Are these racist stamps?

[Tim4319]

According to Mexico, they are paying respect to their cartoon icons of the past.

I am not sure about the history, but the look like black face to me.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063000742.html

[Kraklen]

1. It's hard to say.

The context is completely different. I don't know if the "Golliwog" stereotype and Jim Crowism is endemic to Mexico like it is in the US. Any Mexican here that can fill us in?

[goclark]

2. Tell FOX to kiss my ass!

Yes, they are racist to the core and I just heard that they will not take them back.

GWB gives the world's bigots a comfort zone.


If a Hispanic Stamp came out like this in America, it would have to be pulled IMMEDIATELY - and well that should happen.

[AlCzervik]

3. the last one the right (ofcourse) the background character

don't care for that or any of them.

[Tim4319]

7. Same here

I wasn't sure if I was overreacting or not.

[Walt Starr]

4. Racist caricatures

This would be like the United States doing stamps of "Little Black Sambo".

[Kraklen]

12. Well, yes, it'd be racist if done here in the United States.

But that's because we have a long history of using the "golliwog" time character to mock African Americans.

Is the Mexican character intended to mock Africans? Or is it an innocent exaggeration of facial features found in all cartoons?

I haven't got enough information to make that call.

[Walt Starr]

15. It's a comic that is still published today

and it mocks those of African descent.

[Kraklen]

17. How so?

[Walt Starr]

18. This character is the butt of all the white character's jokes in the comic

It's racist. Plain and simple. Has been since it began in the 40's.

[Kraklen]

19. He is?

You've read the comics yourself?

[Walt Starr]

22. I researched the issue as soon as the story hit.

Look it up for yourself.

The comic started in the 40's and this chracter is the butt of the white character's jokes.

The series of five stamps released Wednesday depicts a character with exaggerated features, thick lips and wide-open eyes. The character's appearance, speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in a comic book series, which started in the 1940s and is still published in Mexico

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506300257jun30,1,540341.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[pocket]

23. The exagerated features are only on the black characters

non blacks are drawn fairly realistically in this comic. You can find examples on google.

[Walt Starr]

26. some images from around the web

[Straight Shooter]

33. This is horrible. This is a black child? They make it look like a monkey

:puke:

[noiretextatique]

34. not too much different from these images used in the USA

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/newforms/more/

and interesting article here about racist stereotypes...an excerpt:

American darky images and Upton's minstrel doll-inspired Golliwogg had a profound influence on the way blacks were depicted worldwide. Similar uses of darky iconography in entertainment, children's toys, advertising, etc., became standard in Europe, as well. For Europeans and Asians, many of whom had never seen a black person in the flesh, the racist iconography of the blackface darky -- grotesque caricatures of blacks born of whites ridiculing blacks -- became de rigueur. By the 1930s, for example, French posters advertising performances by even respected and beloved performers like Josephine Baker routinely were in the darky mold. After World War II, Japan flooded the U.S. with darky and mammy kitchen ware, ashtrays, toys and ceramics.

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/blackface

[pocket]

35. some of those are Japanese

I recognize a few "Dragon Ball" characters.

[Walt Starr]

36. Same shit, different assholes

Racism is racism, regardless of who is the racist.

Thanks for the input! Between the two of us we've proven Mexican racists are no different from U.S. racists!

[MsTryska]

5. holy sweet jesus on a trailer hitch.

umm...yes. those are horrible.

[Iris]

6. Do you mean racist?

Don't mean to get all English teacher on you, but misuse of the word racial really bugs me for some reason!

Racism/Racist

Main Entry: rac~{!$~}ism
Pronunciation: 'rA-"si-z&m also -"shi-
Function: noun
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
- rac~{!$~}ist /-sist also -shist/ noun or adjective


Racial


Main Entry: ra~{!$~}cial
Pronunciation: 'rA-sh&l
Function: adjective
1 : of, relating to, or based on a race
2 : existing or occurring between races
- ra~{!$~}cial~{!$~}ly /-sh&-lE/ adverb

[Tim4319]

8. Thinks for catching that. I will make the correction.

[Iris]

10. You're welcome. Thanks for being gracious about my grammar police moment!

I just realized I probably should have pm'd you. Oh, well, live and learn!

[Tim4319]

14. It's all good!

[Sal Minella]

11. How did you survive the post the other day that said,

"Parential discression adviced" -- ? this old proofreader nearly passed out.

[Iris]

13. I missed it completely!

Otherwise, I'd have been on the floor next to you!

I can overlook stuff in posts - I'm not that picky,but subject lines that show up every time you get on the discussion board are another story!

[jokerman93]

9. they're just monkeys aren't they?

I'm not so sure Mexico or the Mexican people have an institutionalized hatred for people of African decent. I could be wrong, but I've never heard of it as a truism or even anecdotally.

[amazona]

27. I'm afraid I've heard of it

I've heard occasional black travellers say that they have encountered racism in Mexico and that they wish they had been warned about it in advance.

[goclark]

30. I have heard some make a difference between "dark" and light"

skin tones.

I was shocked when I first heard that happen.

It is not unusual, most countries have some form of making people be either "haves" or "have not's."

Sad but I have experienced it.

[Xithras]

32. Unfortunatly racism against dark skinned blacks is common in Mexico

I have no idea what the history of the bias is, but I know that back when I was in college, I took a road trip to Mexico with a few friends (two of whom were black) and saw it first hand. It was very blatant, very crass, and seemed like something out of Alabama in the 1950's. As an example, when we went into a restaraunt in Hermosillo, myself and two other white friends had just finished ordering when the waitress asked us if we'd like to order for our "dark friends". When we said no, she closed her order book and said she'd be back to get their orders in a few minutes(!) Fifteen minutes later our food arrived, and when I said something about her not coming back she halfheartedly apologized and took their orders. When they hadn't received their food 30 minutes later, after watching numerous customers enter, order, and receive their lunches, we again asked where their food was. This time the waitress told us that they like to serve their "regulars" first, and that they don't normally serve "them" anyway.

Needless to say, we ditched the place immediately and DIDN'T leave a tip.

[jmm]

16. When a nation has a president who says

that Mexican immigrants take jobs that "that not even blacks want to do" I'm not shocked they'd go issue this stamp. True he did later apologize. Not because he did anything wrong of course, but because it was taken out of context.

[dogday]

20. You may have something

I had forgotten about that statement. You know these guys with the power always find a way to weild it....

[progressivebydesign]

21. Is that supposed to be human? Cuz it looks like Curious George?

If they are trying to pass this character off as a human, then it's racist. Very. If it's a monkey in human clothing, like Curious George, then it's probably not. But.. Curious George was a pet monkey and this is...????

[One_Life_To_Give]

24. Depends on what Mexican Cartoon it is from.

Not enough information to be sure one way or the other. Is it a character from a racist comic?:shrug:

edit to add
Walt clarified the issue. This is a racist cartoon.

[noiretextatique]

25. um, yes

very much like the racist images used for in advertising not so long ago in the good old USA.

[Jersey Devil]

28. This link calls him a "likeable Negrito of infinite age"

translated by Google:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://members.tripod.com/gmoaguilera/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmemin%2Bpinguin%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1003

Sounds like the Mexican version of Amos & Andy.

[Mairead]

31. "sounds like the Mexican version of Amos & Andy"

I don't think so. If you look at A&A, the humor was 'ethnic' but not racist as such: the foibles being mocked were those of individual character, not stereotypes.

This cartoon is very different to that.

[Mairead]

29. Yes, they are (imo).

That style of cartooning seems to be prevalent in many places throughout Central and South America. Domino's Pizza got into big trouble for this advert one of their frachisees ran in Guatamala in '96. The text goes: "We realize that you work like blacks... and naturally you will eat like cannibals... that's why we're making you this great offer for pizza..."




My sense is that people in other countries who deny racism are in the same place many people in the US were in the '50s--the racist assumptions are so inbuilt that they really can't see them.