate," would force Mexico to give African-Americans a place in its negotiations with the United States on issues of immigration, trade, education and health care.

"In late years, we have been locked out of these conversations," said Jackson, who was here at the invitation of Fox. "It's been only President Bush and President Fox."

Perhaps the greatest denial, however, has been here in Mexico, where there is usually very little public examination of race, much less racism. Here, too, Fox seems to have opened a door, and this week the country seems engrossed by it.

Mexicans typically pride themselves on being a colorblind society of mixed-race people, part Spanish, part Indian, and everyone equal. Slavery was abolished here decades before it was in the United States. Mexico never adopted anything like Jim Crow laws, and thousands of AfricanAmericans moved south of the border to escape segregation.

But some commentators said that Fox inadvertently exposed the disturbing reality beneath the facade and forced Mexico to take a more honest look in the mirror. The truth, said many observers on the radio and in newspaper columns this week, is that Fox's comments were not uncommon among Mexicans. They would hardly raise an eyebrow at dinner tables and cocktail parties.

‘INVOLUNTARILY’ RACIST

A columnist for the Mexico City daily Reforma, Guadalupe Loaeza, wrote Tuesday that Fox's remarks reflected what she called an "involuntarily" racist attitude. "He was educated like millions of Mexicans, conscious of having been born white, and that it makes him very different from those who are born with dark skin."

Audiences here still get a laugh from performers in black face, or newspaper cartoons that show Africans drawn more like apes.

Mexico's 10 million Indians are not only last in almost every social indicator, including levels of literacy, infant mortality, employment and access to basic services. They still appear on television mostly as maids and gardeners.

Descendants of the African slaves who landed on Mexico's Gulf and Pacific coasts have been all but forgotten by governments and scholars alike.

This week, for the first time in recent history, the Mexican government published the results of a survey on the broader topic of discrimination. Josefina Vásquez Mota, the minister of social development, called the findings a "crude, painful and startling" picture of Mexican reality.

Vásquez said that some 40 percent of the people surveyed said they would not want to live next to an Indian community. Nearly one out of three considered it normal that women do not earn as much as men. More than 20 percent said that women were less able than men to fill important jobs. And one out of four said they believed that women were raped because they provoked men.

There was some hopeful news in the survey. It showed, for example, that eight of 10 Mexicans felt that eliminating discrimination was as important as ending poverty.

"We have before us," Vásquez said, "a photograph of a society moving between the remnants of authoritarianism and intolerance and, on the other side, a new culture that is more inclusive and tolerant."

The poet Benito Taibo said he found confusing contradictions in Mexico's attitudes about class and race while working recently on a television series about Mexico's exile communities. Since the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1917, he said, this country has welcomed wave after wave of exiles, including Spaniards, Jews, Chileans and, most recently, Indians from Guatemala.

More than 80,000 Indians settled in southern Mexico, Taibo said, with the full support of the Mexican government.

‘INVISIBLE’

"We gave them refuge," Taibo said, "and we still have not given refuge to our own Indians. They live in a kind of undeclared apartheid. Our Indians remain invisible."

And then, referring to the 1994 Indian rebellion in the southern state of Chiapas, he added, "When our Indians try to make themselves seen, we kill them."

Jennifer Clement, also a poet and author, wrote one of the only Mexican novels whose protagonist is a maid. To write the book, Clement interviewed at least 30 Mexican maids, and she recalled that they often connected their skin color to their lot in life.

Clement remembered finding lemons in the maids' depressing service quarters. The women, she said, rubbed cut lemons on their skin to try to lighten their complexion.

When asked whether she thought Mexico was a racist country, Clement recited the opening line of her novel. It is her own interpretation of the voice of the average maid.

"I am darker, much darker than the rest, and so they call me 'Fly.' "

Mexicans typically pride themselves on being a colorblind society of mixed-race people, part Spanish, part Indian, and everyone equal.

Meanwhile, further on in the article, it says:

Audiences here still get a laugh from performers in black face, or newspaper cartoons that show Africans drawn more like apes.

Honest to God, how do people get away with writing this stuff?

Jesse Jackson is a traitor to his country and his people that he thinks he speaks for. Many blacks consider Jesse Hijackson and Al Notsosharpton to be an embarrassment to their race and not representative of how they think. Jesse you need to quit acting like you speak for everyone in your race. Why don't you go back to shaking down big businesses for dollars under the guise of civil rights you pathetic fraud. Oh my bad, that's probably what this is all about anyway. Jesse Hijackson hears Vicente's comments, pretends to be outraged and then when the heat dies down alittle bit, he goes to Mexico to arrange a meeting with Ole Fox so they can have a few laughs and teach each other techniques on how to shake down big businesses with the race card so they can put more moola in their pocketbooks. I bet next week Jorge Bush grants affirmative action to Mexican illegals and Vicente, Jorge and Jesse can go hang out at the Texas Ranch, kick back, have a few more laughs about how stupid the American sheeple are.

Originally Posted by dman1200

Jesse Jackson is a traitor to his country and his people that he thinks he speaks for. Many blacks consider Jesse Hijackson and Al Notsosharpton to be an embarrassment to their race and not representative of how they think. Jesse you need to quit acting like you speak for everyone in your race.
Why don't you go back to shaking down big businesses for dollars under the guise of civil rights you pathetic fraud. Oh my bad, that's probably what this is all about anyway. Jesse Hijackson hears Vicente's comments, pretends to be outraged and then when the heat dies down alittle bit, he goes to Mexico to arrange a meeting with Ole Fox so they can have a few laughs and teach each other techniques on how to shake down big businesses with the race card so they can put more moola in their pocketbooks. I bet next week Jorge Bush grants affirmative action to Mexican illegals and Vicente, Jorge and Jesse can go hang out at the Texas Ranch, kick back, have a few more laughs about how stupid the American sheeple are.

Sixx says:
You are right. I was ready to give Jackson a break since he was with Terri Schindler when she was killed. He got down there, got a check, and said adios. Or did he. He will on Lou Dobbs tonight. I can't wait to see what he says. Dobbs will get to the bottom of it, on national t.v.

Originally Posted by Sixx

Originally Posted by dman1200

Jesse Jackson is a traitor to his country and his people that he thinks he speaks for. Many blacks consider Jesse Hijackson and Al Notsosharpton to be an embarrassment to their race and not representative of how they think. Jesse you need to quit acting like you speak for everyone in your race.
Why don't you go back to shaking down big businesses for dollars under the guise of civil rights you pathetic fraud. Oh my bad, that's probably what this is all about anyway. Jesse Hijackson hears Vicente's comments, pretends to be outraged and then when the heat dies down alittle bit, he goes to Mexico to arrange a meeting with Ole Fox so they can have a few laughs and teach each other techniques on how to shake down big businesses with the race card so they can put more moola in their pocketbooks. I bet next week Jorge Bush grants affirmative action to Mexican illegals and Vicente, Jorge and Jesse can go hang out at the Texas Ranch, kick back, have a few more laughs about how stupid the American sheeple are.

Sixx says:
You are right. I was ready to give Jackson a break since he was with Terri Schindler when she was killed. He got down there, got a check, and said adios. Or did he. He will on Lou Dobbs tonight. I can't wait to see what he says. Dobbs will get to the bottom of it, on national t.v.

I hope Lou tears that sellout a new one.

I can't wait for Lou Dobbs tonight....I hope he does tear into him....and I hope Bill O'Reilly gets him on his show as well.

SIXX--I wondered how you woud react because I know you held Jesse in high regard. But.....this is what I feared.....the Black Community has been SOLD OUT by everyone except US. Look at the Southern Poverty Law Center....set up by Julian Bond to help poor people in the South. What have they done? Nothing. Instead they show up to give the Minutemen a hard time in Arizona. Southern Poverty Law Center got involved in our NC HB 1183....and defended El Pueblo instead of US. The American Civil Liberties Union was set-up to defend those without the means to protect their civil rights under the US Constition. What have they done recently? They defend illegal aliens, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, aliens that are taking jobs and economic opportunities away from Americans, including Black Americans, in violation of Equal Employment Opportunity Laws, civil rights laws designed to ensure fair and equal employment opportunities amongst all Americans.

The illegal immigration issue has been hurting all Americans, including Black Americans....yet Jesse wants to be involved in immigration....when he should have said quite plainly....I am OPPOSED to illegal immigration and excessive legal immigration that steals job and business and housing and education opportunities from Black Americans and ALL Americans.

Al Sharpton on Hannity called the Minutemen criminal vigilantis "breaking the law". Hannity CORRECTED him and Al Sharpton said "OH? They weren't breaking laws?"

Where have these Black Leaders been?

Where are the Black Leaders fighting illegal immigration to save jobs and opportunities and services to protect all Americans including Black Americans?

Jesse and Al have sold out to their own political careers and business ventures, IMHO.

Blacks and the Afro-American community need to give these guys up....because they are no longer getting the job done....for Blacks and Afro-Americans or any of the American People.

SIXX--I'm glad you saw it....and posted it.

Who are some other leaders that could replace Jesse and Al....?

Forget Vernon Jordan.....oh brother....he attended Bilderberg....Lord.

Not Julian Bond....gone....sold out.

Who else?