Annons
The above Indianapolis Star cartoon depicted a family of shaggy-haired ethnics invading a lily-white Thanksgiving dinner. The Star took tons of heat, then removed the mustache from the father character to make him seem less Mexican, and therefore, less racist. Mustaches are apparently a defining characteristic of Mexicans in the mind of this editorial staff.The cartoonist, Gary Varvel, allegedly doesn't intend for his work to be "taken literally," according to an apology by Star executive editor Jeff Taylor. Yeah, I didn't take it literally either, since I didn't think he was saying actual Mexicans would be breaking into actual Thanksgiving dinners to eat turkey and watch football. It's not the literal interpretation that's harmful. It's the very idea that immigration is somehow an affront to American values or our vaunted holiday season.The whole point of Thanksgiving is to welcome the stranger. It's really the least racist holiday there is, since it's explicitly about clearing a space at your table (both the literal table and the metaphorical one) for the "other" that you might not always be so accepting of otherwise. Try to remember that while you sit in your fortress shoving gristle into your mouth this weekend.Follow Dave Schilling on Twitter.The Case of the Mysterious Mustache: the original — Staci D Kramer (@sdkstl)November 22, 2014