The Black American arrives to Mexico.
Walking down Paseo de Reforma, he yells out:
"Where are all the black people here?!"
"Why do they listen to Angeles Azules instead of Nas?"
"Don't the Mexicans know that we black people INVENTED Mexican culture?!"
Then a Mexican taco man across the street yells out "oye negro, quiere tacos?! 5 por 25!!"
The Black American retorts angrily: "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?! A NEGRO!?"
Shots fired.
Portraying the Ignorant Black Fella for Clicks
There's a certain trend that you might've noticed online over the last year if you have been paying attention to whatever goes viral about life in Mexico.
And especially foreign expats living in Mexico.
That is anything coming out claiming that Black Americans act entitled and demand that their culture be represented everywhere down here.
But is it true?
Well, some of the behavior Mexicans have noticed might be true but some of it also is fake news meant to gain clicks.
And, from what I've noticed, there are two crowds that eat it up the most:
First, you have US conservatives that eat it up without checking if what they are reading is true or not. They just use these examples to poke fun at woke culture in the US (which has plenty of material to poke fun at without using fake article headlines).
Second, you have Mexicans who don't like the idea of foreigners of any skin color -- black as well -- critiquing their country and wanting to export their own cultural practices onto them.
There are 3 complaints specifically that have gone viral before and occasionally come back up again on social media.
Let's dig into the examples since it seems to be increasingly a common trend to get clicks from Mexicans especially that just want to bitch about foreigners in general.
Use of the Word Negro
This one is actually true.
You do have some Black Americans that get really pissed at hearing the word negro in Mexico.
For obvious reasons.
As I wrote here for example, I once saw some Black American chick really get upset when she overheard the word being used.
In short, it is the perception of some Mexicans that Black Americans want to lecture them on their language and have them change their word.
Like how Americans in general get called out for demanding Latin Americans use the words "latinx" or "latine" as I wrote here.
This issue though is a simple misunderstanding obviously.
I can only imagine that any Black American that actually gets upset over hearing this word is one that literally does not speak Spanish.
Not a word of Spanish.
And so he simply doesn't understand that 1) the word negro doesn't have the same connotation or history behind it as it does in the US and 2) that it means something different consequently as it does in Mexico or broader Latin America.
It is, of course, ignorant and condescending of the American (of any skin color) to lecture the Latin American to not use the word negro or the word Latinx.
I would argue that any American of any skin color simply needs to get used to the Latin American way of both using the word negro and also referring to each other by their physical attributes as I wrote about here.
At the end of the day though, it's a topic that sometimes comes up and goes viral on social media whenever a story is posted online about this.
Let's move onto the next example.
"Not Enough Black People in Mexico City!"
Next up, we have something that went viral on social media months or maybe a year ago where someone took a screenshot of an article that you can see here.
Apparently it came from Vice.
Of course, the online response to this from Mexicans was to complain about Black Americans wanting to make everything about them and also to complain about their perception of American culture wanting to put black people in front of everything.
Like some form of cultural affirmative action being exported to Mexico.
Here are some quotes I could find online of some people reacting to this from Latino forums (regardless of if they are Mexican or not):
"people get paid to write this shit?"
"Es Vice wey, ¿qué esperabas?"
"Que feo ir a Japón y no ver representación latina"
"Black culture? Like American black culture? Afro Mexicans have their own culture and traditions. Just cuz the gentrifiers can't recognize it, doesn't mean it's not there."
"Que están bien pendejos, gracias"
"Feels very colonizing. “We’re here now and shit isn’t the way we want so we’re gonna change it to fit our needs cuz fuck you”
"When the 1st world hipsters bring in unnecessary drama. Plus it’s Vice so I don’t take it seriously."
"Que se vayan a la verga con su pinche obsesión gringa con la supuesta diversidad."
"Y si supuesta diversidad es tener a algunos negros en la población y ya."
"Pinches gringos de mierda. k chingen a toda su puta wey madre."
While you have no shortage of people making that argument online regarding US culture, you can't make that argument that it is being exported to Mexico based on this one screenshot.
And I emphasize the word screenshot.
In doing more research on this, I couldn't find any proof that this Vice article existed.
As you can see here, that screenshot is fake and the article never existed.
“Mexico City may not be as diverse as we thought. As Californians and other Americans arrive in Mexico City, many have noted the lack of Black culture and Black representation in the city. (sic)”, dice la captura de pantalla del supuesto artículo de Vice News, que acumula 493 comentarios en dos hilos de Reddit y 10 mil interacciones en un tuit."
"Sin embargo, al hacer una búsqueda en el portal de Vice, no existe registro de alguna nota con ese mismo titular, ni otra nota del medio en la que se aborde el mismo tema. Si se revisa en las notas del autor que aparece en la captura, Nathaniel Janowitz, tampoco hay una nota con esas afirmaciones."
"La búsqueda en Google del titular “Mexico City may not be as diverse as we thought” tampoco arroja algún resultado sobre esta publicación."
So it's bullshit.
"Black People Invented Mexican Food"
Finally, we have another video that went viral recently on Tiktok.
I'm not sure how to put a TikTok video on my blog so I attached a link to a website showing the video itself that you can find here.
As far as I am aware, I guess it's real.
Not really sure how you fake a TikTok video of a random dude saying this stuff.
And the video is basically of some random black dude claiming that Mexican food is basically African food.
Of course, Mexican cuisine -- like the cuisine of any country -- has had contributions to it over centuries from so many different groups.
Mexican food definitely has Arabic contributions for example with tacos al pastor.
But of course saying Mexican food is African food is a bit of a direct and provocative thing to say.
And definitely reinforces the stereotype that some Mexicans have that black folks want to make everything about them.
Here are some quotes from that link provided before:
"son supremacistas negros. Esos tipos se creen que los negros son los amos del universo, que los negros son dioses, que los negros inventaron todo, y que toda la demás gente es inferior a ellos (suena familiar)."
"Si, pero el problema es que dice que africa es original y nosotros no, cuando nuestra nacion es la mezcla de una civilizacion muy antigua y colonizadores que estaban hasta la concha de españa.
Asi que no, tecnicamente la comida mexicana lleva mas tiempo y ha cambiado con el tiempo, sin embargo ¿¿¿Que mierda tiene que ver una flauta mexicana con lo que sea que coman en Africa???"
"Hasta que vivi un tiempo en USA, me di cuenta que los gringos negros son mucho más racistas con nosotros que los gringos blancos."
Among all of the other social media reactions that video generated (just like the fake Vice article).
While I don't doubt that maybe some African culture has had its influence on Mexican food as you do have black Mexicans in select parts of the country, there are certain ways of saying things that will get certain reactions.
But let's wrap this up.
Final Thoughts
In the end, there's not too much to say.
First, the main point is to simply highlight this reoccurring theme you sometimes see among stuff that goes viral about foreigners in Mexico.
Where black Americans sometimes get the cold shoulder from Mexicans complaining about them and the attitude some perceive.
Second, obviously this illustrates to some degree the fake shit that can be spread on the internet for clicks (like the fake Vice headline).
Third, it should be mentioned there has always been tension between the Mexican community and black folks.
Not among all of them obviously but it is something you see.
There was a good book I remember reading in college that touched on the subject. If I find it again, I'll include it here but it was about Mexican immigrants in the US.
Fourth, with that said, certain stereotypes exist about every group and the one mentioned about black people wanting to put themselves in everything is one of them that you hear about sometimes.
Among Mexicans anyhow whenever this drama comes up again online.
And stuff like this -- be it fake news or real tiktok videos -- only reinforce those ideas to be placed on the whole group.
Fifth, the stereotype of black folks thinking the world revolves around them and that they should be involved in everything isn't just a stereotype about their specific race but also the American nationality specifically.
Americans in general get that shit also (regardless of race).
And, when you look at the comments about the fake Vice article, you'd see some Mexicans being drawn to the fake news because it reaffirms their bias or dislike of gringos in general (regardless of skin color).
More of a dislike of the idea that gringos lecture them on how to live and their woke culture and using that (fake) example of such.
Sixth, what's interesting too is that a lot of conservative voices in the US were talking about the Vice article too.
This isn't just stuff to get Mexicans mad for clicks but also to get conservatives to point at something to laugh at.
In this case, to laugh at woke culture and trying to include black folks in everything.
Seventh, I can only say that, while I haven't met too many black folks in Mexico as I don't hang with too many gringos in general of any skin color, I do pay attention to online expat groups and black Americans really don't come across as the stereotype mentioned today.
The average seems pretty reasonable and respectful of the culture like anybody else.
You got retards in any group and those looking for attention and, at least with the random tiktok dude, he likely is just looking for attention and views.
Eighth, finally it honestly wouldn't surprise me though if something like that Vice headline article was real.
From what I can tell, it isn't.
But it doesn't take much imagination to see Americans flocking to another country like Mexico and demanding our way of life back home be exported down here.
Like I have seen with the words negro or Latinx, some of the more woke crowd definitely does try to export some of their beliefs down here without question.
Though I think most Americans don't try anything that connected to political or social issues (of any skin color) and instead, if they do export anything, it's usually less political habits like tipping culture for example (among other things).
Some Americans though do get involved in "social issues" however but most I find don't.
At any rate, that's all I got to say.
There's nothing else to add as it's not that big of a topic.
Above all, just how it seems to be a reoccurring theme that goes viral within Mexican online social media every so often.
If you got anything to add, drop a comment below.
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Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt
