Cingular cringes after ringtone viewed as racist

Are there any Cingular customers that happened to download a copy of the “offending” ringtone before it was taken off the download charts?

Cingular Wireless LLC pulled a ringtone from its Web site Tuesday after learning that it carried a message the company called “blatantly offensive.”

The Atlanta-based cell phone company became aware of the ringtone, which uses mixed English and Spanish and threatens deportation, after an inquiry from a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.

The newspaper reported in its online edition Tuesday that the ringtone started with a siren, followed by a male voice saying in a Southern drawl, “This is la Migra,” a slang term for the Border Patrol.

I’m not one to judge since I was not able to hear copy of the ringtone, but I am reminded of the outrageous charges carriers inflict on their subscribers. $2.49 a ringtone?! People smarten up.