Mexico’s Leader Defends Divisive Postage Stamp

Mexican President Vicente Fox rejected calls to withdraw a new line of postage stamps, saying Friday that they are not racist and critics don’t understand the beloved comic book character on which they are based.

He spoke as hundreds of people lined up at Mexico City’s main post office, snapping up the stamps so eagerly that all 750,000 sold out Friday, two days after they hit the market.

The series of five stamps released Wednesday depicts the Memin Pinguin character, a hapless black child drawn with exaggerated features. His appearance, speech and mannerisms are the butt of jokes by white characters in the comic book, which started in the 1940s and is still in print.

In an interview with Associated Press, Fox said critics should read the comic book before they make judgments.

The stamp “is an image in a comic that I have known since infancy,” Fox said. “It is cherished here in Mexico.”

The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and leaders of black and Latino organizations urged Thursday that the series of stamps be withdrawn.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called it an example of racial stereotyping. But Fox refused to back down.

“The other minorities or the Afro-Americans or Latins, I would suggest to them that first, read the magazine, get the information and then express publicly their opinion,” Fox said. “On our side, we know that all Mexicans love the character.”

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez called the criticism “a total lack of respect for our culture.”

Memin and the artist who draws him, Sixto Valencia Burgos, were lionized on Mexican television news.

At the post office, some people waited hours to buy the stamps. Americans are “the racists,” said Cesar Alonso Alvarado, 53. “They’re worse than we are, but they just want to belittle us, like always.”

People were also drawn to the post office by reports that full sheets of the 60-cent stamps were being offered on the Internet auction site EBay for as much as $200 each.

“They’re paying $120 for them in the United States,” said Luis Guillen, 66. Responding to the accusations of racism, he said: “What about all the waiters and servants and dumb depictions of blacks in old American movies?”

Mexican blacks said they weren’t surprised by the stamp, and many attested to being ignored or mistaken for foreigners in their own country.

“Police frequently make people sing the national anthem if they get you on the highway or in the bus station, because they think you might be a Central American,” said Eduardo Anorve, a black rights activist who was interviewed by telephone.