NationStates Jolt Archive

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41251000/jpg/_41251437_stamps_ap203istoryjpg.jpghttp://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/americas/06/29/mexico.stamp.ap/story.stamp3.ap.jpg

Though apparently we shouldn't judge too hard. According to Mexico, Memin Pinguin has done a lot to combat racism. (No idea how though, possibly somebody somewhere could enlighten me.) And that everyone condemning the stamps simply doesn't understand Mexican culture.

Meh, you decide.

Clicky!: BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4637943.stm)
Clicky!: CNN (http://premium.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/29/mexico.stamp.ap/)

Meh, it's been a while since the Marines marched into Mexico City with explosive diarrehea, and we added a territory, maybe they miss us?

Americans win the thinnest skin award.

Americans win the thinnest skin award.

Why?

Why?

Because American black organizations are complaining about a stamp that isnt even within their country's border.

Are they now exporting victimhood in America? It is a classic Mexican comic book from which nobody in the US even knows about or understands.

Are Blacks in America so sensitive they now can be offended from the actions of a entirely different country? It is pathetic and shameful that they try to force offenses against another country. What is really pathetic and shameful is that special intrests groups have gotten so powerful now in the US that they are now international special intrest groups.

Those stamps are cute, plus the fact that Memin Pinguin has been around for more than 40 years. I was born and raised (until 16) in Mexico. He is just a comic strip character, nothing more and nothing less. But to each his/her own. Bye, bye!

Its no more racist than Speedy Gonzales.

What next your going to want me to hand over my Gollywog!

Bah never i tells you NEVER!!1!!!

Because American black organizations are complaining about a stamp that isnt even within their country's border.

So you can only be offended by something if it happens withing your own borders?

Are they now exporting victimhood in America? It is a classic Mexican comic book from which nobody in the US even knows about or understands.

The thing is, I was trying to find some positives about the character to balance out my OP, though google is filled with hysteria so it wasn't very useful, :(. The only positives I could find were in the news paper articles. Though they were asserted and I could find no proof.

What mexico does within its own borders is NONE OF THE US's BUSINESS!

And the same man who complains about these stamps is quoted as saying "[mexicans] do jobs even blacks don't want"

can you spell hypocrisy?

Those stamps are cute, plus the fact that Memin Pinguin has been around for more than 40 years. I was born and raised (until 16) in Mexico. He is just a comic strip character, nothing more and nothing less. But to each his/her own. Bye, bye!
Only that he's biting the style of far earlier artists; a style which has something of an infamous history with a nieghbor their nation lives and dies by.

"Mr Jackson said President Bush should pressure Mexico to withdraw the stamps from the market."

What right does Jesse Jackson have in deciding a sovereign nation's stamps? That sort of bullying seems excessive to me.

Because American black organizations are complaining about a stamp that isnt even within their country's border.

Are they now exporting victimhood in America? It is a classic Mexican comic book from which nobody in the US even knows about or understands.

Are Blacks in America so sensitive they now can be offended from the actions of a entirely different country? It is pathetic and shameful that they try to force offenses against another country. What is really pathetic and shameful is that special intrests groups have gotten so powerful now in the US that they are now international special intrest groups.

The funny thing is they had the idea for the cartoon from the Americans

Ben Vinson, a black professor of Latin American history at Penn State University, said he has been called "Memin Pinguin" by some people in Mexico. He also noted that the character's mother is drawn to look like an old version of the U.S. advertising character Aunt Jemima.

I feel the irony

What mexico does within its own borders is NONE OF THE US's BUSINESS!

And the same man who complains about these stamps is quoted as saying "[mexicans] do jobs even blacks don't want"

can you spell hypocrisy?

Wasn't it President Fox who said that?

Oh dear... Germany may be next on the list, because this little fella Sarotti-Mohr (http://www.qantara.de/uploads/478/831/422488149bc05_Sarotti_Mohr.jpg) has been around for a little over a century now. He is the trade symbol of a brand of chocolate...

The funny thing is they had the idea for the cartoon from the Americans. I feel the irony
I know you can do it. Put it all together now. Why is it those people are so pissed?

Another thing Mexicans can, and no doubt will soon, do to piss exactly the same people off again, black-face. No one does it any more either, they'll be so retro. No reason, best not to think too deeply as to why.

Those stamps are cute, plus the fact that Memin Pinguin has been around for more than 40 years. I was born and raised (until 16) in Mexico. He is just a comic strip character, nothing more and nothing less. But to each his/her own. Bye, bye!

Since you seem to know about Memin Pinguin, can I ask you this.

In the articles is says that he has helped promote family values and fight racism. Do you have any idea how this has been done?



(NB: This isn't a challenge. I admit I know little about this, I just want to understand it)

I know you can do it. Put it all together now. Why is it those people are so pissed?

Another thing Mexicans can, and no doubt will soon, do to piss exactly the same people off again, black-face. No one does it any more either, they'll be so retro. No reason, best not to think too deeply as to why.

Isn't that why they released the stamps, because this is an old mexican character who used to be popular? One might even say a "retro" character?

Difference between this character and speedy gonzales?

I really think people are reading too much into this, must be a slow week for the press

Please please take Little Black Sambo off my hands as well and my Grandmothers Swastika Postage stamps ah oh no boo hoo.

I really think people are reading too much into this, must be a slow week for the press

Yep. I thought it was mildly amusing, I thought it was a bit of cultural misunderstanding.

Remember it is almost silly season ;)

Yep. I thought it was mildly amusing, I thought it was a bit of cultural misunderstanding.

Remember it is almost silly season ;)

Agreed :)

The thing that worries me is how the US is being called on to "put pressure on mexico to withdraw the stamps". Come on, Its not like genocide or dragging dissidents away in the middle of the night (which the US often doesn't take a stand against in any case). I don't fully agree with the stamps and understand how some may find it offensive, but its not the job of the US government to alter it,

Anyoen bitchnig about this can blow it out their ear. America already has their noses in every damn ones business so all the black "leaders" are gonna bitch because some other country put a comic book character that looks like an old American racist image. Who gives a fuck? Mexico is not America, it is not some uptight puritan wannabe like America is. What are you gonna do? Call for boycotts because ANOTEHR COUNTRY has STAMPS you don't like? Ah some one relay this message to Jesses Jackson "Shut the hell up mofo"

Maybe America should make Martin Luther King a white man next time they issue a new stamp of him, to avoid racial prejudice. This seems like another no win scenario. Sheeesh!

I know you can do it. Put it all together now. Why is it those people are so pissed?

Another thing Mexicans can, and no doubt will soon, do to piss exactly the same people off again, black-face. No one does it any more either, they'll be so retro. No reason, best not to think too deeply as to why.

As you wished! (http://www.besmark.com/minstrel.jpg)

Pssh...no more racist than an ignorant American Deep South and its 'lawn-jockies'. Or, of course, any central European nation that still makes postage stamps about the 'purity of their race'. Heh...any country thats been around for centuries and STILL has little intermarrying has to have something against it. *cough* o.o

Pssh...no more racist than an ignorant American Deep South and its 'lawn-jockies'. Or, of course, any central European nation that still makes postage stamps about the 'purity of their race'. Heh...any country thats been around for centuries and STILL has little intermarrying has to have something against it. *cough* o.o

We stay on our own side of the street. That's why they make gutters. ;)

Eh, what's the big fuss over stamps?

1) Americans do not understand Mexican history and culture
2) They don't even try it, they just condemn.
3) Memin Pinguin as been around for almost 40 years. Yeah, the drawings are based on what was the standard for drawing african-american people in those days, but guess what? While in america that style was used in racist ways, Memin Pinguin was the HERO of the comic book. There was nothing racist about him. He was very much like a mixture of Tom Sawyer with Oliver Twist(except that he had a very loving mother).

Since you seem to know about Memin Pinguin, can I ask you this.

In the articles is says that he has helped promote family values and fight racism. Do you have any idea how this has been done?



(NB: This isn't a challenge. I admit I know little about this, I just want to understand it)

In the comic book, he lives in an apartment building with his mom, they are like most mexicans, low-middle class(Not homeless, but definitely not rich.).

HE has many friends in the building, and at school. Obviously, he is notorious because in Mexico there are not many african-american people(I do not remember where do they come from, Memin is Mexican, but his mother speaks with an accent, she is probably cuban, or from the caribbean), but he is considered a good friend. His friends never call him in racist ways, and even when he is sometimes refered as "negrito" in Mexico, that word has no racist connotations(it is the same as "guero" for blonde people, it is a friendly nickname. NO RACIST, it is part of our culture).
As I was saying, Memin has many friends, and they get in trouble as most kids of his age.
Nevertheless, in many times the kids face the harsh reality of adult's world(I remember that in one comic the mother of one f his fiends dies and they have to learn what is like to loose a family member. Memin cares a lot for his frend and tries to cheer him.)
Memin comic book is known for it's family values, in the sense that the kids learn that th efamily is important, for example, Memin's mother adores him, and Memin dreams with growing up, studying hard and becoming rich, in order to take his mother out of work. He wants to take care of his mother when she gets old.

To sumarize, Memin is a comic book plenty of moral values and it is good for the children. Besides, it is one of the oldest comic books in Mexico and is still popular.

In the comic book, he lives in an apartment building with his mom, they are like most mexicans, low-middle class(Not homeless, but definitely not rich.).

HE has many friends in the building, and at school. Obviously, he is notorious because in Mexico there are not many african-american people(I do not remember where do they come from, Memin is Mexican, but his mother speaks with an accent, she is probably cuban, or from the caribbean), but he is considered a good friend. His friends never call him in racist ways, and even when he is sometimes refered as "negrito" in Mexico, that word has no racist connotations(it is the same as "guero" for blonde people, it is a friendly nickname. NO RACIST, it is part of our culture).
As I was saying, Memin has many friends, and they get in trouble as most kids of his age.
Nevertheless, in many times the kids face the harsh reality of adult's world(I remember that in one comic the mother of one f his fiends dies and they have to learn what is like to loose a family member. Memin cares a lot for his frend and tries to cheer him.)
Memin comic book is known for it's family values, in the sense that the kids learn that th efamily is important, for example, Memin's mother adores him, and Memin dreams with growing up, studying hard and becoming rich, in order to take his mother out of work. He wants to take care of his mother when she gets old.

To sumarize, Memin is a comic book plenty of moral values and it is good for the children. Besides, it is one of the oldest comic books in Mexico and is still popular.


Thanks :D

And don't ever issue a stamp of his mother, because she is black, overweight and lower middle class (by mexican standards). Multiple lawsuits in order? Sheeesh!

Maybe they should sue the creator of Garfield, for making him orange, and let's say..... not green. Calling all lawyers!

1) Americans do not understand Mexican history and culture
2) They don't even try it, they just condemn.
3) Memin Pinguin as been around for almost 40 years. Yeah, the drawings are based on what was the standard for drawing african-american people in those days, but guess what? While in america that style was used in racist ways, Memin Pinguin was the HERO of the comic book. There was nothing racist about him. He was very much like a mixture of Tom Sawyer with Oliver Twist(except that he had a very loving mother).

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the complaints are not just coming from Americans or those unfamiliar with Mexican culture.

In fact, the earliest complaints were from black Mexicans and Hispanic groups.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/29/mexico.stamp.ap/

Activists said the stamp was offensive, though officials denied it.

"One would hope the Mexican government would be a little more careful and avoid continually opening wounds," said Sergio Penalosa, an activist in Mexico's small black community on the southern Pacific coast.

...

However, Penalosa said many Mexicans still assume all blacks are foreigners, despite the fact that at one point early in the Spanish colonial era, Africans outnumbered Spanish in Mexico.

"At this point in time, it was probably pretty insensitive" to issue the stamp, said Elisa Velazquez, an anthropologist who studies Mexico's black communities for the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

"This character is a classic, but it's from another era," Velazquez said. "It's a stereotype and you don't want to encourage ignorance or prejudices."

http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=11044&tabla=miami

When asked whether the controversy could be fueled by a cultural misunderstanding, Lisa Navarrete, a spokeswoman for National Council of La Raza in Washington, said that as Hispanic-American organization "we certainly know our own culture, and we are still outraged."

Carlos Muñoz, a professor emeritus at the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, said "people in the Fox administration, and perhaps even Fox himself, need a lesson in African contribution to Mexican history."

"It's a manifestation of the ignorance, of the racism that continues to exist in Mexican culture," Muñoz said. "Mexico, like the USA, is a very racist society. Mexico has just been more successful at ignoring its African culture than the U.S.

....

Muñoz said Mexicans tend to dismiss charges of racism as overreaction on the part of people in the United States but only because of ignorance about the role African cultural played in the formation of modern Mexico."

Sorry Cat-Tribe, but I don't know in which Mexico does that guy Sergio lives, because it is certainly not the real life Mexico.

I'm Mexican, and here everybody is shocked by the USA's reaction. We find it point-less, exagerated, and blatantly ignorant.

Sorry Cat-Tribe, but I don't know in which Mexico does that guy Sergio lives, because it is certainly not the real life Mexico.

I'm Mexican, and here everybody is shocked by the USA's reaction. We find it point-less, exagerated, and blatantly ignorant.

Dr. Velazquez, the National Council of La Raza, and Professor Muñoz are also all blatantly ignorant. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry, but your appeal to authority is fallacious.

EDIT: You didn't need to revive this old thread so we could repeat the same arguments in two threads. Let this one die.