Univision Race Gaffe Shows Culture Gap

*This is probably the most reasoned commentary I’ve read concerning Rodner Figueroa’s racial gaffe about First Lady Michelle Obama. I worked in Spanish media since the days before Univision and wondered how national on-air talent got away with such blatant bigotry, homophobia and sexism. In those days the strongest desire was to be regarded on equal footing with mainstream media – in slaes, in ratings, in prestige. What I find troubling is that many commentators in the wake of the Figueroa incident claim that now that Univision is considered one of the big-box media companies it needs to be held to a different standard, that now it cannot hide behind Spanish media obscurity. The problem with this thinking is that it exhonerates the Univision of the past, waving off the cumulative on-air bigotry, sexism and homophobia with a “tsk-tsk, let’s not do this anymore.” Becasue when you wave it off in such a way you skimm the surface and call it a cleansing. Murriel, in this piece, is right to call on a deeper change. VL

By Maria Murriel, Code Switch, NPR

It happened again. The Spanish-language, Miami-based Univision — the fifth-largest television network in the U.S. — has another racial insensitivity mess to clean up.

On Wednesday, Univision talk show host and fashion commentator Rodner Figueroa said that first lady Michelle Obama looks like an apocalyptic ape.

This is only the latest incident of racism on the network’s airwaves. During last year’s soccer World Cup, Univision’s sports commentators were called out for referring to Afro-Latino soccer players as simply morenos — equivalent to saying “the black guy” — instead of using the players’ last names.

During the 2010 World Cup, hosted in South Africa, a skit on the network’s morning show Despierta America had hosts wearing afro wigs and dancing around the set with spears.

Figueroa also insists he’s not a racist because he’s biracial: His father is Afro-Latino.

But that only makes his “ape” slur all the more inexcusable, and all the more indicative of how clueless and outdated much of Latin America — and many Latin Americans like Figueroa — remains about race.

And Latinos in the U.S., especially those of my younger generation, are tired of it. Tired of the way it all too often negatively defines us while we’re trying to build a positive image of what it means to be Latin in this country.

That’s why we need more than just a legal statement from Univision. We need corporate action, starting with more racial integration inside its studios and on its network programs.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo courtesyof remolacha.net/Flicker]

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