Posted on 07/01/2005 12:55:21 PM PDT by Wiz
MEXICO CITY - President Vicente Fox's spokesman said Friday that publicity-seeking activists in the United States were trying "to take advantage" of a dispute over a Mexican postage stamp depicting a Jim Crow-era black cartoon character.
Mexico not only refuses to withdraw the stamps, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others have demanded, but views the criticism as expressions of ignorance and disrespect for Mexican culture, spokesman Ruben Aguilar said.
"The government of Mexico emphatically rejects these complaints, which are the products of lack of knowledge or people seeking publicity," Aguilar said.
"By no means is Mexico considering the possibility" of withdrawing the stamp, he said, accusing critics of being "people who want to take advantage of this ... to seek publicity within American society."
Fox has been criticized by black activists in the United States before. In May, Jackson demanded that Fox apologize for saying Mexicans take U.S. jobs that "not even" blacks want. Fox responded by defending his commitment to minorities.
The country's postal service this week released a series of five stamps depicting "Memin Pinguin," a child's character from a comic book started in the 1945 that is still published in Mexico.
Dark-skinned with an over-shaped head and lanky limbs, Memin Pinguin is drawn with thick lips, a round nose and wide-open eyes. His appearance, speech and mannerisms are the brunt of jokes from white characters in the comic book.
Memin Pinguin's name combines a monicker or "Guillermo," or "William," and a slang form of an adjective meaning "mischievous." On the stamps, which sell for a bit more than 60 cents each, he is seen primping in a tuxedo and top-hat, marching off to school and hawking comic books.
In Washington, the White House objected, saying "racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin." Jackson branded the stamp "an insult" and asked Mexico to withdraw it from the market.
But Aguilar said Friday critics have "a lack of knowledge about Mexican culture and about Mexican comics. This comic helped this country become less racist and made the population more sympathetic to people of color."
Even figures on Mexico's left have defended the comic book, which many read as children.
Novelist Elena Poniatowska, a noted supporter of leftist causes, was quoted in the newspaper La Jornada as calling the criticisms "absurd."
"In our country, the image of black people is one of enormous goodwill, which is reflected not only in characters like Memin Pinguin, but in popular songs ... like 'Little Black Watermelon,'" a song about an unruly little black boy.
Some of the defense appeared to be founded on a relative lack of knowledge about Mexico's tiny black community, which numbers about 60,000 to 100,000 people, largely concentrated in a few rural communities on the southern Pacific coast.
"It's the United States, not Mexico, that has a history of slavery," wrote columnist Sergio Sarmiento in the newspaper Reforma. In fact, Mexico had hundreds of thousands of slaves during the colonial period, though it banned slavery before the United States did.
Mexico did not practice formal segregation in the 20th century as did much of the United States. But it also never experienced a major civil rights movement focused on rooting out racism.
BWA HA HA! Oh this is good. This after Jackson went down there and probably got paid off after that last episode with Vincenti and blacks..I guess Jesse will get paid off again.
"In our country, the image of black people is one of enormous goodwill, which is reflected not only in characters like Memin Pinguin, but in popular songs ... like 'Little Black Watermelon,'" a song about an unruly little black boy.
Oh boy.
I have emailed the Mexican Consulate. I want to buy some to use like Nice Day, Happy Face, etc. stickers if cheap enough.
Got a picture of the danged thing?
Just when I thought that the story could not get any funnier... "Little Black Watermelon."
LOL!!
Two groups of race hustlers trying to "out-victim" each other. Pass the popcorn; this could be fun.
try ebay, athough most uncheap.
Thanks.
I think these activists will turn these stamps into a collector's item.
"....Memin Pinguin's name combines a monicker for "Guillermo," or "William," and a slang form of an adjective meaning "mischievous".
Sounds kinda like Spanish for "Slick Willie".
bump
"I ain't gonna play Mexico City."
It is almost as if the Mexican government wants a race war.
And in other news today, the NBA has reached a new labor agreement between the owners and the players and they’ve agreed on a minimum age of 19 for the players. You must now be 19 years old to play in the NBA. I guess they feel that 18-year olds aren’t ready to become illegitimate fathers yet.
Ruben, it wasn't that reprehensible stamp that caused my disrespect for your "Mexican culture".
Lighten up, its only a cartoon... and we cant control maaheekoo, can we ?
Oh yes, no racism in Mexico. Unless you're Indian. Or mestizo. Or any other color darker than beige. No racism at all!
"It's the United States, not Mexico, that has a history of slavery,"
::spraying Coke on my monitor::: Excuse me?! Do they print history books in Mexico? Do we need to recount the horrific abuse of slaves in Latin America? Gads, these people are crazy.
It will be interesting if these routine Fox faux-pas turn Jackson, Sharpton, et al, against illegal immigration. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
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