I find the whole Memin Piguin situation indicative of prevailing notions of race. In general, mainstream society believes that racism is a thing of the past, or that something is racist only if done with malicious intent. This can be said for the US, Mexico, European countries, the rest of Latin America, and anywhere else on the globe; and those are dangerous misconceptions. Memin Piguin is a “darkie with a heart of gold.” The leading Mexican opinion is that, because of the addition of “heart of gold” as a qualifying clause, the “darkie” part of it is non-offensive. Of course, darkie iconography depicts black people as more simian than homosapien, reducing people of African descent to humanoid animals of menial intellect and feral sensibility. But, because the comic book series looks upon Memin Piguin with compassion and not disdain, mainstream Mexican society believes that it couldn’t be called racist. I think more Mexican people would be up in arms if they didn’t regard Memin Piguin as an accurate depiction of black people, physical appearance notwithstanding. And mainstream Mexican society is critical of Americans who find Memin Piguin offensive. Riiiight. It seems like people all over the world are dangerously oblivious to their racism.
Is there a contingent of Mexicans who will stand up against this “friendly racism?” I mean, I’m sure it happens, in some form or another, with depictions of the Amerindian population, also. It seems that people of African descent everywhere but the US (and to a lesser extent, the UK) have no voice. Especially in Latin America and Europe, people of African descent need to demand their right to be heard and assert themselves in the political landscape of their countries. People all over the world need to be called out on their racism. If they aren’t, it will continue to be considered acceptible for Spanish soccer fans to make monkey noises at Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o during matches.