In Search Of Utopia: Racism and Vincente Fox

Like ISOU? Make a Donation!

Connect

Recent Entries

« For The Sake of Clarity.... | Main | Doing Business In Costa Rica »

July 01, 2005

Racism and Vincente Fox

President Vicente Fox said Friday that U.S. activists who have called a new Mexican postage stamp racist don't understand the issue and should read the comic book.

"They don't have information, frankly," Fox said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

U.S. black activists and the White House have criticized the stamp featuring Memin Pinguin, a sort of Jim Crow-era image of a black child.

"All Mexico loves the character," Fox said, adding that he himself was fond of it.

He said White House spokesman Scott McClellan should have had more information before objecting on Thursday to it as an example of racial stereotyping.

U.S. black activists, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and leaders of other black and Latino organizations have criticized the stamp and urged it be withdrawn.

Earlier Friday, Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar said the government of Mexico "emphatically rejects these complaints, which are the products of lack of knowledge or people who want publicity," Aguilar told reporters, though he did not name those to whom he referred.

Yeah I understand quite a few people were fond of Aunt Jemima too Vince 'ole buddy.

Well I got a few words for you. You have no idea how much damage you have done to the coalition efforts of Blacks and Latinos in the U.S. who have been attempting to build bridges between our communites.

Either the president of Mexico is a racist, or an idiot, look at the images above and you make up your own mind.

I believe it is about time for African Americans to declare a boycott on Mexican Products and Tourism in Mexico, until the Mexican Presidetn repudiates this outlandish and racist act.

Posted by David A at July 1, 2005 06:12 PM
Filed Under Rants | 285 Words

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.grupo-utopia.com/blog/mt/mt-tb.cgi/419

Comments

On the news it said that Fox said we just don't understand the cultural significance of the cartoon. I can't help but wondering what an exaggerated caricature of a black child has to do with Mexican culture.

I guess I just don't get it.

Posted by: Rogue at July 2, 2005 12:54 PM

damn does that mean the shabooty dynasty cant drink coronas no mo?
boycotting the lime would be hard enough as is =)

Posted by: shabooty at July 2, 2005 06:04 PM

In some respects, Mexico is very close to the United States, and in other ways it is not. I don't really know anything about this cartoon character, or Mexican cartooning in general. I understand why people from the USA are upset about the image. I don't understand why people from Mexico are comfortable putting the image on a stamp. Fox is advocating reading the comic to put the character in context, but that is a hard thing to do in the US, because it is hard to get past what the visual image stimulates. I'm not defending or attacking the cartoon, but as a cartoonist looking at a piece of work from a foreign culture, I'll just take it with a grain of salt because it confuses me.

Posted by: zencomix at July 3, 2005 09:28 AM

I used to read this cartoon magazine when I lived in Central America it never put a negative thought in my head as a child. It was funny and entertaining, I do not understand what the big fuz is all about. Can we not be sooo touchy or without self esteem in the U.S.?

Posted by: Kamila at July 20, 2005 09:45 PM