Mexican-themed NYE party - racist, right?

[BobLobla]

Just been invited by very good friends to their NYE party which promises to have a Mexican theme and everyone must wear a long droopy moustache and a sombrero. Already I am cringing as I think this is pretty racist. Don't think I’ll go… but do I say something privately to my friends about the fact that this seems really off? Do I just dip out and not say anything to avoid awkwardness?

Yes, to a fella who turned up to tell us all we were wrong, his authority being that he is a White English Man. What do you want me to call him...lord and master?

Did he do that though? How about you don't call him anything and shelve your hypocrisy?

Seriously get a grip don’t go the party. Nothing racist about it!

Most mestizos are majority Spanish in descent. The Spanish enslaved and genocided most of the native Americans. Less than 10% of the country is Native American.

Then there are the Black Mexicans descended from all the slaves the Spanish imported when they’d run out of Native American slaves.

The Spanish are darker skinned white people. You don’t have to be pasty white to be a white person.

Better than calling me white british, as a pp offensively assumed

What's wrong with being white British, given that it's a British-based website that's offense you were seriously determined to find.

I am of the belief that you need not have visited any Latin American country to hold an opinion on the matter - though, obviously, a greater familiarity with the region gives greater weight to your opinion.

Emphasis on the "for example", as of course you know no such person - quite why El Salvadorans would be offended by someone wearing Mexican dress, I'm not sure.

Yes, that works for me.

SO let me get this straight.

A reality TV cooking show did a Mexican skit, there was an article and lots of annoymous interent people commented on the article (who said they were Mexican) said they didn't think it was offensive, and therefore this is white people telling (I assume a certain type or subsection of white people) telling 'people' they should be offended, where 'people' are non-white people like me?

OK.....fuck me

I bet the OP is being set up. It's too silly and annoying (to say nothing of stupid) to have this as a dress code. It's not believable.

On average Mexicans are around 60% European, 30% indigenous i.e. mixed race.

I'm not distinguishing Spaniards from any other whites.

Unlike the UK, the Mexican census doesn't collect information on race/ethnicity. So it's impossible to know exactly how many Mexicans identify as White. There are definitely some, but the 30% figure quoted upthread seems much too high.

Most white people are of mixed descent

As are most Native Mexicans, so where is the race and how are you deciding who is white or not? Is there a colour chart for this sort of thing?

As for you nineteenth century division of races, I'm speechless. Do you know that a lot of the native Mexican groups are neither genetically nor linguistically related to other native Mexican groups?

Ah, it seems I failed to quote the people I was replying to.

This is a very poorly-designed website.

No, its not ok. Celebrating Mexican culture with music, food and flags- FINE. Asking people to dress up as hideous media stereotypes of what they think Mexican people look like? -NOT FINE and this is making me cringe. How can your friends not know this? yuck

😂😂😂😂

For clarity, I specifically know a specific El Salvadoran who is offended by this kind of shit. Her opinion matters because she gets lumped in with a 'close enough' mentality on all things Central American (even though Mexico isn't).

Don't tell me who and what I know,

I didn’t assume you were. Try reading what’s written before you leap to take offence. Again.

Where is the negative impact of this party?

Lumped in only by you, seemingly.

Heres what DNA tests have shown:

47% are “White” Mexicans, ones with predominantly European ancestors
25% are Mestizo, who share a mixture of indigenous and European ancestors
21.5% are Indigenous, with predominantly indigenous ancestors

The remainder come from various ethnicities, including Asian, African, and Middle Eastern ancestors

It’s important to note that these are biological classifications, based on genetic tests. In cultural terms, as many as 90% of Mexicans consider themselves Mestizo.
www.smarterhobby.com/genealogy/mexican-ancestry-dna-results/

I think a Mexican theme itself is fine (i.e. Food and decorations etc). Dressing up with mustaches is a bit far. Sombrero's I'd be fine with though

so you know exactly one person in Central America? Which has nothing to do with Mexico? Wtf …

I believe a call to the Mexican embassy in London would put us out of our misery. They’re going to be laughing loud I suspect. Only the Uber politically correct English people would find something like this racist and inapropiate. Ok I’m not Mexican, I’m Spanish which makes me “oppressor of Mexicans” and not invited to the party so I’ll put my sombrero and fake moustache back in the closet. Damn!

The majority of Mumsnet users are middle-aged white English women. It's not racist to point out statistically there will be lots of white English women on this thread.

If they changed the theme of the party to the 1970s they could still ask all the men to wear long droopy moustaches.

Or would that then be sexist? 🤔

The Mexican's I know would be more offended at being told they live in a Central American country rather than people having a party and wearing mustaches.
They often dress their dc in mustaches for Independence Day celebrations but it is their cultural heritage.
I don't think they would be offended but they might think it was a bit naff.
Serving Tex-Mex food would be worse!