After Insulting Black Americans, Mexican President Tells Them to Go Read a Little and Get Over It!

Recently, I defended Mexican President Vicente Fox against charges by perennial political provocateurs Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton that Fox was a racist for saying that “there’s no doubt that the Mexican men and women — full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work — are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States”. In that article, I explained why Fox’s statement was not only not racist but also, in fact, quite true.

But now, even though I stand by my defense of his statement, I must concede that Jackson and Sharpton may have been more insightful about Fox’s racial motives than I realized. My conversion stems from the furor that erupted last week when the Mexican government published a series of stamps featuring caricatures that bear a disturbing resemblance to racist depictions of blacks during the heyday of Jim Crow in America. The stamps were issued, purportedly, to honour a character from an indigenous comic book that was first published in the 1940s.

Nevertheless, when admonished about the insult they inflicted upon black (and white) Americans, by no less an authority than President George W. Bush, Fox issued the following statement:

We will not withdraw the stamps….The Menim Pinguin character is an image in comic (sic) I have known since infancy. It is cherished in Mexico. They [the whining black Americans] should read more.

By honouring Memin Pinguin in this way, Mexico becomes the first country since Nazi Germany to stamp racist symbolism on its national identity.

Point of historical reference: Depictions of Memin Pinguin’s American cousins that white racists have also known since infancy and which are undoubtedly cherished for their sentimental value as much as Fox cherishes his Memin Pinguin.

Of course, Mexico is an independent country and its government is entitled to publish racist paraphernalia until all Mexicans are in black face. But I mistakenly credited Fox with an understanding (and sensitivity) about Race Matters in America that he evidently does not possess. Incredulously, Fox seems to have no regard for the difference between a private company peddling racists mementos and a government paying homage to racist sentiments by issuing stamps with characters that are recognized internationally as insulting and demeaning caricatures of black people.

Mexican President Vicente Fox: ¡Oye! Americanos negros, a while back you accused me of being a Mexican racist for speaking the truth about my own people. Well, now you really have something to complain about….Sí?

In fairness, however, it must be noted that many Mexicans are just as offended as Americans are by the publication of these stamps. Indeed, the editor of Mexico’s leading national newspaper La Jornada was so outraged and concerned that he lamented:

The capacity of Fox’s government for provoking international scandals through predictable or avoidable details is incredible.

Yet, it is a reflection of the waning political and economic influence of America throughout the Western Hemisphere that even its most dependent neighbor, Mexico, feels it can sanction such an egregious insult with impunity. But it is worth noting that Fox has made no secret of his alienation of affection with Bush because of a variety of cross-border disagreements. And, moreover, that he seems savvy enough about race matters in America to appreciate that – with Hispanics supplanting blacks as the most dominant minority group in America – the political repercussions for offending blacks are not nearly as severe today as they might have been just a few years ago.

Your move Bush, Jackson…Sharpton!

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