WASHINGTON -- The Mexican government is facing criticism over a series of postage stamps celebrating the cartoon character Memin Pinguin. Created in the 1940s and still beloved in Mexico today, the Pinguin character is drawn to emphasize racist stereotypes about blacks. The Reverend Jesse Jackson calls the stamps an "insult to people around the world" and wants the Bush Administration to intervene. Other black leaders are suggesting boycotts and protests.

The following is a statement by Project 21 member Kevin Martin. Martin agrees the stamps are offensive, but asks black American leaders to remain focused on fighting black exploitation - often self-inflicted - here at home:

"As a black American, I cannot deny being offended by the Mexican government's new postage stamps featuring the black cartoon character Memin Pinguin. Despite Pinguin's cultural significance, its Jim Crow-era depiction of blacks with exaggerated features such as thick lips, wide eyes, big ears and an ape-like skull does nothing now but perpetuate stereotypes we have long sought to extinguish.

"I can understand the anger of my friends and neighbors, some of whom want a boycott of Mexican products and protests at the Mexican Embassy. But black leaders who are now fanning the flames of this controversy appear to forget that there is still exploitation here at home - sometimes by those in our own community. It would be more productive to deal with these domestic problems before focusing on trouble abroad.

"Why are we criticizing another country when we have so many problems in our own? Where is the criticism of Bratz dolls, which feature some of the same characterizations of big lips and eyes in an albeit more pleasing package? Where is the criticism of the cartoonish characterizations of Hispanics in the line of Homies dolls? Black leaders also seem willing to give the hip-hop community a free pass, and even embrace it, while hip-hop music calls black women everything but their birth name and videos feature them as butt-shaking props in tight bathing suits. One can also find t-shirts marketed toward our young people that are emblazoned with labels such as 'Porn Star' and 'Slut.'

"It seems we are willing to allow our community to be exploited as long as the perpetrator looks like us. You don't see black leaders demanding these media corporations, toymakers and others stop promoting this filth to young people.

"Who really controls the black image: the Mexican government or the black community? The real threat is not Memin Pinguin but the fact that our self-described leaders seem willing to allow self-depreciating messages that come from within while only condemning them if they come from outside. Memin Pinguin is an important reminder of that."

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Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, has been a leading voice in the black community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at 202-543-4110 ext. 11, email Project21@nationalcenter.org or visit Project 21's Web site at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html.