Mexico airline apologizes for light-skin casting

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico airline apologizes for light-skin casting
By Adriana Gomez Licon Associated Press
Fri Aug 16, 2013 2:26 PM


MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer’s casting call requesting that only light-skinned people apply as actors for a television commercial.

Mexico’s population is largely dark-skinned, but Mexican television ads routinely feature light-skinned actors, sparking accusations of racial discrimination.

The commercial has not yet been made, but the casting call specified it wanted “nobody dark skinned,” only actors with “white skin.”

The Catatonia ad agency said this week that a third company that sent out the casting call had used “inappropriate” language. “We regret this situation, which in no way reflects our thinking as a company or as individuals,” Catatonia said on its Twitter account.

More:
http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/free/20130816mexico-airline-apologizes-light-skin-casting.html

[Atman]

1. In Thailand, skin bleaching is big business.

I assume the reasons are the same in Mexico. Dark skin means you work outdoors, are a mere laborer. Light skin is a status symbol for those fortunate enough to work in office jobs. There are billboards for skin bleaching all over Thailand.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

2. Not the case in Mexico.

In Mexico, the fairer your skin, the more "pure" Spanish blood you have. Indians are looked down on, same - more or less - as blacks in the US. Mexican migrants to the US are universally mestizos or Indians. Whites don't move because they don't have to.

[Atman]

3. Sounds very much what like I posted.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

4. They're all the same ethnic group right?

Not so much in Mexico. White people really are white people, descendants of the Spanish. They're a definite minority, but they're all you see in the TV novelas, except for folks in those stories like the maid or maybe the car mechanic. And the cops.
Descendants of the Indians are much much darker, surprisingly so, actually only a shade off US blacks. Mestizos are recognizably in between.

[a la izquierda]

6. There are a lot more "white" people...

than just Spanish in Mexico. Germans, Swiss, Italians, and Middle Easterners are just a few groups that made Mexico their home.

Um, skin color varies. Not all "Indians" are "a shade off US blacks." I dont even know what that means. Skin tone vary across ethnicities.
And, by the way, "race" in Mexico is absolutely not based on skin tone. Race is cultural; Benito Juarez was indigenous and spoke Zapotec until his early adolescence, but then went to school and learned Spanish. Nobody considered him to be an "Indian." Even he didn't consider himself an Indian.

[Flatulo]

5. And many Americans are obsessed with tanning, which is notoriously bad for fair skin. nt

[a la izquierda]

7. Haha, what crap.

Anywhere you go in Mexico, you see signs that say: " se busca personas de buena presentación." I.e. don't roll in here looking like an Indian in terms of dress.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Didn't know. That is extreme. What a shame.

Something should have changed this disrespect long ago.

It's hideous that conquering groups always bring such levels of hatred, contempt, ill-will to the people whose land and/or lives they steal.

It's unforgiveable, loathsome, should have never happened.