I guess IÂ’m behind the times: It hadnÂ’t occurred to me that cellphone ringtones might be a medium for propagating nasty messages. But of course upon thinking about it, it makes sense. HereÂ’s an unpleasant little situation from South Africa, as reported today by the BBC:

A racist mobile phone ringtone has been condemned by South Africa authorities in the city of Cape Town.

The lyrics are in Afrikaans and advocate violence against black people in derogatory terms. Â…

The lyrics of the song, according to a local newspaper, refer to a black person as a “kaffir” – an outlawed and derogatory term in South Africa.

It describes how such a person should be tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged around while driving.

The chorus has a blatantly racist tone and ends with a call to set dogs on the black person.

Shades of Jasper, Texas: lovely. Intrigued, I wondered if other racist ringtone incidents were on record, especially in the United States. I found an entirely different kind of story – one that illuminates in several ways the limitations of the political conversation in America today. Back in May, Cingular had to pull an offensive ringtone after protests by Latino organizations:

The ringtone played the sound of a siren and then a voice that said: “Calmate, calmate, this is la migra. Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I’m deporting you back home-o.” Cingular says it will put more efforts in reviewing ringtones that are submitted to them by a variety of providers.

Up-and-down case, no? Except that the provider of this ringtone wasÂ… a Miami company, Barrio Mobile, staffed by Latinos and aimed at the Latino market. Gearlog picks up the story:

According to a statement by Barrio Mobile, “This ringtone, ‘La Migra’ was written and produced by a Mexican-American comic as a satirical statement. His position is that people of Hispanic background need to maintain a sense of humor about the immigration situation. The ringtone, which was available on one carrier only, was specifically listed in a “Got Jokes” category. It is in no way meant to be racist. We deeply regret and apologize if the ringtone was found to be offensive in any way.”

This ringtone controversy seems to be a clear case of misplaced context: a mockery of immigration hysteria told by a Mexican-American comedian to the almost entirely young, Hispanic target audience of Barrio Mobile sends one message, but when it’s plucked out of Cingular’s deck without context by a random reporter, it sends another.

Gearlog even interviewed the ringtoneÂ’s creator, Paul Saucido, a Mexican-American comedian:

The character came from a brainstorming session between him and a few other Latino comedians, Saucido said, citing Dave Chapelle and Carlos Mencia among his comedic influences. Â…

The ringtone came as part of a package of comic ringtone characters developed by Saucido, including a hovering, novela-obsessed Mexican mom, a Mexican dad, and a “barrio kid” who would say “I can’t make it to the phone right now, I’m busy rotating the tires on my low-rider.” All of Saucido’s ringtones have been removed by Cingular, he says.

“I think because of the times, right now people are a little extra sensitive [about immigration issues,]” he said. “I’m sensitive to this issue! But people obviously leave their senses of humor behind when they get so much fever in them. I thought the Migra character was the last character that would get that kind of reaction.”

Meanwhile in south Texas, the Brownsville Herald asked readers to give their comment on the ringtoneÂ’s propriety. Instead, they got xenophobic (and ignorant: see quote below) harangues:

In its Wednesday editions, The Herald asked readers to submit their thoughts on the story and asked: “La Migra ringtone: Offensive of just off-color?”

E-mails from around the country poured in to the paper, railing against Cingular for bowing to pressure from “illegal aliens” and for being “politically correct.”

Most respondents used the ringtone as a springboard to write about illegal immigration, a subject that has been center stage in American political discourse in recent months.

“I find it far more offensive to call Cingular and get a machine answering the phone in English, followed by Mexican,” one reader wrote.

“Since when should anybody give one damn about offending a criminal’s feelings?” wrote another.

From the constipated liberals to the blustering reactionaries, what these responses have in common is a total lack of subtlety and sense of humor, as well as an instinctive recourse to one’s ideological comfort zone, be it “political correctness” or nativist rejectionism. Saucido pays tribute to Dave Chappelle, aptly: How much room is there for a humorous take on race, while still deterring words and deeds that reflect true hate?