Wednesday, November 30, 2005
white mexican racism rears its ugly head
From The Black Commentator: White Mexican Racism Rears its Ugly Head Again by Abdul Karim Bangura is a brief but fresh and up-to-date article which discussing the African (Afrikan) presence in Mexican culture and society. It also includes a number of good links to materials (many of which have appeared on Planet Grenada before).
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7 comments:
To be fair, it doesn't even have to be white Mexicans. Most Mexicans in the border region here are pretty dark and they still drop N-bombs, or the Spanish equivalents, like crazy in a lot of neighborhoods.
Yes, actually I was actually thinking about removing "white" from the title but that was the title of the actual article.
And also "white" itself can be kind of fluid and socially constructed. I mean, if they are lighter than my family immediate family, have straight hair, and are going around using the n-word against people who look like me what else would I call them?
And also, in different parts of the world you can often see the same story, in Mexico itself, or India or Australia the Pacific Islands. There is colorism with light skinned people on top.
And even if that top group of people wouldn't necessarily be "white" here, they are "white" there.
This article really pisses me off. It lacks cultural understanding. I am someone who reads, studies, breaths, argues race issues, and Mexico does NOT have race issues like this. I would be the first one to jump on it and say yes mexico has race issues with africans...it ain't so.
Elenita,
Could you explain which specific parts the article gets wrong? Or what in the article isn't actually true?
Just reading it over, Fox really did make certain comments about Blacks and Mexicans (which true or not were offensive). The Mexican government really did come out with those Memin Pinguin stamps.
Much of the rest of the article was trying to say that there were positive images of Blacks in Mexican culture which would have been more suitable if the Mexican government wanted to honor Black people.
Sorry to just get to this now.
The problem with USians criticising Memin is that they often look at it from a USian point of view. Race is not viewed the same way in Mexico as it is in the United States.
In the US people would shy away from saying "The black kid and The white kid just left". Yet it is very common in Mexico my brother was playing his best friend in chess in a public space and I overhead one of the audiance members say "El Negrito le va ganando al Guerito"...no big deal it was the truth.
We don't have a problem identifying someone by their skin tone, it is a charachteristic just as his curly or straight hair. We also don't have a problem joking about "euro", "afro", "indigenious" features.
Yes, Fox did make the comment about Mexicans doing jobs even black people won't do. You know what? It's true. I think for multiple reasons. One, undocumented Mexicans take those jobs because they can't get anything else (since they are undocumented). Two, for historical reasons you won't find a lot of black people doing jobs like migrant farmworking because as Louis Farrakhan said "Blacks do not want to go to farms and pick fruit because they already picked enough cotton."
I don't have time to continue this. I'll be back...
The comment saying that blacks will not do jobs that mexicans do is just a negative sterotype of blacks. Why does he have to say blacks will not do the job what about whites, asians, mexican-americans none of these people will do the job but once again it is easier to pronounce a negative comment against the black community. And why should blacks do those jobs when they are not immigrants or illegal immigrants they have been in America long enough to know better and want more. Mexicans are coming from mexico to work here in america for more money and blacks want the same as mexicans more money.
The comment saying that blacks will not do jobs that mexicans do is just a negative sterotype of blacks. Why does he have to say blacks will not do the job what about whites, asians, mexican-americans none of these people will do the job but once again it is easier to pronounce a negative comment against the black community. And why should blacks do those jobs when they are not immigrants or illegal immigrants they have been in America long enough to know better and want more. Mexicans are coming from mexico to work here in america for more money and blacks want the same as mexicans more money.
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