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Thursday, October 27, 2011

They're A Little Racist, But It's OK

Finally! The WB has gotten it right. They're not trying to change or ignore "history". (I'm using the quotation marks because I'm about to start referencing cartoons and giving them a "historical" status felt a little weird.) They're just showing it for what it is. And what it is is Tom and Jerry cartoons that weren't always politically correct.

Look, there were some things in older cartoons that were fairly racist. Now, I'm not a big fan of the word "racist" because it gets thrown around all of the time lately, usually in the context of things that are so not racist, but it's appropriate here. Take the character Mammy Two Shoes. Yep, that was her name. Behold!
Yeah, that doesn't look all that great. And usually, Mammy Two Shoes didn't have a face. She was usually depicted as such:
See? Not much better. And that's not really the extent of it, but you get my drift. And while I personally don't think that it's a big deal, you know that there are people out there who would think it's a big deal. (Or, at least, they're going to want to make a big deal out of it. Big difference.) And those are the sorts of people that usually complain until something is taken off the air because they find it sooooo offensive. And unfortunately, a lot of companies simply comply because they are afraid of offending people, even though the number of people who are NOT offended greatly outnumber the nimrods who are offended. But not The WB. Nope. When they were airing a bunch of Tom and Jerry cartoons recently, they came up with this "disclaimer" or warning label or whatever you want to call it. Behold!
It's brilliant. Simply brilliant. You can't ignore this sort of stuff. And just because there might be something in it that isn't acceptable in current times, doesn't mean that it still can't be enjoyed in the proper context. Or even the improper context. Hell, they're freaking cartoons! They're going to be enjoyable in spite of the unflattering depiction of the maid (who, by the way, is NOT REAL). And I cannot even tell you how grateful I am that The WB is still showing these cartoons. It might not seem like much, but trust me. It's a lot. And now, we sit back and wait for the complaints to roll in. And they will. Roll.

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