MEXICO CITY - President Vicente Fox refused to apologize Monday for saying Mexicans in the United States do the work that blacks won't - a comment widely viewed as acceptable in a country where blackface comedy is still considered funny and nicknames often reflect skin color.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City had raised the issue with the Mexican government. "That's a very insensitive and inappropriate way to phrase this and we would hope that (the Mexicans) would clarify the remarks if they have a chance," Boucher said.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said the remark has been misinterpreted as a racial slur. He said the president was speaking in defense of Mexican migrants as they come under attack by the new U.S. immigration measures that include a wall along the U.S.-California border.
"The president was just telling the truth," said Celedonio Gonzalez, a 35-year-old carpenter who worked illegally in Dallas for six months in 2001. "Mexicans go to the United States because they have to. Blacks want to earn better wages, and the Mexican - because he is illegal - takes what they pay him."
But the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, two black U.S. civil rights activists, said Fox should apologize. "His statement had the impact of being inciting and divisive," Jackson said.
Lisa Catanzarite, a sociologist at Washington State University, disputed Fox's assertion. She said there is intense competition for lucrative working class jobs like construction and that employers usually prefer to hire immigrants who don't know their rights.
"What Vicente Fox called a willingness to work ... translates into extreme exploitability," she said.
Fox made the comment Friday during a public appearance in Puerto Vallarta, saying: "There's no doubt that Mexican men and women - full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work - are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States."
Responding to the criticism Monday, Aguilar read a statement expressing Fox's "enormous respect for minorities, whatever their racial, ethnic or religious origin."
"The purpose (of the comment) was none other than to show the importance Mexican workers have today in the development and progress of U.S. society," Aguilar said, repeating a statement released Saturday.
He refused to comment further, saying only that Fox would "intensify his diplomatic efforts to protect the integrity of the Mexicans living in that country."
The dispute reflects Fox's growing frustration with U.S. immigration policy and deteriorating relations between the two nations.
The Mexican government was expected to send a diplomatic letter to the United States on Monday protesting recent measures that include requiring states to verify that people who apply for a driver's license are in the country legally, making it harder for migrants to gain amnesty, and overriding environmental laws to build a barrier along the California border with Mexico.
The measures have been widely criticized in Mexico, where residents increasingly see the United States as adopting anti-migrant policies.
Even Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, the archbishop of Mexico City, criticized the U.S. policy as ridiculous and defended Fox's comments, saying: "The declaration had nothing to do with racism. It is a reality in the United States that anyone can prove."
Gilberto Rincon, president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, said the statement was "unfortunate." But, speaking after releasing a report on racism in Mexico, he said it reflected outdated language more than a racist attitude.
Fox has championed the rights of minorities and the disabled and has led a successful campaign to amend the constitution to make discrimination a crime.
George Grayson, a Mexican expert with the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said the dispute will hurt Fox's campaign to liberalize immigration laws, adding that it shows "once again how tone deaf Mexico's president is with respect to the United States."
While Mexico has a few, isolated black communities, the population is dominated by descendants of the country's Spanish colonizers and its native Indians. Comments that would generally be considered openly racist in the United States generate little attention here.
One afternoon television program regularly features a comedian in blackface chasing actresses in skimpy outfits, while an advertisement for a small, chocolate pastry called the "negrito" - the little black man - shows a white boy sprouting an afro as he eats the sweet. Many people hand out nicknames based on skin color.
Victor Hugo Flores, a 30-year-old bond salesman, cringed when asked what he thought of Fox's comment, but said it isn't too different from popular sayings celebrating what Mexicans see as a strong work ethic among blacks.
"It was bad, but it really isn't racist," he said. "Maybe the president shouldn't have said it. But here we say things like, 'He works like a black person,' and it's normal."
___
On the Net:
http://envivo.presidencia.gob.mx/?NLangen
My mom and I were talking about this yesterday. We were pretty okay with what he said until I read his exact words. It really sounded like he was saying, Blacks are on the bottom of the totem pole in America and even they don't wanna do the jobs that illegal aliens come over here and do simply because they have no other choice. But all I can say is that his comment is not surprising. White mexicans ignore the black mexicans in their country, hell I didn't even know there were black mexicans until the past school year. So really what do you expect for the president of mexico to have to say about Blacks in a country where they still think black face "comedy" is funny and they have a damn candy named Negrito (little black man)???
My mom and I were talking about this yesterday. We were pretty okay with what he said until I read his exact words. It really sounded like he was saying, Blacks are on the bottom of the totem pole in America and even they don't wanna do the jobs that illegal aliens come over here and do simply because they have no other choice. But all I can say is that his comment is not surprising. White mexicans ignore the black mexicans in their country, hell I didn't even know there were black mexicans until the past school year. So really what do you expect for the president of mexico to have to say about Blacks in a country where they still think black face "comedy" is funny and they have a damn candy named Negrito (little black man)???
Yeah, I was thinking about asking people what they thought about the topic. Personally, the statement doesn't bother me cause there's some truth to it. I think what most people don't like about that statement seemingly says about blacks.
But admit it though, Mexican and Hispanic immigrants as a whole have a crucial work ethic. A lot of them take multiple jobs. And a lot of those jobs are rough (ie construction work, day labor, landscaping, maintenence, cleaning). They have the work ethic now, that a lot of black folk used to have back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
I think President Fox, just should've said the immigrants take the jobs no one else wants, instead of singling out black folks. Think about it though from a historical perspective. When white folks got over to the US at first they did most of their own work. Then they got slaves to do the work they didn't want to do. After slavery you had European immigrants and some free blacks doing the work the slaves didn't want to do. Then you had blacks taking on the work that the European immigrants didn't want. Now, at the present time you have a new set of immigrants (Hispanic, Asian, African, etc.) taking on work that it SEEMS like most black people don't want.
I mean the situation may be different in border states (Texas, Florida, California, Arizona, etc.), but here black and Mexicans aren't in fierce competition over jobs.
my thoughts exaaaaaaaaaactly...
when my mom 1st told me about this, my very first response was "well...it's true" lol
but then she was like, "yeah, but still...he didn't have to say it like that...singling us out, like we're the only ones who don't take the jobs"
& yeah, i was feeling that aspect....he shouldn't have singled us out, but it amazes me how much Mexicans are shunned in this country....and like ol' DeepThought dude said, that was once us.....we used to be the ones having lots of children....& packing ourselves in trucks with more than the capacity of people possible....& taking the jobs nobody else wanted...and settling for less than what we should be making....
and now we look down upon them for these things.....tsk tsk tsk....
one thing i gotta give to Mexicans....& pretty much every other non-Black "minority" group of people in America.....they still have and maintain their native culture....and they force their massive presence into cities, whether people like it or not....
that's what's up......it's because of them that things in America are not going to be "black and white" for too much longer....
& i can't say i blame 'em......after all - whose country is this? not ours...not theirs (well not really, anyway...that's off into a whole other topic, though)....and damn sure not the "majority"'s.......so hey - for the country that prides itself in such democracy, endless opportunity, and diversity (tries to keep from laughing from saying the last word)....i say to them...C'MON OVER!! & continue 2 do ya thang....the more, the merrier....
