Mexico airline apologizes for light-skin casting
Source: Associated Press
Mexico airline apologizes for light-skin casting
By Adriana Gomez Licon Associated Press
Fri Aug 16, 2013 2:26 PM
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer’s casting call requesting that only light-skinned people apply as actors for a television commercial.
Mexico’s population is largely dark-skinned, but Mexican television ads routinely feature light-skinned actors, sparking accusations of racial discrimination.
The commercial has not yet been made, but the casting call specified it wanted “nobody dark skinned,” only actors with “white skin.”
The Catatonia ad agency said this week that a third company that sent out the casting call had used “inappropriate” language. “We regret this situation, which in no way reflects our thinking as a company or as individuals,” Catatonia said on its Twitter account.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/free/20130816mexico-airline-apologizes-light-skin-casting.html
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It also said producers didn’t want a “government look,” an apparent reference to people who appear in ads promoting government social aid programs.
many white folk will bake in the sun or spray on sh** to get the same lovely color as a lot of Hispanic folk 
only thing I know is: THIS WORLD IS FUCKED UP!
Our ad agencies do much the same, but are more subtle about it.
The main characters are Caucasian; the maids, cooks and sometimes the villains, are of color. The first time I went to Mexico I expected the people, at least in Mexico City, to somewhat resemble the people on the soaps. Nope, no such thing. The vast majority of Mexican people are of mixed race (mestizos). Caucasians are less than 10% of the population, yet they are immensely over represented in the entertainment world.
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I was born in mexico, live here now, and have lived in the US and this is by no means news. Here in mexico there is by far more bigotry according to skin color than in the US, it's worse in central mexico. It's accepted as how it is. Here in toluca the surrounding pueblos (we live in one) are mostly dark skinned, indigenous looking people. In the well to do area of metepec is where you see white people, most people in the us would not suspect them of being mexican by looks as white here does not mean very light brown, it means white. !0% of the people in mexico are white (Criollos), 60% are mestizo (like me) and 40% are indigenous.
This kind of thing is not illegal. Take for example a restaurant in "los portales" area of toluca was looking for "trabajadoras" (women) between the age of 22 and 23. It's not illegal to hire by skin color, gender, age, etc. Women when they reach mid 30's tend to lose their job's unless it's government. Not illegal.
It's taught in school, kids have to make charts of the caste system. Pictures on school books are white and very light skinned kids. It's taught in, even in pueblos where most have very dark skin the pictures they paint on the stores are white. Kids in school are pushed toward a menial career if they have dark skin. Even in the US latinos look at darker skinned latinos differently, it's a "secret" though.
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2010/10/06/social_inequality_mexico/
"Despite the popular, state-sponsored ideology that denies the existence of prejudice based on racial or skin color differences in Mexico, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin provides evidence of profound social inequality by skin color.
According to the study, individuals with darker skin tones have less education, have lower status jobs and are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to be affluent.
Andrés Villarreal, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Population Research Center affiliate, will publish his finding in the October issue of American Sociological Review.
He found a high level of agreement among respondents of a nationally representative survey of more than 2,000 participants about who belongs to three basic skin color categories (blanco/güero — or white; moreno claro — or light brown; and moreno oscuro — or dark brown). In addition, he investigated how skin color is associated with a person's socioeconomic status.
Respondents who are light brown have 29.5 percent lower odds of having a college education or more compared to those who are white, while those who are dark brown have 57.6 percent lower odds.
The difference in occupational status between light-brown and white respondents, and especially between dark-brown and white respondents, is substantially reduced once education level is introduced as a predictor. In other words, the disparity in access to education among respondents in different color categories may explain a large part, but not all, of the observed differences in occupational status.
Respondents in the lowest occupational categories, such as domestic workers, manual workers, drivers and security guards, are much more likely to be in the dark-brown category and less likely to be in the white category than are respondents in the highest status occupations, such as office supervisors, professional workers and employers. Only 9.4 percent of manual workers are considered white, compared with 28.4 percent of professionals. Light-brown workers have 25.2 percent lower odds of being a professional worker than whites, while a dark-brown respondent has 35.9 percent lower odds of being in the top two occupational categories than a white respondent.
"These differences in socioeconomic outcomes are, of course, insufficient to demonstrate the persistence of discriminatory practices against individuals based on the color of their skin," Villarreal says. "However, the fact that differences in occupational status across skin color categories cannot be fully explained by other factors, suggests that Mexicans with darker skin tones may in fact face discrimination in the labor market.""
Watch this, it's typical of kids in mexico. When the youngest was 9 years ols he came home from school talking about the "prieto" kids, he himself is medium to slightly dark brown. He said he was white, was upset when we explained it to him. That came from school, they were on race and everyone wanted to think they are white. We had a Looooong talk with him. Anyway, this shows what I am talking about. It's in spanish, but you will get the idea.
It's sad and heartbreaking. I read this story to the wife, who has never lived in the us, and she said the same thing, "this is news"?
I remember when the oldest, a girl, was in primary school in our small pueblo. Everyone has dark skin. A girl and her mother were talking about her in front of her because she has very dark skin and theirs was slightly less dark. I was not there, the wife was and she's hot tempered.
That's the sad thing, it's dark skinned people are just as prejudiced or even worse.
A light skinned baby is born and it's, "oooo, que guerito y bonito". "How light and beautiful".
A dark skinned and "Que prieto". "How dark".
You are right, most up there do not know it's like that here. Even there in high latino areas, mostly around spanish speaking areas.
A lot of it is based on class separation, class separation is very big here and darker skin (even from brown to dark brown) is seen as a lower class.
Thanks for the welcome, thanks for bringing it to light at least in small part with this story. It's a well kept secret in the wide open.
