La Shawn Barber has created quite the international stir by reporting on the new Mexican stamps commemorating Memín Pinguin, a comic book character with exaggerated black features (and I’m putting that nicely). The comic book is still popular in Mexico and it’s unbelievable to actually see one. Did I say see one? Yep, you can actually find them in the little stores that dot the heavily Hispanic areas of Dallas, and probably elsewhere, too. The picture at the end of this post shows a larger image of Memín and his mother, who looks disturbingly like Aunt Jemimah.
RACISM
“Americans have bought the lie that the world was a lovely place until we came along.”
Are the stamps a really, really bad idea? Of course they are. However, one of the interesting twists I find to this story is that America is shocked in discovering that another country is racist. Americans have bought the lie that the world was a lovely place until we came along. Actually, we are one of the least racially polarized countries in the world. Mexicans and Peruvians still treat their indigenous peoples very badly. Vicente Fox speaks ill of African-Americans. The Anglos and the Quebecois openly despise one another in nice, liberal Canada. And Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are rife with racism. Sometimes it deals with skin color, other times it deals with culture.
We still have a long ways to go in ending racism in this country, but the evidence speaks for itself that people of different cultures get along better here than virtually any place in the world. Take that, Mexico!
For more of my thoughts on this subject, see my earlier post on Racism and Christianity.
Esto es tan estúpidamente surrealista que ni siquiera resulta divertido: un puñado de gringos y sus acólitos, que sólo hablan mal inglés y que no saben absolutamente nada de México, menos comprenden, intentando imponer por la fuerza a sus vecinos del sur soluciones foráneas que no han conseguido que les funcionen en casa.
Generaciones enteras de mexicanos aprendieron a leer con Memín Penguín a la par que eran cautivadas por su simpatía, su dulzura, su inquieta inteligencia y su conmovedora sinceridad y capacidad de amar. Memín les ayudó a adquirir valores humanos, a respetar la diversidad y a detestar la injusticia. Y ahora nos quieren reinventar la rueda encontrando odio donde siempre hubo aprecio y racismo donde siempre hubo cariño y respeto, en un clarísimo caso de «piensa el ladrón que son todos de su condición».
No son ni capaces de escribir correctamente el nombre de Memín. Tamaña muestra de cerrazón causaría hilaridad si no provocara antes profundo llanto.
Following is my translation of the first post:
“This is so stupidly surrealistic that it isn’t even funny: a handful of gringos and their friends, who only speak poor English and who know absolutely nothing of Mexico and don’t even try to understand it, trying to forcefully impose upon their neighbors to the South solutions that have not even worked at home.
“Whole generations of Mexicans learned to read with Memín Penguín and were captivated by his affection, his sweetness, his anxious intelligence, and his stirring sincerity and capacity to love. Memín helped them to acquire human values, to respect diversity, and to detest injustice. And now they want to us to reinvent the wheel — finding hatred where there was always esteem and finding racism where always there was affection and respect. This is a clear case of the ‘thief who thinks everyone is a thief.’
“They are not even able to write the name of Memín correctly. This would be funny if it weren’t so sad.”
Bien nombrado Tonto,
Le agradecería que se diera cuenta de un par de cosas,
1. Habemos “gringos” que sabemos qué significa el racismo.
2. Y dibujos como el Memín aquí han significado racismo. Por eso es que la gente se ofende.
And now for a translation of my post,
Well-named Tonto (Tonto means silly),
I’d appreciate if you’d realize a couple of things,
1. Some of us “gringos” know the meaning of racism.
2. And drawings like Memin’s have meant racism here. That’s why people are offended.
“2. And drawings like Memin’s have meant racism here. That’s why people are offended.”
Well, then I’m sorry because USA has an history of racism, Mexico doesn’t, so we just see a poorly drawn character that it’s not intented to insult anyone, not some Jim Crow memorabilia. Neither Colombians nor Venezuelans complained about the comic, so I guess Americans are just hypersensitive to race issues.
“so I guess Americans are just hypersensitive to race issues.”
I completely agree, I´m not talking for every US american, but you have a lot of racism in your own country, all u have to do is turn the TV on, or go to the movies, and you´ll see all the stereotypes on african,latin,asian,europen.
Want an example,BAZ LUHRMANN Romeo and Juliet, c´mon u can see there exactly the perspective of US americans have about latin american people on the Capulet family.
So you should grab a book and start studying about other cultures besides yours, owwwww I forgot, you don´t have ONE!!!.
We love Memín, despite everything you can say, it is a national icon, and that will not change.
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