MEXICO CITY and WASHINGTON, June 30, 2005
Mexico Denies Stamps Are Racist
Black Comic Book Character Resembles Racial Stereotype
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Play CBS Video Video Mexican Stamps Offend There's another cross-border flap between the U.S. and Mexico about race. The White House criticized Mexico for a postage stamp featuring a black cartoon character, Bill Whitaker reports.
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Three of the five Memin Pinguin stamps (AP)
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Fast Facts Mexico Learn about the people, economy and history.
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Interactive Civil Rights In America A look back at the key people and events of the civil rights movement.
Jackson said the stamps were worse than Fox's comment last month.
Carlos Munoz, a professor emeritus at the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, said "people in the Fox administration, and perhaps even Fox himself, need a lesson in African contribution to Mexican history."
"It's a manifestation of the ignorance, of the racism that continues to exist in Mexican culture," Munoz said. "Mexico, like the USA, is a very racist society. Mexico has just been more successful at ignoring its African culture than the U.S."
A statement released by the Mexican Postal Service said that the Education Minister of the Philippines decreed the Memin Pinguin comic book required reading in 1985 because of its "promotion in the students of respect toward family and institutions."
©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
