Posted on 07/10/2008 5:39:29 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
A comic-book character popular in Mexico for generations has run into a cultural barrier at the border, where Americans see him as a racist caricature.
For more than 60 years Mexicans have followed the adventures of "Memin Pinguin." But the dark-skinned Memin's exaggerated features in "Memin for President" came as a shock to Houston, Texas, Wal-Mart shopper Shawnedria McGinty.
"I was like, OK, is that a monkey or a boy?" McGinty said. "To me it was an insult."
She'd never heard of "Memin Pinguin." She bought a Spanish-English dictionary and tried translating but still didn't like what she saw.
"So I asked my boyfriend, does that look like a monkey to you?" she said. "And we went back and forth and he was like, no, that's a black woman," referring to the character's Aunt Jemima-like mother.
McGinty and Houston community activist Quannel X want the comic books removed from the stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Since they’re not white guys, the PC Nazis will find a way to let this pass.
Im glad to see this story growing legs. The Mocha Messiah will have to make a comment on it if enough attention is given to the story. The Mexicans dont think PC rules apply to them. How wrong they are...
This situation aside, my comment when people throw such nonsense my way:
“Your hypersensitivity is not my problem. My history and character is well established.”
Shawnedria and Quannel X....and they wonder why people won’t take them seriously...how can you with names like that.
Shawnedria sounds like something you could catch and take Quannel X to cure
To me it sounds like a typo.
tsk, tsk. Judging other peoples cultural icons in such a poor light. Not very multicultural.
I don’t know why CNN is even reporting this story, unless they can blame it on Bush, the Republicans or global warming. The MSM has become so politically polarized that I watch it to try and catch the infrequent report that doesn’t have ‘liberal agenda’ written all over it. I’m amazed at how rarely that occurs.
So Memin has been around for 60 years, eh? Im glad to see the creators evolved him to reflect a more modern day looking character. Im not a PC hound but I can understand why black folks would have a problem here. On the other hand, demanding something to be taken off the shelves is a little counter to our sense of freedom to read what we want.
Did he have blue lips too?
I think there is only one Sambo’s restaurant left in california thanks to the PC nazis.
Clearly this cannot be since African-Americans have ensured us that only white people (like me) are racist!
Mexico doesn’t suffer PC disease as bad as the US.
There isn’t anyone left who can be a caricature.
Presumably the artwork is done by Mexicans ~ since this is clearly not the sort of thing any American would do.
Mexicans caricaturing people that Americans won't caricature!
“Houston community activist Quannel X”
There is no such job as “community activist”.
Apparently QX will be hosting a press conference in front of the Wal-mart that the comic was purchased at. The W-store being sensitive and all that, has pulled the comic.
QX - 1
WMT - 0
“Mexican” is not a race, even if Mexicans try to tell you it is.
Clash of the protected classes.
It’s not a job - it’s a patent of nobility.
Community Activist = Unemployed.
We gonna be seeing a lot of this in future. It almost deserves its own keyword.
Something about this artwork screams "QUEER" at high volume.
So is Shawnedria taking on 2 protected PC classes?!
I despise Political Correctness. I believe it is an Orwellian attempt at thought control and power mongering. However, this character isn’t something I would let my child embrace.
So it is “Americans” that see him as racist. There isn’t a neutral board of review we can turn to?
“So I asked my boyfriend, does that look like a monkey to you?”
It sure as hell doesn’t look like the Penguin mentioned in the title of the comic.
mexico is a very racist country.
the u.s. gave up structural racism, i.e., the societal and legal impediments that
prevented blacks from sitting in the front of buses, going to colleges, getting equal opportunities for work, etc.
not so, mexico.
mexican politicians, business professionals, tv stars, etc are usually either white or light skinned.
mexico is run by whites and light-skinned mexicans. the whites are usually french, basque, germans, jews etc.
many of the medium-skinned mexican you see in the states are here precisely because they have less opportunities than whites in mexico.
even below this level are the mexican indians.
From "Manuel Pacifico – Tuna Fisherman"
Hmm, not sure those two are into “tuna” fishing.
It happened at Wallyworld, in the Bushes’ back yard and it is a community activist who raised the media’s attention to the matter.
Amazon.com has digital downloads of the books. The pictures are not shown online. Perhaps so no one will be “outraged”, you’d have to already know what you are getting.
A lot of these were discovered in the history of comics by an artist named Scott Shaw who over the past 35-40 years amassed a large collection of "oddball" comics for a slideshow.
They aren't all gay rhemed. Just some of the more widely copied images from his collection are.
Gotta love activists. They look for anything to be offended by.
Yes, my friend, that is a well kept secret here in the U.S. Also unknown for the most part is the terrible discrimination practiced against the Indian tribes down there.
Hey, quit shopping my family’s photobucket cache!
Hey, leave the Rifleman alone.
If someone doesn't like it, then don't buy it or watch it.
I would not buy this chimp looking black kids pic for example, it's a bit over the top. I think some pickney drawings are charactititure enough.
But don't forget nearly all races and groups have been drawn as such.....exaggerated looking for effect..
thanks for showing finally the proper way to spell a word I have misspelled for years...”caricature”
Once again AM radio scoops the ENEMEDIA. I heard this on the Walton and Johnson, three days ago.
Quanell is the airbag complaining about 2 burglars being shot for burglaring in Houston.
I agree that the elites in Mexico are mostly more European and less “Indio”
but you write like it’s all a plot....maybe I misunderstood you
sometimes things just fall the way they do
Europeans with a fairly long history of civilization and mercantilism conquer a land and run it pretty hard as colonial masters for a few hundred years and they end up on top since that culture now more reflects what they brought than what they conquered....at least at the top.
It’s not surprising. It’s simply not by accident that the groups that were more “advanced” 400 years ago now still occupy disproportionately the upper rungs in the cultures they either migrated to or conquered.
How much is a conspiracy is debatable.
Al Sharpton and Obama would say it’s all on purpose.
Most conservatives would say it’s more the natural result of things than that....not saying repression doesn’t have an effect. But repression doesn’t explain why some less advanced groups worldwide still lag for so long
I was raised on Uncle Remus.
Aside from the derogatory use to describe a “mixed race baby” nowadays I never saw in the story whereby the tar baby meant a negroid infant but rather a made up of tar doll.
Nothing gay at all about the Rifleman and no Chuck Conners never did any gay porn and nor was he gay.
Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson....now that was a 1950s/60s rumour that was true.
The Rifleman rocked...at least to this once little boy.
It wasn’t Mexicans or Mexican-Americans who objected to the WB Speedy Gonzales cartoons either. In fact, for the most part, they saw him as a good character model, who was in his way very strong, attractive, and smart.
But at the time, he was about the only Mexican-based character in the cartoons, even though Walt Disney had made several forays into Mexico to show off Mexican culture.
Perhaps an even more tragic example were the objections to the truly artistic “Gordo” comic strips of Gus Arriola. From 1941 to 1985, they were some of the best art on the comics pages. Ironically, these comics were the first, and perhaps largest introduction to Mexico and its culture for many Americans. Its main character was a tour guide who took pride in showing off his country. Gordo was a Mexican ambassador to the world.
But the race obsessed couldn’t get over how Mexican he and the other human characters were, and how this meant that they were somehow offensive to Mexicans.
Houston PING
Quannell the Tenth’s PR activism has been picked up by CNN.
Of course the Mexicans were offended by Speedy Gonzalez and got him banned.
I’m trying to drum up a little sympathy for Hispanic free speech but...what can I say...I’m still upset the Taco Bell dog was pulled.
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