6.30.2005

Mexico "putting a stamp on racism": A month after Mexican president Vicente Fox angered US blacks by saying immigrants come here to do jobs "that not even blacks want to do," Fox's government has issued five postage stamps featuring a character in what appears to be blackface. Named Memin Pinguin, the dark-skin, fat-lipped character appears in a comic book first created in the 1940s that is still being published today. While activists here liken the character to the "pickininny," Mexican officials countered: "Just as Speedy Gonzalez has never been interpreted in a racial manner by the people in Mexico.. . He is a cartoon character. I am certain that this commemorative postage stamp is not intended to be interpreted on a racial basis in Mexico or anywhere else."

(Thanks, Giselle.)
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:28 AM

    I do not think this will succed, for it is a cartoon, and some people might consider it offensive. This is just a quick fix, if even, on an issue that needs to be addressed imediatly.

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  2. Anonymous8:51 PM

    I think that it is disgusting how they treat blacks and how they're discriminated against. They think that this sort of "playlful" racism is all fine and dandy, but it isn't. I don't get how people think they can get away with putting others down; it's wrong, it's unexceptable, and that sort of behavior should not be tolerated.

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