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Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today called a meeting with the Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. in order to discuss the Mexican Government’s decision to issue stamps which depicts African-Americans and black Mexicans in a negative manner.
With the Mexican Ambassador out of town, Embassy officials arranged a meeting between Johnson and Carlos Borunda, Minister of Congressional Affairs for the Embassy. Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Corrine Brown (D-FL) and Donald Payne (D-NJ) of the Congressional Black Caucus also attended the meeting to show their outrage over the offensive stamps.
“It seems unthinkable that the Mexican authorities would not realize that these actions would be offensive to African-Americans,” said Congresswoman Johnson. “I am also quite shocked at the statement released by the White House which says this is an internal Mexican problem. How can it be internal when the actions of one government offend 13% of the citizenry of another government?”
The series of five stamps were released Wednesday by the Mexican Government. They depict an exaggerated black cartoon character known as “Memin Pinguin,” a child character from a comic book started in the 1940’s that is still published in Mexico. The release of the stamps comes on the heels of a controversial statement made by Mexican President Vicente Fox last month in which he stated that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that “not even blacks want.”
“You can not allow matters like these to go on and on without dialogue,” Johnson said. “You must bring the parties to the table. Our countries are too close, our futures too intertwined for us not to be respectful of each other’s cultures.”
Johnson joins the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Council of La Raza and Rainbow Push in calling for a recall of the stamps.
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