Monday, July 19, 2010

Following up on the LA Times

Francisco Javier Acuña is one of the few people in Mexico to follow up on the LA Times' recent meditation on racism in Mexico:
While here we cry and condemn the offense of Arizona's campaign of xenophobia in Arizona, on some "humorous" sports TV program --during the World Cup-- the skin color of natives of South Africa was made fun of long with their poverty and their supposed ignorance according to an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. We should criticize any apology for the insult to human dignity based on ridiculing with personal stereotypes: nationality, ethnic origin, language, or physical characteristics, the problem is that TV programming that eliminates trashy humor that all of us captive TV viewers suffer from is an unthinkable solution. Why? Very simply because without viciousness there are not ratings and that is doubly unfortunate.
With regard to Acuña's column being unusual in discussing this topic, it's pretty clear there isn't much appetite for this kind of debate in Mexico. Although it's probably more that it is striking to me because Americans, regardless of their individual opinions or prejudices or politics, are a people particularly interested in race as a debate topic.

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