The image of a young blonde girl begging on the streets of Guadalajara caused an online uproar last week, raising the often overlooked issue of racism in contemporary Mexican society.
It is all too common to see kids selling chewing gum or begging for change at traffic lights in Guadalajara, but the sight of a blonde girl with green eyes doing so prompted a passerby to post her photograph on Facebook last week.
“Let’s spread this photo around,” wrote the user, who said he believed the girl may have been kidnapped “because her parents are brown.”
The photo soon went viral across social networks – it was shared over 68,000 times on Facebook alone – prompting a police investigation. The authorities quickly tracked down the five-year-old, placed her in a Guadalajara orphanage and detained her 23-year-old mother for two days. She was only released when the girl’s grandmother – who also has green eyes – came forward with her birth certificate.
The case touched a nerve among Mexicans, as it seemed to imply that major social problems such as child poverty, exploitation and kidnapping only require swift action when they affect white people. “Is Mexican society inherently racist?” the online community began to ask.
*Restricted Article* - To view rest of this content, please login or register..
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
