Wal-Mart pulls racially-charged Mexican comic book
You may remember Memin Pinguin. It’s a Mexican comic book featuring an exaggerated black cartoon character with thick lips and wide eyes whose “appearance, speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in the comic book.” Back in 2005, I noted that Mexican President Vicente Fox’s administration had issued a special Memin Pinguin stamp despite objections about the racially-charged image:
The comic book remains popular among Latinos. But Wal-Mart has had enough:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it removed the comic book “Memin Pinguin” from its stores after receiving complaints the popular Mexican character was a racist depiction of blacks.
The series started 60 years ago in Mexico, and the main character, Memin Pinguin, is a black Cuban-Mexican boy with enlarged lips who often gets into mischief.
Wal-Mart recently started offering the Spanish-language comic in parts of California, Texas and Miami, where the giant retailer serves large populations of Hispanic customers.
“We understand that Memin is a popular figure in Mexico. However, given the sensitivities to the negative image Memin can convey to some we felt that it was best to no longer carry the item in our stores,” said Lorenzo Lopez, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.
“We apologize to those customers who may have been offended by the book’s images,” Lopez added.
A black woman in Houston told the Houston Chronicle this week she complained about the comic books after seeing them at a Wal-Mart.
“I said, wait a minute: Is this a monkey or a little black boy?” Shawnedria McGinty told the newspaper. “I was so upset. This is 2008.”
Many Mexicans argue Memin Pinguin is misunderstood in the United States and that he is a lovable character and not a racist depiction of blacks.
Somehow, I doubt they would buy that same explanation if a comic book depicted Mexicans in the same crude way.
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Good. Now, about “Broke Back Mountain” and “An Inconvenient Truth”…
She should be more upset going thru life with a name like “Shawnedria.”
Does that mean they will stop depicting George Bush as a Monkey? I kind of remember a documentary called “Journey With George” and the production company was “something” Monkey. Now who was that chick that did that thing? Let me find out. Be right back.
And the open border people call the rest of us racist! Rev. Wright was called a loveable character too before he landed under the bus.
Speedy Gonzales, Jose Jimenez and the Frito Bandido unavailable for comment.
I think it’s pretty cool they gave tiger woods and aunt jamima a stamp.
Yes, it was Pelosi’s offspring that did it. Purple Monkey productions.
Imagine if there was a “comic book” depicting white people like that… Or Conservatives… Or…
Well Michelle I’ll give you a pass since you are the forbidden word, but for myself and others that are not the forbidden word I will not.
I agree, they would’nt give it a pass at all, in fact I believe “The Race”, ACLU and others would be up in arms about it.
Remember all if you are not the Forbidden Word you can not use it.
Michele, I can understand why you don’t like this Comic, seeing as how you ARE black…Now.
couldn’t resist
I don’t have a dog in this fight.
I merely note that it’s been a long time since we’ve seen “The Fritos Bandito” on the store shelves.
Am I dating myself?
Wal-Mart is using good judgement IMHO.
There’s a slam dunk
Next we’ll have to ban Superman for looking too much like a middle-income white guy. Oh wait, he was a middle-income white guy (from another planet and was nearly indestructable but it is fiction after all).
Oh dear. You mean Wal Mart could drop this ‘character’ without a fight from anyone? I suppose I won’t hold my breath for long.
I have to watch television shows, advertisements and movies that depict white males as castrated buffoons consistently, and I’m not supposed to be offended.
Of course THIS book is okay….
Shawnedria contacted “Quanell X” (this part seems to have been erased from the article 1984 style), who, you may remember, led the new black panthers (I think, it may have been some other NOI group) against Joe Horn. The locals called the bluff and “Quanell” left with his proverbial tail between his legs.
So it’s OK for the Mexicans to embrace the sambo/ macaca image but bad for the white people. Personally I really liked those Bugs Bunny cartoons that used the little sambo character.
Ajmontana said:
bwaaaaaahahahahahaha!
Aj…..now my nose is severely burning from my soda reversing course and exiting my nostrils!!
Thanks a lot!
I live in what has become a predominantly Mexican (mostly illegals) and black neighborhood. The sheer hatred among the two groups at the local middle school is so severe that extra police guards are needed every afternoon when the kids walk home from school in order to quel the violence. (And, yes, we homeschool our kids.) This comic book produced in Mexico doesn’t surprise me at all. Based on my own eyewitness experience, Mexicans and black Americans despise each other.
Then quit watch MSNBC. Just say no to Oby!
I could careless.
Yes. Its quit ok for the latinas to embrace me. and Bugs Bunny does rock.
Since “black” has been blacklisted, how dare you call this a exaggerated black cartoon character.
Thank goodness this dark cloud over Walmart is disapating.
Remember that cartoon “Red Hot Riding Hood”? The guy who did that one (Tex Avery, I think) had a bunch of his cartoons banned for stereo-typo-ing, a loooong time ago.
Carrots are devine… You get a dozen for a dime, It’s maaaa-gic! – Bugs Bunny
Bugs is da bunny.
The RACE was against the Taco Bell Chuachua dog, but Latino gangs can have open season on any blacks in L.A.
BUILD THE DAMN FENCE!!!!!!!!!!!
ROFLMAO. That was great.
LaRaza would have filed and won that lawsuit by the time Wal-Mart could find it on their shelves.
Did they remove all the Stephen Hawking books as well.
Memin Pinguin should do a crossover comic with Frito Bandido or Speedy Gonzalez.
After putting the nationwide restaurant Sambo’s chain out of business for the depiction of a little Indian boy that had zero racial implication, where is the outrage and the lawsuits over Memin Pinguin for its obvious racist content?
First, it is indeed a racist comic.
Oh well. Another comic book down a Black Hole.
Oh wait. That’s racist also!
As we see minority groups become louder and louder, forcing their ideals on the rest of us we see freedom of speech, thought, you name it, being destroyed. Now you know why there is not another country in the world like the USA. Most other people cant handle freedom, they lack the fundamental skills it takes to be free. I see no similarity in values of any kind with these people. Walmart on the other hand will be down on their knees with their butts in the air before you can say, cheap! I cross any store that’s surrenders freedom off my list of places to shop, forever. Race has destroyed America more than any racist or racist group ever could have dreamed of doing.
Growing up in Mexico in the early 70’s and reading this comic book I had no idea what the negative black stereo types were. Then growing up in the barrio in the same conditions you mentioned I quickly learn what they were.
Back in Mexico they don’t have the same black negative stereo types unless they have lived in a barrio in the US. Mexico does not have that many blacks, and thus many are culturally ignorant of what Memin represents.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton talking to President Fox about his black racial slur issue did nothing to enlighten Mexicans about their political incorrectness. Wal-Mart removing the comic book will do nothing. They will just go buy it in some Mexican grocery store in the barrio instead.
The voice of the Republican party.
Hey sausage how’s it going in dhimmishire? Thankfully we stood up and threw off the yoke of your stupidity long ago. Otherwise we would probably be right there with you right now, a monstrous thought. You all go ahead and mind your own business, you got lots of racist toddlers over there I hear turning up their noses at ethnic foods that need weeding out. Tell me, does that mean people who don’t like pork are racists?
Wal-Mart pulls a comic book that is offensive to blacks?
I question the timing.
The voice of an angry European who was not forced to speak German.
You don’t like our system?
DLTDHYINAOTWO
So Sausage, are you saying that free speech and free press should be regulated to avoid offending someone?
Can you show me in the U.S. Constitution where an individual has the right to not be offended? Because I can’t find it, but I can find the part that discusses freedom of the press and the freedom of speech. And even in Supreme Court cases that limited free speech to public safety (yelling fire in a crowded theater) I don’t remember anything about others being offended.
Walters, you can’t find it? It’s there, right next to the part where it says “It’s a womnan’s right to rip an unborn baby from her stomach”.
The Framers wanted it that way.
Oh right I see it now. /sarc
Well, I’m glad. You talk about reading the Constitution, but…do you REALLY!?
/sarcasm also
If you want to see truly racist media watch Spanish language TV. Univision and Telemundo are bastions of white supremacy.
Very few blacks and native Americans are stars of shows.
The nightly telenovelas/soap operas are all populated by whites. Very few blacks or native Americans.
The news anchors are all white as are almost all the street reporters.
The variety shows are hosted by white men like Don Francisco.
The talk shows are all hosted by white women. One show from Peru is a Jerry Springer style fight-fest hosted by a white woman. Almost all the exploited guests are native “people of color.”
There are no Oprah Winfrey’s on Spanish TV.
Freedom is the vehicle that we use to move us from here to there. Just like getting in your car and taking a drive you are willing to, in fact you must, accept a certain degree of risk. You might be hurt, you could be killed, you may even get a ticket for something you didn’t do or perhaps you’ll get away with something you do. Conservatives and liberals can be defined using nature, conservatives live in a jungle, not a free for all jungle but a jungle with some rules. Liberals live in a zoo, everyone is caged up in their specific pens, order is the number one priority hence feeding time, the monitoring of everything, deciding when and what medical care will be provided, the keepers etc. One thing I noticed about every zoo, the lack of reading material in the cells, err pens, err habitats.
After we have given in to all the Black demands & the Mexican demands & the Muslim demands & the Greenies demands, what’s left? Can I breathe without offending someone?
sausage-n-eggs said:
sausage….meet the voice of the democrap party…her name is Alyce Anderson….you two should get along great.
Given it’s popularity in Mexico, wouldn’t banning it be considered culturally insensitive to Mexicans?
I think this article gives a perspective that is lost in cultural translation.
Pride in Memin Pinguin
Read for yourself and see what you think.
I can’t blame Blacks for being offended by this.
I can’t blame Mexicans for liking it.
I can’t blame Wal Mart for responding to pressure and pulling it.
I can’t blame Wal Mart if Mexicans demand that it come back, and they put it back.
In fact, since I am a White Male, the only person I can blame for anything is myself. Me, my Bible, my guns, and my clever use of ethnic slurs like “black hole,” and “yellow sun,” and “red giant.”
It’s all my fault. I must be a white dwarf.
Meanwhile, Conguitos are still in the wild.
But the U.S. is the one with the racism problem. Uh. No.
Delicious, chocolatey Conguitos…
…and in case you’re not an hispanohablante, “Conguito” means: “little Congolese.”
Pull no punches. Cut to the chase. Eat a chocolate peanut.
LOL I’m a coconut, Brown on the outside and White on the inside.
Brown Rice anyone?
You can do your 6 minute study in US popular culture right here.
Free, also the people crossing the border illegally are the indigenous people. One time while in Tijuana I met a white couple from Mexico City who told me they were going to visit the U.S. the next day. I joked about them jumping the fence (it was not inappropriate, we were joking about everything) , but they became so offended telling me they had a visa and let me know after that remark I was not welcome to talk to them anymore. I thought elitism was an American phenomena. That was my first introduction to my ignorance of Mexican society that the media loves to promote.
Since we live in America and English is supposed to be aour common language, why can’t Wal-Mart quit advertising and labeling everything in Spanish? I am offended by this.
One of the things I do admire about Mexican culture is the fact that while there are recognizable racial differences among them – the upper class “whites” being of mostly European descent and the lower class “browns” being of mostly Indian descent – they do not make a big deal about it. My aunt, who has lived in Mexico for 27-28 years now, calls her best friend “Little Fat Brown One”, while her friend calls her “Big Ugly White One.” I guess they realize that color and wealth are correlated but not causational, and look at things sensibly.
It is also a major reason why the racism argument used against us is so stupid – What race is “Mexican” anyhow?
All my conservative (self employed) hispanic friends understand that “Mexican” is a nationality and not a race. Yet whenever I try to explain that to a hispanic democrat, I get nothing but the stink eye and comments about how I hate brown people.
I have fun.
It does look like a monkey. I thought it was before I read the post.
chris3cube #22,
You probably shouldn’t use the word “blacklisted” any longer. It’s racist.
My mom is from Panama and this is common. People say “Hey, negro” or “Hey, chino” and nobody gets offended. People don’t have a bug up their butt about their own race. Society is sharply divided by class more than anything else, although race does play into you class standing.
I see wealthy Mexicans at the mall, the Indian casinos, and the nice outlets all of the time. They come here to shop for designer stuff, have a good time, and go home. They have nothing in common with the folks who sneak into the country class-wise and would be horribly offended to be lumped in with that crowd.
This is a good place to tell my story of a trip to Burger King in North Carolina earlier this summer. It has so many ironies that I will let the reader be the judge. I walk up to the counter to order my Whopper and the young black woman waiting on me is looking over my head at what I would call a group of Mexican laborers. She is trying to figure out which one placed the order for the group, and she turned to me and smiled and said , “They all look the same!”.
Now if only mickey d’s would pull their happy meal ads that are completely in spanish…