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Wal-Mart pulls Mexican comic called racist
- Thread starter Ripclawe
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Lord Error
Insane For Sony
What kind of defense is that characters like this are "beloved" there. Doesn't that make it even more wrong?
Phobophile
A scientist and gentleman in the manner of Batman.
Holy shit he looks like a fucking monkey.
~Devil Trigger~
In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
WOW
vas_a_morir
Banned
While we are at it, can the Cleveland indians get rid of their "redface" mascot? I mean come the fuck on. First of all, a baseball hat should only have the letter of the city the team plays on. Second of all, it's fucking offensive!
Yeah, this comic is hella racist.
Yeah, this comic is hella racist.
Retrofluxed
Member
vas_a_morir said:
Chief Wahoo FTMFW.
Broken Arrow
Member
Oh come on, this is not racist. Following the logic of "exaggerated features" then the depiction of the Indian in Peter Pan and even Mr. Incredible is racist too, but we don't see anyone complaining..
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Fun fact: Memín is a positive character and is loved in Latinamerican countries with plenty of black/mixed people such as Colombia.
vas_a_morir
Banned
I suppose that's a counter argument, as I don't find this offensive. On the other hand, I'm an American, my great grandparents were Irish (and native American, lolz) If I saw a team in Europe called "The Eating Americans" I might be a little offended.
EDIT: My huge Chief Wahoo disappeared. I'll just take out the img tags.
vas_a_morir
Banned
Exempted said:
That comic about that boy named Nemo or whatever has blackface Africans, too.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
Not sure how Wal-Mart let that slip through. The defense that "it is popular in mexico" is some bullshit too. Cops routinely rounding up people demanding bribes or be put in jail is common there too, should we adopt that here too?
To the few people saying "that is not racist", I have a rule of thumb on that. If someone who may be offended by something tells me something is fucked up, I generally will go with that. The history of racist policies and actions, many times state-sponsored, in the United States ramps up the sensitivity on things like this 10-fold.
I think that is lost on alot of Europeans and younger people in the US. The fact that less than 50 years ago, the police would actually keep non-whites from eating at public places or keep non-whites in the back of a bus is not something that still is creating ripples today. The fact that things like that were the norm is baffling to me.
To the few people saying "that is not racist", I have a rule of thumb on that. If someone who may be offended by something tells me something is fucked up, I generally will go with that. The history of racist policies and actions, many times state-sponsored, in the United States ramps up the sensitivity on things like this 10-fold.
I think that is lost on alot of Europeans and younger people in the US. The fact that less than 50 years ago, the police would actually keep non-whites from eating at public places or keep non-whites in the back of a bus is not something that still is creating ripples today. The fact that things like that were the norm is baffling to me.
James Power
Banned
USD said:Just googled it, wow.
To be fair he just lost a fight where he got punched in the mouth a lot.
vas_a_morir
Banned
James Power said:
And had just finished cleaning a chimney.
Dark Ninja
Member
he is a monkey he's supposed to be cuban tooPhobophile said:
EDIT: saw it on the news and in on panel they showed he had a tail and also a reason they explained that they got angry at this comic was that they misread black in spanish its spelled negro but with an accent on it (or at least in this comic) so they thought it was another word i guess. Not trying to defend it or anything just saying that alot gets lost in tranlsation sometimes but of course not enough to justify this if it's what there getting at. I would have to read it to really judge it
LiveFromKyoto
Member
Somewhere there is an awesome rap video with gold Africa-shaped medallions and crowds pumping their fists that goes along with this.
learn to use wikipedia and get your facts straight. The comic is basically anti-racist and I quote.." the characters mocking him (the title character - Memin) are depicted as either cruel or ignorant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memín_Pinguín#cite_note-0
The guy who complained about the comic is obviously prejudiced and obviously knows nothing about the context of the comic story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memín_Pinguín#cite_note-0
The guy who complained about the comic is obviously prejudiced and obviously knows nothing about the context of the comic story.
adamsappel
Member
It's not the storyline that's so offensive (it's written in Spanish, and I'm going to make the racist assumption that Shawnedria isn't multilingual). It's the damn pickaninny character on the front cover!shrike1 said:
adamsappel said:
Don`t know the exact reason the author chose this particular look for the character, but could it be that he wanted to emphasize some of the morals of the story? For example, making it more obvious for anyone who reads the story to learn not to judge a person by his or her looks.
If you don`t like the character design, just move one and read/watch somethink you DO like.
Speaking as a cartoonist, I have heard of Memin Penguin before and even had discussions on it with a few of my colleagues. The topic came up when I was looking up info on a latino comic artist that is a big favorite of mine and on the off chance discovered an older version of Memin and the Memin stamp itself. Honestly, I was pretty appalled by it considering its look doesn't really do much of anything to hide the stereotypes its built on at all and the designs of its main characters are pretty much modern day representations of "Little Black Sambo" and "Aunt Jemima".
Here's some more info on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memín_Pinguín
And to prove that they can draw competent looking black people but choose not to, here's an example cover: http://www.mundovid.com/img_prod/memin185g.jpg
A long while back (when this came to my attention due to the postage stamps being called racist came up) I got curious and asked my editor/good friend (who is a jewish guy) if he knew any background on it since he knew about a large number of foreign comics and said he remembered reading some books of it while abroad and thinking that A) he couldn't get past the blatant stereotype to really give the story much of a chance or get anything out of it considering other characters of different races were drawn quite normally and B) to be honest it wasn't really that good. Memin Penguin was actually started in the 1940's when the big lipped sambo look was perfectly the norm but the only place you'll ever find it in abundance is its country of origin, Mexico. It doesn't come up that often in the states probably because unlike other comics with black characters in that period, it chose not to update its look for modern audiences.
It's not supposed to be purposely bad, but again, given the look of it and the fact that they do nothing in this day and age to make Memin and his mother actually look like normal black people instead of jiggaboo monkeys, doesn't really help its case. I seem to remember seeing the cover of one issue (couldn't find it unfortunately) where he was drawn to look like a thug - big lips, ears and all.
As for the Tom Sawyer game - WOW. he looks like a black mage with nappy hair and candy corn for lips XD
Here's some more info on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memín_Pinguín
And to prove that they can draw competent looking black people but choose not to, here's an example cover: http://www.mundovid.com/img_prod/memin185g.jpg
A long while back (when this came to my attention due to the postage stamps being called racist came up) I got curious and asked my editor/good friend (who is a jewish guy) if he knew any background on it since he knew about a large number of foreign comics and said he remembered reading some books of it while abroad and thinking that A) he couldn't get past the blatant stereotype to really give the story much of a chance or get anything out of it considering other characters of different races were drawn quite normally and B) to be honest it wasn't really that good. Memin Penguin was actually started in the 1940's when the big lipped sambo look was perfectly the norm but the only place you'll ever find it in abundance is its country of origin, Mexico. It doesn't come up that often in the states probably because unlike other comics with black characters in that period, it chose not to update its look for modern audiences.
It's not supposed to be purposely bad, but again, given the look of it and the fact that they do nothing in this day and age to make Memin and his mother actually look like normal black people instead of jiggaboo monkeys, doesn't really help its case. I seem to remember seeing the cover of one issue (couldn't find it unfortunately) where he was drawn to look like a thug - big lips, ears and all.
As for the Tom Sawyer game - WOW. he looks like a black mage with nappy hair and candy corn for lips XD
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
But seriously, do you think that's a good idea? If internet has thought me something, it's that for any given thing, there's going to be someone offended by it. I mean, yeah, there are some clear cut offensive things, but you can't just listen to anyone who's offended and go with it. Some people are just way too sensitive, even if they are smart and eloquent. For example, I can guarantee you that an absolutely huge number of people is offended by R-rated movies and M-rated games, and if they were given any power, they'd just put an end to them.dskillzhtown said:
Broken Arrow
Member
Marconelly said:
I'd love to see the reaction here if Wal-Mart decided to remove M-rated games from their shelves, just because some people felt ofended by it.
sonikokaruto
Banned
i don't find it offensive. He is a poor kid who is trying to help his mom make meets end, and if he looks like that, is because it was made in the 40's.
What do you guys have to tell me about those popeye's cartoons with the japanese millions of people coming out of a submarine?
Or in tom and jerry the owner of tom was a black woman?
I'm not sure what to think about sensitive people like that.
probably they got raped by a black person.
and homophobes got raped by a gay dude.
and atheists got raped by a priest.
See? i just posted something fucking wrong.
Dammit just to try to make some sense out of it, i don't know what is wrong with people who get opffended that easily.
Try reading the comic first, then open your mouth. And yes, it has been released in english.
What do you guys have to tell me about those popeye's cartoons with the japanese millions of people coming out of a submarine?
Or in tom and jerry the owner of tom was a black woman?
I'm not sure what to think about sensitive people like that.
probably they got raped by a black person.
and homophobes got raped by a gay dude.
and atheists got raped by a priest.
See? i just posted something fucking wrong.
Dammit just to try to make some sense out of it, i don't know what is wrong with people who get opffended that easily.
Try reading the comic first, then open your mouth. And yes, it has been released in english.
Broken Arrow said:
Except none of those exaggerated characters are designed in a style that's historically rooted to be insulting/make fun of physical features of a particular race.
shrike1 said:
The comic book was created back in the 1940s. Back then these types of "black face" characters were acceptable ways of depicting people of African decent, including America, and were depicted as such in popular comics and even Looney Tune cartoons. The only reason this character has been slipping under the radar all these years is because it's published largely in Mexico.
I also love how you quote wikipedia, which talks about this exact issue...
...yet you want to say the person complaining is obviously prejudiced.
Or how about we continue to have a discussion on our opinions on this article and this racist caricature and if you don't like it you can go have a discussion in another topic?
dskillzhtown said:
That is horrible logic. If you have that policy you have to pander to the least common denominator, to ban everything the thinnest skinned person complains about (unless you subsequently think something isn't racist when someone else from that group says they don't care).
And thanks for the 4th grade level recap on the history of race in America, but there is no need to bring it up as validation for someone's feelings being hurt. Right now most companies, politicians, and anyone else who cares more about the bottom line than the integrity of the first amendment will apologize if enough people say they're offended by something but because one person doesn't like an expression doesn't mean nobody should like it.
The idiocy here is especially apparent because calling Memim racist because of that picture is like calling Huckleberry Finn racist because it has the word "nigger." If this was a Klan comic I'd just say if there are enough bigots out there who want to buy it let them buy it, but this comic promotes racial acceptance and they've pulled it from the shelves in the name of racial acceptance.
Crumpet Trumpet
Banned
Quanell X is just about the coolest name ever created. :lol
sonikokaruto said:
Take your "Fuck You, I'm Not PC" attitutde and shove it your ass. The point is that it is offensive to people without NEEDING to be so. It is offensive only for the sake of being offensive, or in this case, because of the fact that it was created in an era when it was okay to be offensive. Bringing up "tradition" is BS because it should have been changed AGES ago.
Children's cartoons don't contain the racial stereotypes that they once did, because our society has decided that is not okay. Standing up to society, when you have nothing to fight for, doesn't make you a "big man".
The difference between Memin and Lenny Bruce is that Lenny Bruce has a point to what he was doing. He was offensive to prove something, and no, we shouldn't let political correctness prevent us from living our lives. HOWEVER, being an inconsiderate prick is not some kind of defendable life goal.
JKBii said:
There is a KEY difference that you are missing.
We are not looking at 60 year old issues of Memin, and complaining that they should be burned.
The issue is that NEW issues of Memin continue to be produced in an unacceptable style.
If Huckleberry Finn were written today, set in modern times, it wouldn't contain the word "nigger" in it.
Broken Arrow
Member
Evander said:
So you would approve that RE5 be removed from shelves because some people already felt offended by it?
What about GTA? A large number of people feel that it is offensive. Does that gives them the right to ban it from you?
Deus Ex Machina
Member
Damn, does lips are too big Mr programmer... what were you thinking?USD said:Just googled it, wow.
Broken Arrow said:
Way to ignore everything I just said.
RE5 isn't about shooting black people, it just happens to be set where the locals are black. No one is ACTUALLY offended by it, they are just lookin for an excuse to complain.
As for the GTA series, I honestly feel like the Rockstar guys go too far a lot of the time, but those particular bits aren't placed on the surface, so it's easier to just not buy the game, you'll never have to deal with it, as opposed to seeing a Memin cover right in your face.
I'm not in favor of BANNING anything, mind you. Walmart is within its rights, as a business, to decide that they don't want to stick an image in the face of their customers, and that is fine. When it comes to dealing with offensive material, I say let the market decide.
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