Posted on 05/20/2005 11:03:37 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
MEXICO CITY – President Vicente Fox, the champion of Mexican migrants, is taking to the airwaves to convince Americans he isn't racist.
An interview on U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson's radio program Sunday will be Fox's first public comments about a firestorm he ignited a week ago by saying Mexicans take the U.S. jobs that "not even" blacks want. The statement roiled already tense relations between U.S. blacks and Hispanics, and angered the U.S. government.
Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Friday the president is trying to "move on" by talking publicly with Jackson about ways to bring the communities closer to fight together for their civil rights.
But moving on may be hard to do. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People invited Fox to attend its July 10-14 convention in Milwaukee to explain himself, although it wasn't immediately clear if he would attend. And activist Al Sharpton demanded that Fox apologize when the two meet Monday in Mexico City.
"I don't think we've heard a formal apology from him," Sharpton told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I think we've heard some regrets. I think we need an unequivocal apology. This was an unequivocal insult."
Aguilar brushed aside that demand, saying Friday: "We don't have anything more to say on this point."
The closest the administration has come to apologizing was when Assistant Foreign Secretary Patricia Olamendi said Tuesday that "if anyone felt offended by the statement, I offer apologies on behalf of my government." But the next day Aguilar said Olamendi was speaking on her own behalf, not for the government.
Fox's comment unveiled to the world Mexico's obsession with skin color, which dictates people's status in society in a way few Mexicans are comfortable discussing.
Blacks aren't the only group that suffer from discrimination in Mexico. In a country where much of the population is of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry, people often refer to one another with nicknames based on skin tone, and Indians are overwhelmingly poor with little access to education.
Other minorities are fair game as well. During the World Cup soccer tournament in 2002 in Japan, television ads poked fun of Asian culture by having people pull on the corners of their eyes.
Sharpton said it was time to have "a real discussion about race" with Fox.
"Things have been boiling under the surface for awhile and they need to be discussed, and frankly he can do that," Sharpton said......"
Sharpton has a point. All Fox should have said was Mexicans do jobs Americans won't and not brought race into it.
The article also outlines some longstanding racial issues in Mexico that are not often mentioned.
If I were Mexican, I'd be pretty PO'd at Fox as well, just by the mere slander of Mexicans as bottomdwellers.
Alkhin wrote:
If I were Mexican, I'd be pretty PO'd at Fox as well, just by the mere slander of Mexicans as bottomdwellers.
--> LOL, I'd love to see a "day without bottomdwellers" but let's make it a lifetime :)
That's the true irony.
The poor Indians in Mexico are so used to being crapped on. No one gives a rat's about them.
Fox and the whole Mexican elite are the biggest group of scumbags there are.
Unfortunately, that is what he thinks of his own population. That is why he wants them gone and up here.
Sharpton is baiting....Hispanics have already overtaken blacks in the population and they're fairing quite well by comparison. It's business as usual, hyper-sensitive/tribal politics. Going after Fox presents a symbolic opportunity for attack and Sharpton took advantage.
Where the hell is Zorro when you need him most....?
Substantial deposits into certain Swiss bank accounts will get Fox back into the good graces of Jesse and Al, anyway.
This Fox fella must've taken Flip Flop 101 from Kerry AND Gore. First, he's apologetic. Then, he isn't. Now, he is. For goodness sakes, at least Kerry and Gore were a little more creative.
What a racket.
Great! Maybe Jesse and Al can keep this guy busy enough that he won't have time to shoot off his mouth about how America should conduct itself.
By the time Jesse and Al get finished with Fox it'll probably be the last we hear from him for awhile.
Jesse HiJackson has his next shakedown target in sight.....
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