I’m not saying that it definitively settles the issue, but it is an interesting layer.

I’d known of most of the quoted “faux pas” from the Dook, but this was new to me, and, I confess, it does have a ring of amusing truth : -

“If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” (1986)

I think racism can be found in every nation. I don’t think Memin is racist, and I believe Mexico is less racist than the US.

I suggest looking at the Wikipedia article for more information . You could also search for “Memin” or “Afro-Mexican”.
For those who won’t, I’ll only say Memin does suffer racism from SOME white characters, but the comic treats that as wrong. In fact, all of Memin friends are white, and he met them at the public school they attend together (US citizens should notice this was first published in the 1940s). While the depiction might be similar to those made in the US with a clearly racist intent, the storyline puts him as a playful boy just like any other. White characters in the book aren’t perfect -the mother of one of Memin friend’s works at a club, usually arriving home drunk early in the morning; the father of another is alcoholic.
To me its kind of silly to believe just by looking at the carefully chosen covers that anyone would buy a comic about an ethnic character who gets kicked around by everybody else and deserves it (with the possible exception of Ku-Klux-Klan members. Off-topic: is the KKK a legal organization in the US? Some movies make me think it was at least until recently.)
I’m mexican but not black, so my opinion is probably biased. I suspect a black man would be discriminated more by his economic level (i.e. he/she is poor) than by his race. Calling someone “negro” (black) has NOT the racist connotations of calling someone “indio” (indian). Calling a close friend or family member negro, negra, is either affectionate or descriptive. Some people are nicknamed “El negro”, “La negra” and they say so when introducing themselves to new friends. You might think these people are of african ascent, but they aren’t -in Mexico anyone with dark skin (regardless of ethnic origin) could be called negro. I believe the black population in Mexico is less than 1%, and it is mostly concentrated in the Pacific Coast.
It’s true the spanish colony had a caste system, but it seems interracial marriage was barely tolerated, if discouraged. Currently, I can say “race/ethnicity” is not part of our IDs and similar documentation and probably never was, at least in modern times. The official government stance is that mexicans have either mixed blood, part spanish, part indigenous, or fully indigenous (black/asian population is mostly ignored, unfortunately). This admittedly simplistic view of mixed heritage is taught from elementary school, so (from my point of view) discrimination hardly happens because of race or heritage but mostly by economic position, and when it does, it is aimed at indigenous people. Jim Crow laws would have been unthinkable against any ethnic group. Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, the patron of Mexico, is obviously half-spanish, half-indigenous.
I think racism can be found in every nation. I don’t think Memin is racist, and I believe Mexico is ->less
By the way, hispanic groups in the US actually campaigned to have Speedy Gonzales when it was suspended to avoid offending them. Its cartoons have been shown continuously in Mexico since it first aired.
Bye.

ps: THERE ARE THREE MAYOR RACIAL GROUPS IN THIS WORLD…white, yellow and BLACK…so how im post to call you???
Ans don’t say that the anthropology is racist asshole!!!!!!!!!

I was thinking more Jar-Jar Binks myself.