Posted on 07/02/2005 2:59:25 PM PDT by forty_years
Cuando era un pequeño muchacho, Viví en Ciudad de México. ¿Entienda? Oh, sorry; forgot to switch to English. Er, ah… When I was young, I lived in Mexico City for a year. I also spent a lot of time traveling in Latin America. One thing I learned very quickly there: The darker your skin, the worse you were treated. That type of thinking still pervades official Mexican institutions.
Vicente Fox, el presidente de México, una persona blanca – a white man of the ruling Spanish clan – has stuck his foot in his mouth again. Today, he is defending two official Mexican postage stamps, featuring Uncle-Tom/Al-Jolson-in-blackface-like caricatures of black people. In May,
Mr Fox had caused offence when he said Mexicans did jobs in the US "that not even blacks wanted to do".
What a track record Mr. Fox is developing. Oh, but I thought leaders of third world countries were “incapable” of racism – as they’ve spent their lives trying to overcome their white, American imperialist overlords (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). After all, Fox is a good guy. He opposed the Iraq "blood-for-oil" war.
Cuando estaba en América Latina, trataron a los indios el peor. Oh, sorry. While south of the border, I found that Indians were of course treated the worst – except for the few black people. They got the worst of it; the "dirty jobs" so to speak. Some of our neighbors en el Ciudad de México frowned upon two of my good friends, dos indios – two Indians of Mayan descent. The neighbors were of course lighter-skinned Mexicans. But they didn’t have as light skin as the director of el Instituto in which my father was on sabbatical.
But our not-so-dark-skinned neighbors still railed against the awful Americans – politically, at least. They were nice to me, but I was a Catholic-Lithuanian-(Rastafarian)-Jew-boy. In other words, at least half of me was OK – the lighter-skinned one.
Of course I met people of all stripes in Mexico, many without a drop of prejudice in their souls. It is a country as diverse as any other in the Americas. But it is hard to forget some memories.
One Christmas, my family was vacationing in Merida, the provincial capital of Mexico’s state of Yucatan. The population of this southern, Caribbean rain forest paradise is predominantly Mayan. A party representing los indios won the election. The next day, my parents and I took a walk through Merida’s main square. Truck-loads of Mexican soldiers started pouring into town. The troops were non-Mayan of course, but many were from other “indigenous” tribes. We didn’t see any violence, but the locals were petrified.
The soldiers presided over an official election “recount.” Guess what, in a stunning turnaround, the pro-Mexican candidate “won.”
Judging by Mexican President Fox’s recent statements regarding black people, and the two commemorative Uncle Tom/Sambo postage stamps, things haven’t changed much.
Before anybody goes looking for greener grasses and wishful-thinking-rainbow-coalitions in the third world, just remember: Think clearly, take off the rose-colored glasses, and see people as they are: people like the rest of us, with all our human foibles.
http://netwmd.com/articles/article1060.html
pooo-leeeeze Jez-ZAH JA-aCK-SON go and bother them. POO-LEEEZE.
NBD - I like the stamps.
Um, that's an almost universal attitude throughout the world..
Of course you like them, you bigoted asshole. It's just par for the course for you. Your posting history proves that.
Muchas gracia por the post. Es un article muy bien.
{How many crimes against the Spanish language there, eh?, It's my fractured Nuyorican Spanglish}
The Chinese seem to exhibit racism against blacks too. Some were very insulting to Secretary of State Rice.
Jesse may be able to get a raacial racketeering monetary settlement from president Fox, or at least a time share apartment in Baja for a mistress or two...
I want him to go down there and annoy them like he does us. I may be wrong but I think their tolerance level of Jess-AAHs type of action is a looooooooooooooot smaller than ours.
Yassuh, boss, I 'sposes ya do. I's sure ya like me 'n mine to know our propa place, too, as 'posed ta bein' an uppity negra.
Why?
Then, two-and-a-half months later on December 2, 1829, President Vicente Guerero exempted Texas Territory from the antislavery decree (kissing their bu**s in much the same manner as a parade of American Presidents a century+ in the future).
Some things never change, but in this instance Mexico beat Lincoln and the Civil War to the punch by a full generation!
Reggaeton, si! Hip Hop, so!
Definitely true among the blacks in the city I live. The lighter skin blacks consider themselves superior to the dark skinned ones. Some light skinned blacks say they aren't black, but creole (spanish/black mix).
I wouldn't go around telling everyone that. It makes you look and sound like a racist fool.
Thanks for the interest.
There comes a time when folks see mountains when they are really looking at a mole hill - you've made it.
I think it's funny - what do you think?
You need to chill out - you are way to serious.
No surprise here. And the pro-immigration crowd has the nerve to suggest that we want border control because of racism.
The Vicente Foxes of the world want open borders BECAUSE OF racism- instead of creating a non-corrupt country where everyone can flourish.
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