Thread: Mexican Stamps Racist - Civil Rights Leaders

From washingtonpost.com...

(I think this is hilarious. How could a government be so out of touch?)

Mexican Stamps Racist, Civil Rights Leaders Say
Images Feature Popular Cartoon Character

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 30, 2005; Page A01

The Mexican government issued a series of stamps yesterday depicting a dark-skinned Jim Crow-era cartoon character with greatly exaggerated eyes and lips, infuriating black and Hispanic civil rights leaders for the second time in weeks.

Mexican postal officials said the five-stamp series features Memin Pinguin, a character from a comic book created in the 1940s, because he is beloved in Mexico. A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy described the depiction as a cultural image that has no meaning and is not intended to offend.

The Mexican government issued a series of five stamps depicting a black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin.
The Mexican government issued a series of five stamps depicting a black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin. (By Dario Lopez-mills -- Associated Press)

"Just as Speedy Gonzalez has never been interpreted in a racial manner by the people in Mexico," embassy spokesman Rafael Laveaga said. ". . . He is a cartoon character. I am certain that this commemorative postage stamp is not intended to be interpreted on a racial basis in Mexico or anywhere else."

But the leaders of the NAACP, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the National Council of La Raza and the National Urban League denounced the image in strong terms, calling it the worst kind of black stereotype. The curator of a Michigan museum that collects Jim Crow memorabilia said the Memin Pinguin caricature is a classic "pickaninny" -- a black child, oafish and with apelike features.

"It is offensive," said the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, who like other leaders called on Mexican President Vicente Fox to apologize and stop circulation of the stamps. Jackson vowed to lead a demonstration at Mexican consulates if Fox does not do so.

It was the second time in seven weeks that Jackson called on Fox to apologize for a racial offense. In May, Fox apologized for saying that Mexican migrants in the United States work jobs that "even blacks don't want," a comment he said was taken out of context.

Marc H. Morial, executive director of the National Urban League, joined Jackson in calling on President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to denounce the stamps. "It's outrageous, it's offensive, and it really raises the question of whether President Fox's apology was sincere and meaningful," Morial said.

Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said it is "impossible to overstate how appalled and offended I am, not only by the stamp but by the reaction of the Mexican postal service." She added: "Hispanic Americans and all other Americans will and should be equally outraged."

David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., said images such as that of Memin Pinguin are prolific in Mexico, Latin America and Japan. "I'm disappointed but not shocked," he said. "This is consistent with what we in the United States would refer to as a pickaninny image. It's disappointing when you find a government putting its stamp on racism."

They are NOT out of touch, they just don't care. No one is going to tell them what to do, it's there country and what they do is none of anybody's beeswax! Of course, we must bow to all public pressure or we are called names and belittled.

UPDATE: Vincente Fox says nuts to you! He claims we just don't understand his countries culture!

I read on another thread that racist, anti-black humor was a popular staple of Mexican television, including actors in black-face acting out racial stereotypes. And someone said there was a candy bar called "Negrita" or something like that, a term for a black person, and in the TV commercial the Mexican actor bites into the candy bar and then immediately sprouts an afro. Pretty sophisticated humor, huh.

Originally Posted by Acebackwords

And someone said there was a candy bar called "Negrita" or something like that, a term for a black person, and in the TV commercial the Mexican actor bites into the candy bar and then immediately sprouts an afro. Pretty sophisticated humor, huh.

That's actually pretty funny

Well, yeah, I actually think thats pretty funny, too. I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm one of those guys who's not offended by crude racial jokes and stereotypes. I worked as a freelance cartoonist for 10 years, so stereotypes and cariciatures were my stock in trade. I may be wrong here, but in some ways I think its healthier to be able to call eachother nasty "racists" names and yell and scream about this stuff, if only to blow off steam. I think the whole politically-correct thing, where we have to dance around all this stuff and show "sensitivity" towards everybody else actually only exacerbates the racial problems, makes it harder to talk about our real feeings, and brings in all these layers of hypocricy. But I may be wrong. When I was in high school, my face was full of acne, and I didn't find it the least bit funny if somebody got in my face and started making crude zit jokes and HAW HAW. God, I used to cringe at that stuff. So who knows where the line is drawn. I just wish people could lighten up on all the "racist" stuff. I mean, i know people, personally, who were stabbed and killed just for saying the "n-word" at the wrong time. And I can understand all the deep-seeded emotions and etc. And yet at the same time, when we were little kids we were easily able to shrug this stuff off under the enlighened concept of "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me." Maybe someday we adults will be able to grasp the concept, too.

For those of you who have little knowledge of Latin American history, there was and is much racism in those countries. Whenever you see a picture of the presidents of Latin America at a G8 type meeting you will see MOSTLY if not all, white skinned males who are descendents of European Spanish immigrants. They study, in many cases at Yale, Harvard, Stanford etc. Places most of us CITIZENS can never get into! These politicians do not mirror the people in many cases!

There are exceptions.....Fujimori of Peru was born in Japan I believe....

If you were to watch Spanish television soap operas....the actors are mostly white and the women dye their hair blond if not natural....I don't understand this except it is to say being white is better?

There is a 500 year history of racism in Latin America...so when they call us racists here in this forum they need to look in the mirrror.

I have heard Mexicans in Los Angeles say things like "La gente Centroamericana es gente baja!" This means the Central Americans are inferior to we Mexicans..."

The real insult in Latin America however is poverty.....if I call you in Mexico "un pobre muerte de hambre" "a poor person dieing of hunger."

This is a massive insult in Mexico! Because you are poor? The rich look down on the poor! SO THEY SEND THEM NORTH TO US! Them being corrupted politicians!

Originally Posted by JackSmith

There are exceptions.....Fujimori of Peru was born in Japan I believe....

Fujimori was born in Peru. An exception would be Chavez who, by striving to help the very poor and oppressed, is not supported by the US. How ironic

This is a massive insult in Mexico! Because you are poor? The rich look down on the poor! SO THEY SEND THEM NORTH TO US! Them being corrupted politicians!

Please don't forget the state run oil company Pemex, pumps 2 million barrels of oil a day, every day, seven days a week @ $51.00 a barrel. Thats $102 million dollars a day. Yet their citizens are so poor they live in squalor. Thats why I call Mexico, Saudi America! The reason they send them north is, if the good people of Mexico ever realized just how much money the country made on it's oil and how much of that ends up in the Mexican Royal Family's (rich folks from Mexico City) pockets, there would and SHOULD be a revolution. You would find them hanging from their heels like Mussolini!

SOVEREIGNITY

What you, Americans, have to understand is that this is not a “racial issue�, this is not about “how racist� Mexico is, this is about sovereignty. Let us analyze this situation for a moment;

1) the Mexican Postal Service (not President Fox) issues some stamps showing a caricature of a black boy, MemÃÂ*n PinguÃÂ*n;
2) some American priest gets to see these stamps and feels outraged about it;
3) this same American priest demands that the stamps be withdrawn from market and also demands an apology from the Mexican President himself to the black community in America, which he “representsâ€?, because the stamps “areâ€? racist and offend black people; 4) the Mexican government claims that the caricature is a very by-many-people beloved character from a Mexican comic book from 1940 and is not, and was never intended to offend black people, but to (Oh irony!) diminish racism and encourage family values (according to the creator of this comic book, who is a woman, MemÃÂ*n was created based on the charming Cuban kids whom she fell in love with when she made a trip to the island. The character is a mischievous boy who has a very peculiar way to see life and among his friends he always gets to be the most beloved one)
5) the priest gets reinforcements and even the spokesman from the White House says that the stamps are “offensive… The Mexican government needs to take this into account. Images such as these have no place in today's world�

And I think to myself…… what a wonderful woooorrld…..

How do you expect that the Mexican government will react when an American priest demands an apology from the Mexican President for these stamps (no apologies demanded from the Mexican Postal Service?) and even the White House claims that “The Mexican government needs to take this into account. Images such as these have no place in today's world�?

Can you not see? This isn’t about “how racist� Mexico is. This is about Americans messing with other country’s affairs and sovereignty.

An American priest demanding apologies from the President of another nation because he found some stamps of his (the President’s) country’s Postal Service offensive?

The White House trying making judgments and trying to impose its moral to a sovereign nation?

This is just insolent. Americans are not the police of the world, they can not go trying to impose their moral and “values� to the rest of the world.


THE MEXICAN PRESIDENT’S STATEMENTS

There are even some people who assure that in Mexico there’s such a deal of racism by recalling the Mexican President’s statements about the Mexicans in the United States taking jobs that “not even the blacks want�.

Mmmhhh… I wonder… if the Mexican people should be judged by the President’s statements…. Should the American people be judged by President Bush’s statements and actions?

I think not. I think that wouldn’t do them any good.

Do I think the Mexican President is a racist? I don’t know. Maybe only the people who really know him can get to know that. What I do think is that he is a very bad politician and he frequently screws it up.

Did he really mean it that way when he said that Mexicans take jobs that “not even blacks want�? I have my doubts.
I think that he meant that even the minority which has suffered the most in the United States, even those who were discriminated so badly (and who are, unfortunately, still being discriminated), even the ones who were traded as slaves in the past and were, not long ago, still segregated, have had the chances to improve their life conditions and can now get better jobs, but, on the other hand, the Mexicans still get those terrible jobs that black people were forced (due to the lack of better opportunities) to take, but nowadays take not any longer. At least that’s what I think he meant. Because even though he’s a very bad politician and even if he were a very racist person (which you and I totally ignore) you would need to be a brainless snail in order to say that on a public speech and mean it as a racial slur. Give the man a little credit, probably he just screwed it up trying to say something else.
I can say this because I’ve witnessed what he’s said and done since even before he got elected for the presidency.
How many Americans can say that?

RACISM IN MEXICO

There is racism in Mexico, of course. There are people in Mexico. But, surprisingly
(or maybe not so), most of the racism is against native Mexicans.

Racism against black people is not so common in Mexico because there are just very few black people there. In fact, most of the “black� people in Mexico are not exactly what in America would be considered “African American� (African Mexican in the case of Mexico) but a mixture of Native Mexicans and Africans who, in most cases, acquired the local culture and adjusted themselves to their new home. There are some tribes, which never mixed with Native Mexicans and which live in the Sierras, that stayed “Africans� though.

I won’t deny that there’s racism in Mexico, that’s for sure, there’s racism almost everywhere (an unfortunate world-wide disease), however, I find it very hypocrit from some Americans to make such a big fuss about some stamps in Mexico, to say that in Mexico “there’s such a big deal of racism� (well, in Mexico the seats in the bus and the restrooms were not separated by “colored� and “white�), and to use this as a scapegoat for the real sh#t in the United States (and by some other very well known ones as a cheap political trick) when they have the major problem in their homeland.

ABOUT MEMÃ?N

I’m not keen to the comic book so I wouldn’t know if the whole MemÃÂ*n thing is something racist, I’ve heard from many people who have read it that is nothing like that, though.

According to some people (most people, actually), the comic book is about encouraging family values and showing the adventures of this fellow, MemÃÂ*n.

What is a fact, is that in Mexico this comic book got once to be very popular among children and grown ups and used to sell thousands of numbers so, it is true that MemÃÂ*n (whether people like it or not) was and still is an important part of Mexico’s literary history.

TO BLACK PEOPLE (NOT ONLY AFRICAN AMERICANS)

Whether you should be outraged by these stamps or you should just discard them as something irrelevant is up to you. I’m not black so, my opinion about how “offensive� or how “irrelevant� these stamps are, would be just selfish. I think only black people can make a fair judgement (nevertheless, an individual one) about whether these stamps offends them or not.

I know that some people are more sensitive than others, and that some people are taught to be sensitive because of their historical background. For example, I’m white and Mexican. I’ve lived all my life in Mexico and since I’m white I’ve always been called “güero�, which means “white one� (at first it actually meant “blonde one�) and I’ve never felt offended in any sense by the people who call me that way. However, there are some white Americans who would feel annoyed if they were called that way even if they knew what the word means. Of course, that is understandable; cultures are different from one another, the problem is that some people tend to think that because they grew up in a certain culture they have the “divine right� to judge any other culture as they please, as if their own were “the one�, and they may even try to impose their ideas and moral to the other ones.

Perception of things changes from place to place and from culture to culture.

TO AMERICANS

You, as well as any other people, have the right to express your ideas and feelings freely. You, guys, can say whatever you want about the Mexican President, about these stamps, about racism, about modern days, about moral, about values, etc.
That is one thing. Another very different thing is playing the police of the world, trying to impose your moral to a sovereign nation, having a American priest demanding apologies from the President of another country for some political cheap trick and even getting the support from the White House for such a stupid thing.

Understand this: THE AMERICAN MORAL STAYS IN THE UNITED STATES as well as the Mexican moral stays in Mexico.

This is a Mexican affair and the decision taken about it will be made by Mexican authorities.

No matter if your white or black, or how “offended� you feel, even if you feel you’re blood is boiling, all you can do is express your ideas; other than that, if you’re American understand this: THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSSINESS.

THE AMERICAN DEMANDS FOR APOLOGIES ARE TOTALLY IRRELEVANT TO MEXICAN GOVERNMENT.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Is it so important for an American priest whether Mexico is a “racist� country or not?
Why isn’t it more important whether his own country is a racist one?
Could you tell by the country’s stamps?
Mmmmhhh or maybe it’s just the comic book?
Are there in the United States no stereotypes?
Why the double moral?
I’m starting to remember some other “outrageous� images…. but this time, from the United States:

The Red Skins logo
Speedy Gonzalez
The Chihuahua dog of Taco Bell
Speedy Gonzalez’ cousins (Boy! Were those guys lazy)
Pepe le Pew
The Fighting Irish guy on a green suit (I don’t know if he has a special name)
And let’s not talk about Hollywood movies….

Forget it, guys, when it comes about stereotypes, compared to Mexicans, Americans are in the Major Leagues.