Oh, Jesus Cristo!

Oh Lawd! Here we go! They smoked Jesse back out with this one.

"U.S. activists called on the Mexican government to withdraw a postage stamp depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pident Vicente Fox.

Mexico defended the series of five stamps released Wednesday, which depicts a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico.

But the Rev. Jesse Jackson said President Bush should pressure Mexico to withdraw the stamps from the market, saying they 'insult people around the world.'

'The impact of this is worse than what the president said,' Jackson noted, referring to Fox's May 13 comment that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that 'not even blacks' want. Fox later met with Jackson and expressed regret but insisted his comments had been misinterpreted.

[...]

Ruben Aguilar, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said the comic book has promoted understanding and family values for decades and deserved to be enshrined on a stamp.

'It seems strange to me that this celebration of Mexican culture and Mexico's post office's toast to Mexican cartoonists is misunderstood,' he said.

Aguilar said the comic book was 'not racist. It's exactly the opposite.'

'I respect the reverend Jesse Jackson's opinion, but we think that he is uninformed about the historic role of this series in Mexican culture to combat racism and promote family values,' he said."

I don't know why I am still not "incensed" over this. Perhaps it is because I don't internalize every little racial stereotype I see. If someone makes a racist or ignorant comment to me in a way that impacts my livelihood or safety, we may have to have a chat. But, since I (like others who have taken a good look at a monkey) can see that monkeys have straight hair, fair skin underneath and NO lips (unless they make those weird faces - like our President), I don't know why black folks have ever allowed that stereotype to bother them. Additionally, do we not still see those same stereotypes here? I know it wasn't too long ago that I happened upon a Tom and Jerry cartoon with "Mammy Two Shoes" as a character.

As I said before, given the racist background of the words Aunt and Uncle as they applied to blacks, why aren't we taking this up with the makers of the pancake mix and the rice. What about the Cream of Wheat man? Isn't Rastus (albeit modernized) still grinning and shining on the box?

I'm not saying that I relish the thought of 1940's cartoon characters floating around the world. But you can search E-bay for the same types of items in America and folks are eating them up. As Americans, we are free to express our opinions but we have enough of these caricatures in our own history to get rid of before worrying about those in Mexico. What's next? Boycotting The Netherlands over Black Pete come Christmas time?

Because of imperialism and colonialism, these images permeate the world. The surprise that other places in the world have the same or similar histories with regards to people of color is unfortunate. I guess, like Oprah, a whole bunch of folks are having a "Crash" moment.