The Funny Thing About Race is...

You probably have heard about the recent outcries of racism levied against the Mexican government because of some commemorative postage stamps featuring a black cartoon character they have issued recently. I suspect this story will make the headline news in the coming days. I have never read any Memin Pinguin comic books, but according to the article, his antics reinforce negative stereotypes of blacks as lazy, mischievous, and uneducated.

Here we go again…We (Black America) claim to be so sensitive to negative racial stereotypes, that we are upset about commemorating a cartoon character who was developed in the 1940’s. The character was actually created by Yolanda Vargas Dulché shortly after she returned to Mexico after living in Cuba briefly. She was fascinated by the Afro-Cuban children she met while there and created this character. I read a few sparse plot outlines in English, and it to be honest, it’s debatable how racist this character is…but that argument is for another time…after I learn to read Spanish ;-)

What amazes me is that Jesse Jackson (to be followed by Al Sharpton, I’m sure) is charging the Mexican government with racism, when it seems to me that what Mexico really suffers from is historical ignorance. They apparently don’t realize how sensitive black Americans are to this type of thing. I admit, however, that I know very little about Mexican attitudes about race, and Mexico may, in deed, be very racist. That is not why I'm questioning our black leaders for demanding yet another apology from Mexican President, Vicinte Fox.

The reason the animosity about these stamps is so bewildering to me is because we tolerate and even celebrate the same negative stereotypes here in America, as long as they are presented from within the black community. Snoop Dogg can do his thug-thizzil on his latest record, or portray a pimp in the new Starsky and Hutch movie and no one boycotts his movies/CD’s. Chris Tucker and Mike Epps can play Ice Cube’s comic foils: shiftless, lazy, foul-mouthed, misogynistic, cowardly, ignorant marijuana aficionados and we not only tolerate it, but we line up at the theatres to laugh at them. Here in the US, we have plenty of television, movie, and music video images of black people that are certainly reinforcing negative sterotypes every day, but we look south of the border to make sure that Mexico is not perpetuating any comic book images that are ambiguous in the messages they portray. It strikes me as ironic because Rev. Al and Rev. Jesse have not been as vocal about black Americans perpetuating stereotypes…They have let Bill Cosby bear that burden alone (maybe because they are politicians…)

I would be very curious to hear what other people think about these stamps and how offensive they are compared to what we endure from our own media icons every day. At some point these stereotypes go from being funny to being offensive. It's sometimes difficult to tell when.

I remember when I about 11 or 12 years old, I found a book of jokes at a bookstore. These "tasteless" jokes (about women, Jews, Catholics, Asians, and so on) were pretty amusing to me at the time, but when I got to the section about black people, I remember feeling a little uneasy about laughing (How do you keep black kids from jumping up and down on the bed??? Now, is this old joke really offensive, or does it simply point out the differences in our hair?) At that young age, I had already realized that race could be a humorous subject, but whether the joke was funny or not seems to depend on who said it, and who heard it. Seems not much has changed in 20 years.

Your (stereo)typical brother,
chad

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby


Are these any more offensive...

Memin Pinguin commemorative stamps from Mexico

...than these?

Some recent theatrical work by black American actors