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Black Mexico

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Submitted By darkchild
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Vicente Fox, the President of Mexico, is at best known as a racist against the blacks in Mexico. In March 2005, during one of the much-publicized projects in Arizona, the Minuteman, Fox made arrogant remarks touching on blacks. Then in May 2005, President Fox made it to insult African Americans again. He was making a speech in which he made claims that implied that African Americans comprise society’s lowest rungs. Fox made these statements stating that immigrants coming from Mexico do work that not even black people would want to do.
About a month later, there came the inauguration of Mexico's most recent series of postage stamps. These postage stamps featured a black character. This character appeared in the postage stamps with a background that made a portrayal of a minstrel show. The popularity of the Memin Pinguin series of postage stamps in Mexico made racial sense in that the character in it was thick-lipped, flat-nosed, bug-eyed, and dancing with vigor. Memin Pinguin is among Mexico's most adored comic strip characters. He has been positively acclaimed by Sixto Valencia Burgos, the cartoonist. Sixto portrays Memin in his description as "this funny little kid. And nice. And generous. Oh, and black, too."
Such portrayal of Memin in the postage stamps series by Fox was apparent. Despite the racism in these stamps, Fox went on the defensive again and was fervently defended by Rubén Aguilar, his spokesman. Aguilar denied any racism in that character. He even went further making ridiculous claims that the stamp series purposed to fight racism and encourage family values. Making matters even worse, Luis Ernesto Derbez, the Foreign Relations Secretary, defended the use of the Mexican comic strip while accusing critics of lacking respect for the Mexican culture. This would in turn be interpreted as the use of the Mexican government and its authority to promote racism against blacks in Mexico.
In Mexico, racism, both against blacks and dark-skinned native Indians is a product of Mexico’s colonial past. There is widespread discrimination against pureblood Indians as compared to those of Spanish-Indian origins. Virtually, the peasantry and working class is made up of darker-skinned people who are of Indian origin, while those Mexicans who are lighter-skinned and of Spanish descent dominate the ruling elite. President Fox himself descents from that background, as evidenced by his appearance.
This disparity explains why most of immigrants moving into the United States are those belonging to darker-skinned group. It has become difficult for the darker-skinned Mexicans to get work due to job discrimination. It has been noted that sixty percent of Indians above 12 years of age are already unemployed, while most of those who work are paid less than the minimum wage of about $2.50 per day. It is also noted that top restaurants in Mexico City do not allow its clientele to bring along their Indian domestic workers. This is out of the fear of tarnishing their business image. The racial dynamics in Mexico are best put together by Steve Sailer. He expresses that Mexico does not have a color line but, instead, has a color continuum. This is because, despite Mexico’s lack of a sharp racial divide, social prestige still remains in favor of the whiter Mexicans ("Where Did Mexico's Blacks Go?").

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