Are These Cartoons Racist Or Funny?

Posted on April 29th, 2008 in Diversity

I visited a blog earlier this evening called Stereohyped that had a cartoon posted, which I’m going to post at the end of this topic. It seems there were a bunch of cartoons that were basically banned because of the perception that they were racist, based on stereotypes, from the 30′s through the 50′s. Many of them were Warner Brothers cartoons, but they don’t hold the monopoly on these types of cartoons.

The writer of the blog questioned whether these were really racist cartoons, and whether or not they should be banned. His point is that from a historical perspective they should be out there for the world to see, even though people at Warner Brothers are clamoring for them to be removed from YouTube and the NAACP has come out against them.

I’m of two minds. Part of me hates that these cartoons were made, but the other part of me absolutely agrees with the writer of Stereohyped in saying that this is history and therefore they should be judged for what they were. I’d actually seen a lot of these cartoons before, and I remember reading where the cartoonists for Warner Brothers had no bad intentions when they made some of them, saying that they actually had black actors in the cartoons and used a lot of black music, more in tribute sometimes than with any malice. Indeed, the cartoon called Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarves was a musical classic, if fraught with so many bad stereotypes that I’m surprised picketing ever stopped.

Still, one has to have these cartoons to open up a dialogue of what was and, hopefully, what is today. To be fair, the cartoonists picked on everyone, especially the Nazis and Japanese during the war, and to be even more fair, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam and others have to be stereotypes of someone.

So, why am I going to show this one particular cartoon here? Two reasons really. One, because it gives an example of the type of cartoon people are up in arms against, and it does highlight some pretty bad stereotypes here and there. But two, because it also copies a lot of things that I saw in a couple other Bugs Bunny cartoons with Elmer Fudd, and if you’re a serious purveyor of Warner Brothers cartoons (that seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?), you’ll recognize many of the gags.

Without further ado, watch, then comment on, All This And Rabbit Stew, for as long as the cartoons stay on YouTube.

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This post has 13 comments

Mike Belgrove
April 29th, 2008
Juan over at Highbrid Nation did a nice piece on these racist cartoon showing up on the net. My opinion on the whole thing is that these cartoons need to be soon and should not be sweeped under a rug or locked in a vault. They are part of our history. Our society (Whites and blacks alike) seem to want to hide or “ban” anything viewed as racist. Whats the end goal? To say “look. no racism”. We need to look at things such as these cartoons so we can understand how deep rooted racism is and was. Only then can we move forward. Pretending like they don’t exist doesn’t help.

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Calvin Nicholson
April 29th, 2008
It’s obviously racist, but as stated before they shouldn’t be swept under a rug or locked away. One, because there is no way to fundamentally destroy data on the internet (its designed to be redundant for data integrity). Second, it ignores a big part of American history. African Americans and people of conscious cannot on hand demand accuracy in history while OTOH trying supplant reflections of our history.

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Mitch
April 30th, 2008
I went and read that article, Mike, and it seems most of us are taking the same stance on the issue. Course, he posted more cartoons than I did, including the Coal Black one; I thought about doing it myself, but decided not to. He does have a great point, something I didn’t say, that being that this country was built on slavery and racism, and that’s something that will never be forgotten by many of us.

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Mitch
April 30th, 2008
Thanks for writing, Calvin. You’re right, people can’t have it both ways, regardless of which side of trying to suppress these things. Course, there are many other cartoons that still show up that have racist overtones that haven’t been banned, such as some of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, and I’m glad for that. And then we have cartoons like Family Guy, a new cartoon that takes shots at everyone, and maybe that’s going to be the wave of the future.

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Kaiju
April 30th, 2008
I had seen these cartoons years ago, and at the time I might have responded that they were interesting historical cultural artifacts. However, if one reads message boards or Usenet, especially when the subject matter is African Americans, one’s perception of these cartoons changes. The problem is, this “stereotype” is treated much differently than say, a stereotype of a geek. The geek stereotype may be an exaggeration of a faint truth. The depictions of Blacks in these cartoons go far beyond an exaggeration to creating a new, accepted image of Blacks. There is no truth involved. Then bigots can choose to believe that there is basic truth in these cartoon depictions to support their innate bias. Thus, bottom line, the stereotype has a basis in truth. This type of ugliness has its basis in hate, and ultimately is destructive. It was the basis of racism and social and codified ill treatment of African Americans for generations. I certainly do not celebrate them as art or cultural phenomenon, and they certainly do not deserve to be broadcast on television today. There is nothing to be learned from them by anyone other than scholars. The general public will learn nothing that is constructive.

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Mitch
April 30th, 2008
That’s a good point, Kaiju, and something I hadn’t considered that being that there isn’t anything constructive that could be learned. One could say that historically it will show how racism was accepted as a norm at one period in time and that we’ve overcome it, but the truth is that we really haven’t fully overcome it, Obama notwithstanding, and other examples, especially slavery and the civil rights movements of the 60′s, haven’t quite gotten it done either. And you’re also right, there is always this image that becomes reality for those who are predisposed to believing it when it’s applied to minorities that the majority seems to escape easily enough.

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Solo Business Marketing
April 30th, 2008
Are the cartoons that feature other characters in a demeaning manner (mentioned in your post, Mitch) still shown/available on television or on the Internet?

If not (and I’m not looking for them), this cartoon and others that portray people of African descent in this manner should not appear either.

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Mitch
May 1st, 2008
Shirley, these cartoons seem to be all over YouTube, far as I noticed. I copied the link to at least 16 or so the other night when I decided to write this post. And I think there’s an actual DVD of some kind that has at least what’s known as the Censored 11.

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I.C. Jackson
May 7th, 2008
I don’t think this is any different from Warner Brothers’ treatment of Elmer Fudd. However, Elmer Fudd isn’t a minority, so apparently the stereotypes perpetuated by that character are not as important, I guess…

Let’s call Al Sharpton and see if he will fight for those who are offended by Elmer Fudd…

But anyway -

The cartoon wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. I wouldn’t exactly call it “racist”. In poor taste and full of stereotypes, yes, but I’m not sure if I would label it with the R word.

It wasn’t funny, though…but most Elmer Fudd cartoons aren’t funny, either.

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Mitch
May 7th, 2008
Thanks for your comment, Ivo. I agree that “racist” might be too strong a term, mainly because the people who were making the cartoons at the time weren’t trying to intentionally insult anyone, they just really didn’t know better back then. If these cartoons were produced today, I might have a much different thought on it all.

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Kaiju
May 7th, 2008
Excuse me, I.C. Jackson, but the people stereotyped by Elmer Fudd were not victimized by bias as were/are African Americans. Unless you can tell us that pudgy, bald white men were enslaved, subjected to “separate but equal”, Jim Crow, lynchings, substandard schools, housing, healthcare, and equal access to the justice system, you cannot compare Elmer Fudd to that atrocity Warner Brothers perpetuated through its films and cartoons.

Bottom line, that stereotype was generated by racism, and perpetuated racism. That the cartoonists “didn’t know better at the time” is a total cop out. They were RACISTS. Perhaps _4you_ wouldn’t label it with the “R” word (what the heck???) but all the same, it IS RACIST. Why pretend otherwise?

Do you think those lynchings, which were occurring during the same time these cartoons were issued, were not based on racism? Do you believe that segregation, which occurred during the time these cartoons were issued, was not racist? Do you believe that Warner Brothers Studio, which was completely segregated during the time when these cartoons were issued, was not racist, that is was actually owned and operated by non-racists?

Perhaps since you cannot bring yourself to even write, no less utter the word “racist”, perhaps in your world, it doesn’t exist.

Well, in that case, God bless you. All the same, I don’t understand why people are so afraid of this country’s history, warts and all.

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I.C. Jackson
May 12th, 2008
Hello Kaiju,

Your comments are emotionally charged – something that I am not. I like to deal with facts and realities, even when they are not convenient for me or the perpetual victimhood of Black America.

The truth is that racism is very complex, and the racial issues America faced during Jim Crow are just as complex. While WB was segregated and the human rights of Black Americans were constantly violated at that time in America, every single action of every single White American at that time was not rooted in hate.

It just wasn’t.

Many things were rooted in ignorance, some in tradition, etc. Just because someone’s views are rooted in ignorance or their actions are in poor taste, that doesn’t make it racist, i.e. the many, MANY racially inspired jokes/stereotypes geared toward Asians, whom, most of us would say that we have no qualms with. You can be silly and ignorant and not be racist. I’d bet you have made at least one Asian joke in your lifetime – probably a mimicking of their accent with stereotypical broken English – or at least laughed at someone making that kind of joke. You’ve probably laughed at such jokes targeting Latinos and their associated stereotypes as well.

Are you racist?

Neither is that silly cartoon that Mitch posted.

Everything that displeases Black people or offends Black people is not necessarily racist – racist is a very strong work, and neither it nor the ‘race card’ should be thrown around haphazardly.

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I.C. Jackson
May 12th, 2008
work=word

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