American Studies Today 2006.Pub

Issue 15 September 2006 The Vietnam War and Civil Rights 2 In this year’s issue The Memin News and events is the official journal of the 3 Penguin American Studies Resources 25 Ezekiel Centre, The Aldham Robarts Controversy Centre, Liverpool John Moores launches University, Mount Pleasant Liv- Pittsburgh link erpool L3 5UZ Dr Ezekiel Mobley examines the impact of the furore over a set of with Liverpool Tel & fax: 0151-231 3241 offensive postage stamps issued students e-mail: [email protected] in Mexico on Black-Hispanic- web site: American Relationships in the Helen Tamburro reports on a www.americansc.org.uk States landmark visit Editor-in-Chief: Ian Ralston Editor: David Forster 27 We stopped at Editorial assistant: Helen Tam- Perfect Days burro Layout and graphics: David Jeanne-Marie Forster Kenny holds an exhibition in The views expressed are those Liverpool of the contributors, and not nec- America’s “Great essarily those of the centre or 11 Satan” in Action BAAS Teachers the university. 28 and Schools © 2006, Liverpool John Moores and War Films University and the Contributors. Awards 2006 Ralph Donald looks Articles in this journal may be at the changing freely reproduced for use in stereotypes of subscribing institutions only, America’s enemies in provided that the source is ac- movies from World- knowledged. War 2 to the “war on The journal is published with terror”. the aid of financial assistance from the United States Embassy. 16 The Vietnam War Book Reviews Please email us at and the Civil [email protected] with 29 Literature any changes of name or ad- Rights movement dress. If you do not wish to con- 32 Culture tinue receiving this magazine, Brendan Gallagher considers how please send an e-mail with the the two events are inextricably 37 History word Unsubscribe and your bound up subscription number in the sub- 40 Politics ject line. Photo credits Letters from New 40 Race 21 York Ezekiel Mobley pp 3 -10 42 Gender Studies American History Slide Collec- tion: Cover and page 23 More dispatches from 43 Textbooks Lenny Quart pp 2 & 21 the Big Apple by Lenny Quart Helen Tamburro pp 24 & 25 Jeanne-Marie Kenny pp 26 & 44 Altman’s Oscar Night Ralph Donald pp 2 & 11 The New York Post Ian Ralston pp 2 & 28 Public Life Photo of US Ambassador on p 28 courtesy of US Embassy 3 Relations between Hispanic and African Americans in the U.S. today seen through the prism of the "Memin Pinguin" Controversy The author in Yanga According to the 2000 e’ve all grown ac- Census, Hispanics have customed to think- equal, and in fact have exceeded, now exceeded African- ing of African African Americans as the largest Americans as the largest W Americans as the ethnic minority group in the U.S., most significant ethnic minority constituting some 40 million ethnic minority group in population in the United States, people, which is at least 13% of the United States. The re- in terms of sheer numbers, cul- the American population. tural impact and political cent Memin Pinguin con- And, unlike that percentage of strength. African Americans, troversy, in which the the American population that themselves, have become accus- derives its descent from Africa, Mexican post office issued tomed to this same kind of think- the Latino population continues stamps featuring a racial ing. So, when we think of issues to grow very rapidly through caricature of an Afro- of race in the United States, we immigration, at present primar- tend—primarily through inertia, I Mexican, highlighted the ily through illegal immigration, would maintain—to define these fact that the Hispanic com- but also potentially through le- solely in terms of “black and gal “guest worker” programs. A munity is itself racially di- white.” We have invested so verse, and that Afro- recent study by The Pew Chari- Mexicans have been an invisible and underprivi- leged community. In this lecture, delivered at the Liverpool John Moores University in March this year, Dr. Ezekiel Mobley argues that African Ameri- cans should become aware of their Latin cous- ins, and that the contro- The series of Mexican postage stamps which ignited the versy also has lessons controversy which Britain could learn. much in how we have defined table Trust estimates some 12 ourselves over the past 200 million Latinos are now residing years to the point where we in the U.S. illegally, and it is have ignored, or didn’t fully ab- again estimated that those num- sorb, the “brown” relationship. bers will increase by 850,000 That must change now. The is- each year. When we “do the sue of race in the United States math,” then, we would estimate is far more complex than “black there are currently more than 40 and white.” According to the million Latinos residing in the year 2000 Census count in the US, but how much more nobody United States, Latinos now actually knows. 4 Large flows of legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico and this now, intellectually and emo- versy has released a set of is- Central America have very far- tionally. African Americans, es- sues that have galvanized the reaching implications for U.S. pecially, must accept this fact in attention of the African Ameri- national economic and security a definitive way. can population at a time when the immigration issue is at the policy. U.S. media reports and Furthermore African Americans forefront of the American media possible legislative initiatives and Latino Americans occupy and the halls of Congress. U.S. from the Bush administration the same urban space in the Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), bear out the sheer urgency of United States and, as such, will for example, highlighted the the immigration crisis. But, my be in competition for, at first, the immigration controversy re- cently by suggesting that if Je- sus Christ were alive today, he would be caught in the net as an “illegal” immigrant. Last July, I reported on the famous "Memin Penguin" cartoon character in The African Times newspaper (see Mobley 2005). The Memin Pinguin comic books have been a broad staple of many Mexican households for the last 60 years. In 2005, the government of Mexican Presi- dent Vicente Fox issued a new federal postage stamp com- memorating the likeness of Memin Pinguin. This commemo- rative stamp was interpreted by African American religious leaders Jessie Jackson and Al Sharp- ton as a direct slap in the face to African Americans, and a subse- Afro-Mexicans in Yanga quent and very public controversy ensued. Jackson and discussion will mainly serve to lowest level jobs and the lesser Sharpton pointed out the physi- highlight this immigration im- public offices. And, while Latino cal similarities of Memin Pinguin pact on African Americans and Americans are lagging behind to certain racially stereotypical their displacement as the num- African Americans in a number U.S. radio and television charac- ber one ethnic group in the U.S., of areas, especially education, ters of the 1930s through 1960s, and the repercussions therefrom. they have one advantage within such as the infamous “Amos n' The changing fabric of the their common urban space: they Andy” comic duet. These per- American racial Landscape uniformly speak Spanish and sonalities and others like them maintain close family ties. were much more often than not Now, to understand the fabric of perceived as derisive and ridicul- As a result of all this, there will the changing American racial ing of African Americans and, be some real crises in the next landscape, you must, and I say furthermore, supporting, exhort- few years and it will take crea- emphatically must, have a fuller ing, of white racial supremacy. tive approaches to find syner- comprehension of the Latino “Comedy masks tragedy,” the gies between these two minority factor. It will take years of re- Rev. Jesse Jackson said at a groups in the US population education among African Ameri- meeting of civil rights leaders in landscape. cans in the U.S., and likewise Little Rock, Arkansas. “In this years in the United Kingdom, The Memin Pinguin Controversy instance, it’s comedy with a de- along the lines of a wholly new meaning punch line and we I will begin with an examination cultural awareness in order to hope that President Fox will take of the now media famous (or fully grasp this phenomenon. it off the market.” infamous) “Memin Pinguin” The rapid expansion of the La- controversy in Mexico and the “Black Mexicans: Forgotten Afri- tino population, alone, has pro- U.S. “Memin Pinguin” is per- cans?” pointed out that the found implications for people haps a metaphor for under- Memin Pinguin debate in Mex- living in the western hemi- standing many issues symbolic ico and the U.S. was merely a sphere: Spanish is the number of the African American and La- harbinger of things to come. For one language in the western tino American relationship in the example, it had unintentionally hemisphere. We must deal with US. The Memin Pingiun contro- opened a “Pandora’s Box,” re- 5 vealing the plight of Afro- the early 16th century conquests towns near border crossings Mexicans who now populate the by Hernan Cortes, a representa- between Texas and Mexico’s Mexican states of Coahuila, Ve- tive of the Spanish crown, who Coahuila state. She is the co- racruz, Guerrero and Oaxaca. subdued the Aztec emperor curator of a significant museum You see, Afro-Mexicans have a Montezuma II, pre-colonial ruler exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, long history, which is in much of most of Mexico and Central that boldly spells out the Afro- need of detailed and public ex- America.

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