
I have no PC in me, so this next story REALLY bothers me. Maybe I am overreacting, but seriously, this is beyond ridiculous.
From CNN:
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) – A comic-book character popular in Mexico for generations has run into a cultural barrier at the border, where Americans see him as a racist caricature.
For more than 60 years Mexicans have followed the adventures of “Memin Pinguin.” But the dark-skinned Memin’s exaggerated features in “Memin for President” came as a shock to Houston, Texas, Wal-Mart shopper Shawnedria McGinty.
“I was like, OK, is that a monkey or a boy?” McGinty said. “To me it was an insult.”
…”So I asked my boyfriend, does that look like a monkey to you?” she said. “And we went back and forth and he was like, no, that’s a black woman,” referring to the character’s Aunt Jemima-like mother.
McGinty and Houston community activist Quannel X want the comic books removed from the stores.
“This is absolutely insensitive toward race, in particular the African-American culture, and also people of color,” Quannel X said. “This is poking fun at the physical features of an entire people.”
But Mexican readers who grew up following the shenanigans of Memin say critics need to look beyond the cover and understand the stories.
“They will bring a smile to their face because we’re so fond of that character,” said Javier Salas, a Spanish-language talk show host on Chicago radio station WRTO. “We respect him, we love him. And that’s why it’s so absurd for us to hear complaints from people who don’t know, don’t understand Memin.”
Memin is a poor Cuban-Mexican kid with bug eyes, thick lips and protruding ears. The mischievous and caring boy helps his mother by selling newspapers and shining shoes.
“We grew up reading, learning and educating ourselves with a lot of the topics they always touched on, which was honesty, justice, tolerance. He was a very unique character,” Salas said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said the retailer has instructed stores to remove the books from shelves and discontinue sales.
“We received the customer complaint regarding the book, which we knew was based on a popular cartoon character in Mexico. We looked into it further, and we decided to no longer distribute the book and are in the process of removing the books from the stores.”
Really? I have to go to a man by the name of Quannel X for my sensitivity training? It may be a stretch here, but I’m pretty sure Quannel took his “last name” from a man named Malcom. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, but I’m not saying that it’s right either. Oh that’s right, Malcom X was Mr. PC, he never said anything that would be considered racist or offensive. I really hope that you are picking up what I’m putting down.
Soon, we are going to be like the UK, where you have to walk on eggshells and not speak to your neighbor so you can avoid offending anyone. The problem with being PC is that when you talk, the next words out of your mouth always have to be “I’m sorry”. When you think about it, somebody somewhere is going to take offensive to every word or image out there.
Last time I checked, we weren’t the land of censorship.
Tags: Political Correctness