The Spanish postal service has introduced a set of skin-toned stamps: the darker the stamp, the lower the value. Though aimed at defending “diversity, inclusion and equal rights,” the campaign has been mocked as “tone deaf.”
Correos, Spain’s state-owned postal service, introduced its ‘equality stamps’ on Monday, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in the US. The four stamps feature skin tones ranging from pinkish white to ebony, and each hue is priced differently. White stamps are worth €1.60, black ones only €0.70.
The stamps are intended to “raise awareness about racial inequality and defend diversity, inclusion, and equal rights,” Correos declared, adding that the different values reflect “an unfair and painful reality that should not exist.”
That Spain’s postal service would embrace US-style activism in the wake of Floyd’s death is not surprising. After all, the US embassy in Madrid flew an enormous Black Lives Matter flag on Monday, as did multiple US diplomatic posts around the world, in what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a campaign for “global racial justice.”
Yet the global export of American wokeness hasn’t always gone down well abroad. Correos’ campaign was slated online, not for its intention, but for how the message was delivered.
“What is the message?” one commenter on Twitter wrote, “that one white person is worth the same as three blacks? If so, what is the protest or attempted change?” Another described it as “the most racist anti-racist campaign I have ever seen.”
Other commenters bombarded Correos with jokes and memes.
The skin-colored stamps aren’t Correos’ first foray into woke activism. The postal firm launched a special “LGBTI stamp” last year, and painted its postboxes and delivery vans in rainbow colors to celebrate Pride Month – a move that was described as “superfluous,” given the stress coronavirus was placing on the Spanish economy and health sector at the time.
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