Honduran F.M… “I’m not a racist, I’m an idiot”
With the lame excuse that he hadn’t been sworn in yet by the “de facto regime” in Honduras as foreign minister, Enrique Ortez Colindres, brushed aside strongly worded condemnation from the United States of his characterization of U.S. President Barack Obama as ““Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada” {most politely translated as “that pickaninny who knows nothing”].
Being a trained diplomat (and holding a diplomatic post when he was appointed to his “de facto” post — and knowing he was speaking publicly — of course that excuse doesn’t fly. But every political figure is entitled to say something stupid, as long as they ‘fess up and admit it was stupid.
However, Ortez Colindres referred to Obama twice with the offending term… and now a third quotation has surfaced, made during an interview with a Honduran television station and cited in El Tiempo newspaper:
He negociado con maricones, prostitutas, con ñángaras (izquierdistas), negros, blancos. Ese es mi trabajo, yo estudié eso. No tengo prejuicios raciales, me gusta el negrito del batey que está presidiendo los Estados Unidos.
I have negotiated with queers, prostitutes, bird-brains (leftists), blacks, whites. This is my job, I studied for it. I am not racially prejudiced. I like the little black sugar plantation worker who is president of the United States.
This is an insult peculiar to the Caribbean, used only by “criollos” — often used to specifically mean illegal workers from Haiti [“batey” is a barracks for migrant workers]. Given that the “de facto regime’s” only support has come from the extreme right in the United States, it’s possible that Ortez is being somewhat subtle… the far right in the U.S. “blaming” Obama for “supporting Chavez” (and, like Hugo Chavez being of mixed race ancestry) and, in a coded way, feeding off the lunatic fringe’s attempts to claim Obama is a foreigner.
Nah… more likely Ortiz is a fuckin’ racist fool.
mexfiles.net 
Wow. Just wow.
What an idiot. What a jerk.
Thank you for the linguistic details. I was not familiar with the word “batey.”
not to burst your little Obamazombie bubble, but in 9/10 hispanic cultures, “negrito” is not offensive. I don’t know what the opinion is with Mexicans and the term, but in hispanic countries with a fair deal of Blacks, it is by no means offensive. And saying something like “el negrito del batey” is not used in the way the translation makes it sound. Its just a colloquialism like saying “the yankee from the north” or the “cowboy from Texas.” To those who read this post, please be aware that there is A LOT lost in translation and cultural differences.
Given that Mr. Ortiz has served at the United Nations, and in important European diplomatic posts, undiplomatic language (to the press) is not by accident. As it is, I’m not particularly fond of the Obama Administration, especially when it comes to Latin American policy, but that has nothing to do with whether or not “negrito de batey” is offensive or not.
While “negro” is a value-neutral term in Mexico (simply descriptive) and a diminutive is used affectionately in some situations (as when my neighbor jokingly refers to his blue-eyed son as “negrito”) … Mexico is a country where “race” hasn’t had much meaning for the last 150 years. In Honduras, it does… and the diminuative is used to denigrate — in particular when used by a criollo in this context.
And “Negrito de batey”… Honduras, being a more rural country, would naturally use a rural term. if I was to translate it into U.S. urban cultural terms, it might be something closer to “ghetto nigga”.
With even de facto President Micheletti agreeing the remarks were unacceptable, it’s hard to put any spin on it that lessens the damage it did to the regime’s credibility with the one and only foreign power that is willing to deal with them.
Yeah, I completely agree with your last statement. Regardless of what context/tone it was said/meant, it was damaging just because the word does hold racial weight when translated (especially to english). So yes, I agree with your opinion that it wasn’t the right thing to say.
I still don’t think its offensive, but I am impressed and grateful that you are capable of separating the sociology of the term from its consequences which is something I didn’t pick up on when reading the original post.
p.s.
That was fun! Thank you. If only competent debaters like yourself were so readily available in real life…
The term “negrito” is in no way offensive and any Mexican will tell you that. Eddy got it right on when he wrote that it is merely a used as adjective. The reason the term gains a derogatory meaning during translation into english is because it is a homophone of the pejorative n****r. If I was to talk about a black man in spanish I would call him “el negro”. “negro” meaning black from the latin root word “niger”, which simply means “black”, therefore the transliteration would simply be “the black man”.
If he wanted to insult BHO he would have called him a mayate!
It doesn’t matter how you put it.The context and the word are racially driven.It’s no surprise to me as I know how black are treated in Latin America.NO COUNTRY in America where blacks are minority treats black people better than the U.S and Canada.But my Latinos friends will tell you than there’s no racial difference in their country.”Mi pais no es como America” “Alli no hay racismo” they would say. The facts are different and one can see it when interacting with Hispanics.How many blacks show host do they have at Univision and Telemundo?
I am digressing but my main point is that the statement is racist.How many blacks call lighter-skinned latinos blanquitos?I am not implying that every Lation es racista but what I am trying to say is that racism is tolerated.I can’t count haw many times I was told: “Nunca ha habido un angel negro.””
Regardless of whether the term “Negrito” is offensive or not to the listener (I tend to think it is, firstly by the use of the diminutive, and secondly by the use of the indefinite pronoun en español, artículo indefinido—“ese” associated with the noun, similar to McCain´s use of “that one”), the meaning of the entire statement was to say that President Obama was ignorant of what is going on–not a very diplomatic statement and certainly not conducive to opening up relations with other countries who have isolated Honduras and reduced badly -needed foreign aid. This is regardless of whether the listener is Mexican, Honduran, Caribbean, or from the US.
And to Oyono Diallo–San Martín de Porres, a saint, was Black. And I have never heard anyone from Latin America referring to the US as America (another cultural irritant).
Sorry brother.I am not a Latin American and I glad much what I said was not denied.I am from Africa and the term “America” is commonly used to describe the United States….Our discussion is not about who is right or wrong! Racism is rampant in Latin America(including in Mexico by the way). I can give you examples to back up my claim just as I did in my first comment. Wasn’t the song: “Un monero corriendo ratero,un blanco corriendo atleta” a common song in Latin America? Have you heard what happened to Felipe casiero,a international Ecuadorian soccer player?I am aware of what black soccer players go through down there.I have never heard of such kind of incident during a Football game.The USA and Canada treats a better than any other country in the Western hemisphere.I’d like to be told that what I said is not accurate…
“the meaning of the entire statement was to say that President Obama was ignorant of what is going on”
– of course that was the point of the statement, when he said “no sabe nada de nada”. the question is if he was using “negrito” as an insult. Believe me he could have used harsher words.
Most of you you say that what he said wasn’t racial and give examples of how the terminology is used in certain countries are mistaken are provably from Mexico or some part of the world where words as such are tolerated, so it is erroneous for you to really give and accurate opinion of whats offensive or not, I’m 100% Honduran and of mix race. The terminology used by our president toward President Obama was wrong, offensive and racist. Our people were ashamed by his comments as we are a nation of Afro-Hondurans , indians and mestisos. For any Mexican American , Mexican or Americans to think that what our president said is not offensive and racist is wrong and you provably have used terns as such since you think it was not racial. Think about.