[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15389-15393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION CONDEMNING MEXICO'S ISSU-
                        ANCE OF OFFENSIVE STAMPS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Miss McMorris). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Cleaver) is recognized for 60 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Missouri?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Speaker, I have introduced H. Res. 347, a 
resolution that condemns Mexico for printing and distributing blatantly 
racist postage stamps; and I am, along with many others, urging Mexican 
President Vicente Fox to immediately cease printing and distributing 
the postage stamps and recall from circulation those postage stamps 
currently on the market.

                              {time}  2145

  Madam Speaker, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans have fought 
for decades to eliminate and erase racial stereotypes and depictions 
that dominated all forms of media in the early 20th century. On June 
29, 2005, the government of Mexico issued a series of five postage 
stamps commemorating and celebrating Memin Pinguin, a comic book 
character created in the 1940s who was depicted as a dark-skinned Jim 
Crow era cartoon. And while this character is depicted as a black child 
with dark skin and greatly exaggerated lips, similar Jim Crow 
memorabilia referred to when I was a boy as Pickaninny and his mother 
Mammy were all over this country. Due to a rise in sensitivity, those 
things have pretty much been removed from sight. But this particular 
comic book series is interesting because it is now current. Memin 
Pinguin is a character who is taunted by white colleagues for his 
appearance, his speech and mannerisms. The Mexican postal service has 
authorized the issuance of 750,000 of the stamps which may be used in 
the Mexican domestic market and the international market. Civil rights 
organizations such as the National Council of La Raza, I am proud to 
say; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 
the NAACP, I am proud to say; the National Urban League; and the 
Rainbow/

[[Page 15390]]

PUSH Coalition have denounced the racist postage stamp series.
  I would also say, Madam Speaker, that the Hispanic Caucus of our 
Congress has also condemned these stamps. This insult comes on the 
heels of Mexican President Vicente Fox's quote last month as saying the 
Mexican citizens in this country will work on jobs that even blacks 
don't want. Ultimately, he apologized for making that statement, but, 
Madam Speaker, he is sticking by the stamps, even though the President 
of the United States of America, George Bush, has also condemned the 
stamps.
  This resolution is aimed at getting the people of Mexico, if not the 
president, to demand that this kind of thing be stopped. Ancestors of 
Mexican blacks entered that country centuries ago through the Caribbean 
port city of Veracruz, and they were slave laborers. They worked in the 
sugar fields of Mexico. Today, the population of blacks living in 
Mexico is about 1 million; that is 1 million out of 105 million people. 
And so they have a small population. But no person of color can 
appreciate what they have done. Madam Speaker, the stamps are insulting 
hopefully to all people of good will but certainly to people of color. 
Memin Pinguin is depicted as a part man, part monkey or chimpanzee. 
This character is presented as some stupid half-animal, half-human 
person out of the jungles, and it is very difficult for me to find this 
amusing in any way. It is this kind of cultural terrorism that has done 
damage to the psyche of little children of color for decades and 
decades. There is not a single parent who should feel good about their 
child growing up looking at this kind of image of themselves, because 
this damages their somebody-ness.
  Madam Speaker, there are five stamps in this series, and each one, if 
you look at them as they have been released, becomes progressively more 
insulting, until the last stamp has Memin standing in front of his 
mother, Aunt Jemima, with a towel in her hand. And she too is looked 
at, at least projected as a half-woman, half-ape. With her towel in her 
hand, she is half bending, and this kind of insult to people of color 
seems to happen in Mexico with increased intensity. Mexican President 
Fox stated that the stamp is an image in a comic book, and he said that 
he has watched this character since infancy, he says, and I quote, It 
is cherished here in Mexico; the other minorities or the Afro-Americans 
or Latins, I would suggest to them first, read the magazine.
  Madam Speaker, I do not need to read the magazine. In my city, in 
Kansas City, some of the Native Americans spoke to me during my term as 
mayor, saying that the tomahawk chop used at the Chiefs football games 
was insulting to them. I had done the tomahawk chop at the games when 
the Chiefs scored and did it without any regard to anybody or anything. 
But I did not realize that it was insulting to some of the Native 
Americans, and eventually, I said to them, if it is insulting to you, I 
will stop doing it. I will encourage others with whom I come in contact 
to stop doing it. The one thing I did not say to him is, you should not 
be upset. If I have a toothache, I do not want a dentist to tell me you 
should not hurt. If I hurt, I hurt. And if people respect me, if people 
have any sensitivity at all, they will say, he hurts, therefore, I will 
not contribute further to his pain.
  This, Madam Speaker, is hurtful. It is damaging, and the more it 
continues, the more young kids are going to be hurt. My hope, even my 
prayer, is that the day will soon pass when this kind of thing will be 
something we talk about in the ugly and distant past, something that we 
do not have to worry about dealing with now. This is 2005. This is the 
kind of thing that many African-Americans experienced living in the 
South when they had lawn jockeys out on the greenery in front of large 
plantations. No one would have thought just a short while ago that, in 
2005, this kind of thing would still be around, this kind of thing 
would still stare us in the face to insult us and to do further damage 
to our children. To date, 750,000 of these stamps have been purchased. 
That racial stereotype will now appear on letters going both inside 
Mexico and around the world. This is a total lack of respect for people 
of color.
  I am also pleased that the Congressional Black Caucus has released a 
statement. The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. 
Representative Melvin Watt from North Carolina, released the following 
statement: The members of the Congressional Black Caucus find the 
stamps insensitive, racist and an insult to people everywhere, and we 
call on President Vicente Fox to recall the stamps immediately and to 
issue an apology to all people of African descent. The stamps are 
offensive and perpetuate a negative stereotype of people of Africa. 
Again, we call on President Fox to repudiate the issuance of these 
stamps and to announce his commitment to address the problem of racism, 
yes, even in Mexico.
  Madam Speaker, growing up, I had to deal with this on a daily basis. 
Bug-eyed, big-lipped, half-human, half-chimpanzee hybrids were 
portrayed all around us, and there was nothing we could do except to 
take it. It was an insult for me to grow up having a teacher read 
Little Black Sambo. The only book with people who looked like me when I 
was growing up was Little Black Sambo, and the only thing he did of 
substance was to eat a lot of pancakes. I hope people understand that 
they are hurting other human creatures. This should not take place in 
the 21st century.
  As President Fox is justifying what has been done, I would like to 
remind him that, not long ago, in fact, it was in 1969, there was a 
Frito Bandito cartoon character that hit the airwaves here in the 
United States. And he was used to advertise some corn chips. But Frito 
Bandito was pulled off the air when Mexicans protested, when they came 
to the conclusion that this was an insult portraying all of them as 
some little shady Mexican character who was actually a thief, bandito. 
But the good news is that the Frito Lay corn chip company did pull the 
ad. And so there is at least a precedent for pulling back when people 
find out they are hurting other people.
  Madam Speaker, my request again is for all the Members of this great 
body to join in being a sponsor of this resolution to help denounce 
something that is wrong, to show that all the people of this Nation, 
black, white and brown, are united in their attempt to eliminate 
stereotypes. It would be a powerful, powerful move by this Congress if 
all of us joined forces to condemn this.
  I am also pleased to say, Madam Speaker, that there are a number of 
Republicans who have also come in along with a number of Democrats and, 
as I have said earlier, the President of the United States has 
condemned this, the minority leader and the minority whip are also 
condemning what they consider to be something that is degrading and 
demeaning, not just to people of color but to the people of the world.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).
  Mr. PAYNE. Let me commend the gentleman, the Honorable Reverend Dr. 
Cleaver, for calling this very important special order tonight. He is a 
person that speaks the word of God, a man of the cloth, and deals with 
people who are anguished daily. They come before him to seek guidance 
and advice. I feel the same way as my colleague who has joined us 
recently in the United States Congress and is a tremendous addition not 
only to the Congressional Black Caucus but, as you can hear, to the 
United States House of Representatives in general. I appreciate him 
yielding so that we can continue to look at the depiction of what 
Mexico feels, or the President of Mexico feels, is just an all right 
thing to do.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today with my fellow members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus to strongly condemn the racist stamps issued 
by the Mexican government, Memin Pinguin. Unfortunately, the myth is 
still perpetrated in Latin America that race is not an issue, that 
racism does not exist in the Latin American, Central and South American 
countries.

                              {time}  2200

  But we have seen with the recent anti-discrimination moves of Afro 
descendants from countries such as

[[Page 15391]]

Brazil, which has the largest population of African descendants outside 
of Africa, many more than the United States of America; Colombia, where 
Afro descendants represent between 25 and 40 percent of that country's 
population; Honduras; Panama; and others, the issue of race has been 
deceptively mischaracterized as a nonissue.
  In Latin America they say it is class, not race; however, we tend to 
see at the bottom of the economic strata people of African descent and 
primarily those at the top those who came from Europe and stole the 
land from the native Latin and South Americans and brought over slaves 
to help build the countries. Meanwhile, those of African descent in 
Latin America still find themselves stuck in the lower economic social 
strata, suffering from debilitating discrimination or 
disproportionately affected by conflict and strive; and, perhaps the 
worst of all, their very existence is unknown to the world and 
sometimes even to their own countrymen and -women.
  Most people assume that there are few or no black Mexicans. This 
assumption is false. The region known as Costa Chica, southwest of 
Acapulco, is one of the two regions with a sizable black population. 
Veracruz, on the Gulf Coast, is another area where the black population 
of Mexico is significant. As a matter of fact, recently, a year or so 
ago, a group of Mexicans wanted to be considered as Afro-Mexicans. The 
Afro-Mexican population is said to be about 1 million out of 105 
million, but this is far from an accurate number because the census 
does not include a category on race; so people cannot even identify 
themselves as black even if they wanted to.
  With the Mexican post office issuing the offensive stamp depicting a 
Mexican character with dark brown skin, exaggerated features, monkey-
like body language, Mexican President Vicente Fox has once again shown 
his insensitivity to racial offenses and his lack of concern over 
perpetuating dangerous stereotypes of an entire people.
  This scandal comes right on the heels of Fox's comments on Mexican 
immigrants in the United States who take jobs, as he said, even blacks 
will not take. We were all very offended. We were offended, and some of 
our religious leaders went and met with President Fox. And he said that 
we should try to have an understanding. And we as Members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus work daily in our congressional districts to 
ask our constituents to understand immigrant people coming to this 
country as people have done for waves and waves. Of course, African 
Americans were brought here in chains. We had no choice. However, other 
Americans came to Ellis Island, and the Irish came and the Germans came 
and the Italians came.
  So we say this country is large enough for us and for people to 
continue to immigrate in that we should try to work on tensions between 
new people coming into the community, and the Congressional Black 
Caucus has stood up and said that people have a right to have a better 
way of life. As a matter of fact, in a community outside of my 
congressional district in New Jersey, I have had some discussions with 
some Mexicans who have talked to me about the fact that they are being 
harassed when they wait in the mornings to be picked up for the van 
that takes them to the work projects they are working on and that the 
local town officials are harassing them to say they cannot wait here 
for the van, and I said that I will try to assist them if they need it 
to try to get that community to understand that it is unfair to harass 
people like that.
  And then I turn around and the president of Mexico says that he is 
not ashamed and that this is a proud character, that they love him in 
Mexico? This is outrageous. It should not be.
  We see that Memin, known by Mexicans as basically a silly, funny, and 
simple urban boy who is a prankster and a troublemaker, has been a 
popular comic book character for 60 years in Mexico. Those who see no 
offense in this character's image have been fooled into thinking that 
is a representation of black people and that black people are dumb and 
amusing and that has no relationship to racial discrimination.
  These are the same people who would describe Little Black Sambo, as 
we heard from the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), as simply cute 
and funny. As a matter of fact, as he was, I went to a school where I 
was one of two black children in the kindergarten. My brother 
experienced the same thing 2 years before I did, and the only book read 
was ``Little Black Sambo.'' I was offended. I felt ashamed. I felt 
there was something wrong with me. The teachers would read it in the 
kindergarten and in the first grade. It was about 60 years ago, the 
same time that this same character emerged in Mexico. And I thought 
there was something wrong with me. I thought, why was everyone laughing 
at us? And this character, Little Black Sambo, is exactly the same as 
this character here. And I told a representative that I met with last 
week, a week or so ago, when he came to meet with members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus that I was offended because it brought back 
those early days of racial discrimination where I had to be confronted 
with white children laughing at the reading of Little Black Sambo.
  I heard of no other blacks in my time of coming up. The only other 
people of color that we read about in the fourth or fifth grade were 
the enslaved people that they called slaves who were shiftless and 
happy and had no initiative and no incentive and that Abraham Lincoln 
had to free them and white soldiers went to war to free them; but they 
never talked about Harriet Tubman and Crispus Attucks. They never 
talked about Frederick Douglass. They never talked about the 504 
Brigade from Massachusetts that fought for slaves, enslaved people, to 
be free. The only person that I heard about during my entire elementary 
school who was black was Little Black Sambo.
  President Fox should know better. He himself has talked about the 
opportunities he had growing up that others did not have and the 
poverty that he saw others suffer from. He went on to study business at 
the Ibero-American University in Mexico City; got a diploma in an upper 
management course taught by Harvard Business School professors; later 
became an executive of Coca-Cola, becoming the youngest president of 
the corporation's Latin America division before he got into politics 
and went to their congress. This is not an uneducated man. This is a 
man who knows better, and I do not subscribe to the fact that he knows 
no better.
  It is especially surprising that President Fox would fail to 
understand the offensive nature of the stereotype portrayed on these 
stamps in view of the outcry in the recent past over negative images of 
Hispanics. As we heard earlier, strong protests were voiced, and 
rightly so, over characters created by corporate advertisers, which the 
Hispanic community viewed as demeaning to their heritage.
  In the 1960s there was an advertisement aired on television featuring 
a cartoon character called Chiquita Banana, who wore a hat filled with 
fruit and sang with a pronounced Spanish accent. This was considered by 
many to be offensive and portrayed an offensive portrayal of a Hispanic 
woman, and it was.
  In 1967 an ad created by Frito-Lay Corporation, as was mentioned 
earlier, portrayed a Mexican male cartoon character with a thick accent 
who wore a sombrero and who was called ``Frito Bandito.'' The Mexican-
American Anti-Defamation League Committee called for the commercials to 
be pulled, condemning them as racist and accusing the company of 
portraying Mexicans as ``sneaky thieves.'' As a result of this 
pressure, the ads were taken off the air in 1970, and even though they 
had been successful from a commercial point of view, they were taken 
off. And rightly so, because they were offensive to a whole group of 
people. Both of them were and both of them were taken off.
  More recently, Taco Bell came under fire for their ads featuring a 
dog named Dinky. Some viewers were insulted by the idea of an animal 
scampering for food and speaking Spanish. Those ads have now been 
discontinued.
  And let me emphasize that these were commercial entities; and 
although they were successful, they were

[[Page 15392]]

taken off. These stamps are an official act of the Government of 
Mexico.
  A few years ago, a very high official of Japan on two occasions made 
an inappropriate remark which offended African Americans; and when the 
Congressional Black Caucus protested, on both of those occasions, the 
Prime Minister of Japan apologized. They set up a committee. They came 
to the Black Caucus. They started to implement programs to enhance 
understanding between our two cultures. They started to have some 
financial agreements with some of their products because they said we 
need to understand each other better. So the Prime Minister of Japan 
apologized, and rightly so. And our neighbor to the south saying that 
he is not going to apologize is an insult, and President Fox is totally 
wrong. And I am offended by that insult. Someone all the way across the 
sea, when they saw that they were totally wrong in Japan, they decided 
that the right thing to do was to make the apology; and here we have a 
person who is benefiting from our NAFTA, which I did not vote for, and 
many of the other policies that we have in this country is going to 
stand up and tell 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he 
is proud of this character, that he is a very popular symbol in his 
country, and he refuses to apologize. That is wrong.
  Let me just say, sort of in conclusion, that in his inaugural 
address, President Fox mentioned his desire for a new, different, 
successful and triumphant Mexico. The issuing of Memin Pinguin does 
just the opposite and highlights the serious race issues that exist in 
Mexico today. The Congressional Black Caucus's Working Group on Afro-
Latinos will take a closer look at the issues facing Afro-Mexican 
communities, and we will call for a census in Mexico that includes a 
category on race so that people can properly identify themselves and so 
that the black community in Mexico is no longer invisible. When one is 
invisible, they do not have to deal with them. So we would like to know 
what is the story in Mexico.

                              {time}  2215

  Other Latin American countries are focusing on racial discrimination 
and trying to combat it. President Luiz Inacio da Silva in Brazil has 
set up a commission to start affirmative action in higher education. 
The government of Colombia has started to look at the racial 
discrimination of Afro-Colombians. And here we have a government who is 
saying ``we are proud of what we are doing and we refuse to 
apologize.''
  In April 2005, and I want everyone to listen carefully, the 
Department of Homeland Security announced new regulations that require 
Americans returning home via air and sea from countries in the 
Caribbean, Central and South America to have passports. Starting 
December 31, 2005, to get back into our country you will need a 
passport.
  Most countries that you need passports to go to, you would have them 
when you go. Therefore, you have them when you come back. However, this 
new Homeland Security law says that by December 31, 2005, countries 
that required no passport before for Americans to go there, now 
Americans will have to have passports in order to get back into 
America.
  However, however, Mexico got a pass. Mexico has until December 31, 
2006, until this requirement goes into effect. So as a person who is 
very interested in the Caribbean, I cochair the Caribbean Caucus, I 
wanted to find out what impact will that have on some of those poor 
countries in the Caribbean who depend almost totally, now that the 
bananas have been taken away from some of those countries by the former 
Lome' treaties that they have, the trade organizations said no longer 
can there be preferences and no longer can Great Britain buy bananas 
from Caribbean countries as they did in the past under their Lome' 
treaties with former colonies. Now they do not even have banana trade.
  Now Mexico is getting an advantage. So while Caribbean countries such 
as Aruba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda and others will be impacted by 
this rule, they will have to change 1 year earlier, just 6 months from 
now, they stand to lose as much as $2.6 billion in visitor export 
earnings and could see the loss of more than 188,000 travel tourism 
jobs, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
  Mexico will benefit from an extra year. A family who may just find 
out late in the day, a month or weeks earlier, that they need a 
passport to get back into the country, they will decide that they may 
go to Mexico because you do not need a passport coming back to the 
country from Mexico.
  Why does Mexico get an extra year? American tourists, who realize 
they can travel to Mexico without a passport, will likely choose that 
country over Caribbean nations where they need a passport, those 
countries that I mentioned. The island nations were drastically hit 
hard by Hurricane Ivan last year and last week Hurricane Dennis wreaked 
havoc in the Caribbean. If any country needs the tourism dollars right 
now, the Caribbean nations most certainly do.
  As a person concerned about the Caribbean, I will personally request 
that Homeland Security equalize the passport requirement so that 
Caribbean nations will be on the same level playing field with Mexico. 
If Mexico gets until December 31, 2006, a year-and-a-half from now, I 
am going to request that the Caribbean countries get the same December 
31, 2006; or if Homeland Security feels that they must remain at 
December of 2005, this year, then they should make Mexico also have the 
same requirements in December 31, 2005, that poor Caribbean countries 
have.
  I know one thing: If these are the stamps on letters that people are 
going to send from Cancun, African Americans sending a postcard back to 
Norton, New Jersey, where I live, saying ``having a great time,'' and 
this is the stamp, this is going to cause havoc in our Post Office. 
This is going to cause havoc.
  I think that until the president of Mexico understands the damage 
that he is doing, then perhaps the Caribbean has always been a great 
place for me, and maybe that is where we need to spend our dollar, 
where African Americans are not taken for as a joke.
  Evidently a dollar in Mexico spent by an African American is not the 
same as a dollar from anyone else. If this stamp goes out, then our 
dollars should stay in our pockets.
  Who does he think he is, saying that this makes him proud? I will 
spend not another dollar down there until these things are removed.
  So my demand is that the president of Mexico voids these stamps 
before they are issued and do not allow a single one to be printed. If 
they are already printed, they should not to be distributed, and they 
should be destroyed. We should not see one single stamp go anywhere in 
Mexico, or, even worse, have it find its way here to the United States.
  Once again, let me thank the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver) 
for bringing this issue to the front, as has the gentlewoman from Texas 
(Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson), who called a meeting several weeks ago, 
and the Congressional Black Caucus in general. I know that we will keep 
the pressure on. If the government of Mexico feels that there is no 
regard for African Americans, like I said, then I think we need to look 
at where the dollar is being spent, and I think we need to look at a 
level playing field so that Caribbean countries will be able to have 
the same kind of passport requirements that Mexico has. I do not see 
where they deserve any special treatment so far as I am concerned.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Speaker, I would like to express appreciation to 
the gentleman from New Jersey for his very eloquent and passionate 
words concerning something that I am angry about.
  Madam Speaker, I have grandsons who are growing up now in this 
country who I do not want to be negatively impressed by these kinds of 
stereotypes. I do not want my children or my children's children or 
anyone's children to be subjected to this kind of insult. This is 
outrageous.
  Madam Speaker, this is not just a caricature. For many people around

[[Page 15393]]

the world it is a belief, and those of us who are sensitive and those 
of us who are impacted would like to erase this as a belief.
  Some day, caricatures like this will not matter. We will have dealt 
finally with this bogeyman race. But this is not that day.
  Some day, Little Black Sambo will not matter. We will look back and 
laugh at it. But today is not that day.
  A recent appointee to the D.C. Circuit has said that using the ``N'' 
word, even in a workplace when discrimination is also an issue, is 
protected speech. I think that is very dangerous. Now, some day, using 
the ``N'' word will not matter. But today is not that day.
  Some day, the president of Mexico will be outraged that something 
like this ever took place. But this is not that day.
  Some day, a call for racial sensitivity in this body will not be 
needed. But today is not that day.
  Some day, the country of Mexico will have a President who respects 
the citizens of the entire world. But, sadly, Madam Speaker, today is 
not that day.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
express my disappointment in the Mexican Government for their decision 
to issue the Memin Pinguin stamp. This stamp represents the negative 
stereotypes and oppression that millions of African Americans have 
spent so many years fighting against.
  President Fox stated that this is an internal issue for Mexico and 
that Americans cannot understand the cultural representation of this 
character. However, if this is how President Fox chooses to depict the 
black population, this is a sad commentary for Mexico.
  This is the first black representative to be on a Mexican stamp; and 
instead of selecting an actual black Mexican that has had historical 
impact in that country, Mexico chose a cartoon character that's an 
offensive stereotype.
  This move is especially disappointing based on the commitment 
President Fox has given to anti-discrimination. This stamp is the type 
of depiction that sets back that movement and perpetuates racial biases 
that many Mexicans deal with daily. I cannot see how this positively 
benefits any black Mexican.
  The U.S. and Mexico must work together to create mutually beneficial 
policies. I'm afraid that this stamp may set us back in creating an 
open dialogue between our two nations. While we are separate countries 
our paths are intertwined. This stamp is not only insulting to African 
Americans, but to all Americans who find this type of representation 
abhorrent. In the name of diplomatic relations, I respectfully ask 
President Fox to reconsider his decision to distribute these stamps.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________