On the other hand,
Joe Dante could only use
Speedy Gonzales
for one tiny joke
in his Looney Tunes movie
to avoid offense . . .
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.
What the hell. Might as well keep digging.
This is like Mel Brooks on acid.
Why not? Mexico certainly controls our immigration policy.
Mexicans aren't any more or less racist then Americans are.
I guess that's why even though 80% of the Mexican population is mestizo (Indian for those of you in Rio Linda), you never see them portrayed in any TV shows, except as maids. Mexico resembles apartheid-era South Africa more than any country on the planet.
On the other hand,
Joe Dante could only use
Speedy Gonzales
for one tiny joke
in his Looney Tunes movie
to avoid offense . . .
True, but you could say that about the history of our tv and movies too. It was only recently that minortiy characters and themes became mainstream.
The US has progressed, but Mexico hasn't. That's the difference.
I don't know...They have much hotter women on their tv shows. : )
We're racist - for pointing out that the MEXICAN stamp is racist. Great.
More proof that only white Europeans can be racist.
Nobody else can be. wow
I don't think I've ever seen the AP bend over backwards (or forwards) like this trying to put forth an explanation for something that can be construed as offensive.
The Mexicans can't possibly be racist--only White people can be racist. Nothing to see here--move on.
Nice spin but there's nothing defensible about this. I should not be surprised you'd defend blackface caricature. What's with some freepers desperation to appear so unPC that'd they defend this crap?
Lets talk about all of the indians they murdered while they were civilizing the country.
Anyone with indian or african blood in Mexico is a second class citizen by definition. The elites all claim Spanish blood lines.
Saludos!
Compare Memin with the white children from the same cartoon. They are drawn realistically while he is grossly exagerated. It looks like old Klan fliers I've seen.
"The 6.50-peso (60 cent) stamps — depicting the character in five poses — was issued with the domestic market in mind, but Caballero noted they could be used in international postage as well. A total of 750,000 of the stamps will be issued."
I refuse to waste my breath on him. He hates blacks and starches his sheets. [shrug]
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