Americans could say the same about 
Posted on 07/01/2005 7:40:58 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
MEXICO CITY - Facing renewed U.S. allegations that theirs is a racist society, many Mexicans were scratching their heads again Thursday. The controversy surged Wednesday with news that Mexico is issuing postage stamps depicting Memin Pinguin, a rambunctious black youth who has been a popular comic-book character here for more than 60 years. Memin's physical attributes — exaggerated lips, large eyes and somewhat simian body language — might scream racism to sensitized minds.
African-American leaders and U.S. government officials have denounced the stamp and Memin as relics of a bygone era when stereotypes were standard and racism was the rage. Such "racial stereotypes are offensive, regardless of their origin," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday. Added Stephen Hadley, the Bush administration's national security adviser, "there's no place for this kind of thing. It's wholly inappropriate, and we've made it clear." Memin's fictional friends are light-skinned youngsters in an unnamed urban neighborhood. To many Mexicans, Memin — whose name can be translated as Little Devil Billy — is simply cute, funny and prone to misadventures. "It's not racist," said Pablo Garrido, 40, who sells Memin Pinguin's adventures along with hundreds of other titles at a street stall in southern Mexico City. "He's just a naughty boy who is always getting into trouble."
'Lack of understanding'
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez shot back Thursday afternoon, saying that criticism of the stamp and of Memin Pinguin reflects "a total lack of understanding of our culture ... a total lack of respect for our culture ... " "We all know who Memin Pinguin is," Derbez said, speaking of the fictional character as if he were a national hero. "No Mexican that I know of sees him as a derogatory character." More than 80 percent of Mexicans are mestizos — of mixed Indian and Spanish lineage — with many also claiming Chinese, African, Arabic and other European ancestry.
Under a caste system in colonial times, racial makeups were rigorously classified, the hierarchy building from dark-skinned people on the bottom to white Europeans on top. After the Mexican Revolution, which ended in 1917, Mexico's rulers pushed the concept of a "cosmic race" of mestizos, intentionally blurring racial lines for political and social ends.
Earlier controversy
The tussle over Memin's stamp comes little more than a month after President Vicente Fox came in for sharp criticism from African-American leaders by asserting that Mexicans migrating to the United States do jobs "even blacks won't take." After meeting the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at the presidential palace in Mexico City in late May, Fox said he was sorry if anyone took offense at his remarks. "This is all because of the foolish comments of the president," Garrido said of the Memin Penguin controversy. Mexicans in Houston had a mixed reaction to the news. Some suggested the sensitivity about race in the United States made them look at the issue differently from their counterparts back home. "It's not racist, it's just a joke," Isabel Lopez, a native of San Luis Potosi, said outside a north Houston grocery store. "But if the African-Americans find it offensive, it should be stopped."
'Part of our history'
Others disagreed. "It's a cartoon character, and it's part of our history," said Antonio Moreno, a Michoacan native who said he does not think the stamp should be stopped. Houston immigrant-rights activist and dual citizen Maria Jimenez usually defends Mexicans, but she said race is one issue for which the country of her birth can be criticized. "We're very racially sensitive in the United States, and Mexico is just in denial on race issues," Jimenez said. Until the early 1990s, when a black-awareness movement began in Mexico, most Afro-Mexicans did not even think of themselves as such, said Pat Carroll, a historian at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who has written a book about the black Mexican community. "In Mexico, racism took the form of denial," Carroll said. Article One of the Mexican Constitution prohibits discrimination over gender, disabilities, religion or ethnicity. But as in the United States and many other countries with such prohibitions, discrimination persists here in everyday life. Folk sayings and attitudes that reflect racial prejudice, for instance, remain common here. The tiny Afro-Mexican community, concentrated mostly on the relatively remote southwest Pacific Coast and a few villages in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, descends from the several hundred thousand slaves brought here in colonial times to replace indigenous labor.
"Cri Cri", the nickname of the very famous Gabilondo Soler, sang a cute little song entitled "Negrito Sandia" which I think is fabulous. However, can't bring it up in school because of all of the folks with a chip on their shoulder.
Americans could say the same about
Barney Fife and Al Bundy are awful racial stereotypes. As a white guy, I'm highly offended and I want reparations immediately!!!
If the Mexicans don't want to be pilloried by our liberal media and our civil rights leaders, they are going to have to engage in a whole lot more political correctness than they've done in the past.
Oversensitive PC hacks destroy everything in their path until we all endure the bland world left in their wake.
My wife and I went on vacation in Mexico and visited some Mayan ruins on the ocean. We were both amazed that we could walk right to the edge of the cliff and enjoy the view. We both knew we could never get that close in America.
Thanks to all the lawyers out there... < /rant>
Does anyone have the stamp image that this is all about?
Just posted it...look "up".
"Little Blackie Watermelon"? I guess not!
Yep. And the song tells him to behave! Great song.
I thought Barney Fife was an accurate sterotype of a profession.
I suppose we could be both racist and politically correct at the same time (what a shocking thought!) by agreeing that the use of such racist characters as Menim Pinguin is merely the sort of trogdylitic behavior we can expect from our little brown brothers South of the Border.
You're not being respectful to my cutural diversity!!! /liberal-crap off
Why can't the Mexicans be respectful of my culture? They demand it for theirs.
My culture stresses obeying the law, driving with insurance, speaking the language and paying taxes.
PC for bigots ?
Little Blackie Watermelon"?
Yep. And the song tells him to behave! Great song.***
Is this anything like an old poem called "Kentucky Larnin"?
A colored boy steals a watermelon.
His mom is ashamed and berates him in a loooooong poem.
She then cuts the watermelon and says he doesn; get any because he stole it.
IT'S GREEN! she says after cutting into it, then she berates him for stealing a non ripe melon.
I've only heard the poem once about 38 years ago from a woman who could recite it from heart.
Bingo! what about Speedy Gonzales or Pepi lew pew? they have been condemned as well
This is PC BS,people need to shut up and worry about something more important then this silly crap
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