Just weeks after President Vicente Fox made an offhand remark that angered many African-Americans, the Mexican government has taken another action that shows the gulf in racial sensibilities between the countries: it put cartoon caricatures of a black boy on a series of stamps.

Mexican postal officials on Tuesday unveiled the series of five stamps, a total of 750,000 stamps, depicting a character known as Memín Pinguín, a broadly drawn comic figure with thick lips, big eyes and protruding ears.

Created in 1943, the comic-book character was inspired by a Cuban child, its creators said. He is well intentioned but hapless, and his mannerisms and speech reinforce 1940’s stereotypes of blacks as lazy, mischievous and uneducated, anthropologists and civil rights advocates say. Comic books featuring the character are still being published in Mexico (more…)

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Man, I feel like I just watched Rosewood. No telling what I’ll do when I encounter the next Mexican I see (I dunno, roll my eyes or sumptin’)…..just kiddn’! Naw but really, this is very wrong.

If Vicente Fox and the gang down there have no problem with this craziness, then maybe a couple of nationwide boycotts are in order.

Click here if you want to see some more of Memín Pinguín via the Google image search.