Nelson
05-30-2001, 05:16 PM
Well, I thought I would share this with everybody on this web-site and wonder what your thoughts are about this article featured in today's NEW YORK POST 5/30/01 in the TV Wednesday section.
BIG BAD BUGS...Wascaly Wabbit A wacist? By Adam Buckman
Maybe the people who made the Bugs Bunny cartoons were a bunch of racists, you ever think of that?
How else can you explain all the ethnic stereotypes in the old cartoons?For most of the last century, that's how white America viewed everybody who didn't look like them-like they were all lower beings.
Why should the CARTOON NETWORK celebrate that dubious heritage just because a bunch of cartoon fanatics think it's heretical to do otherwise?
The cartoon-heads are up in arms over the network's decision to cut 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons from it's annaul "June Bugs Marathon"(starting this Friday night at 11pm) because of the 1940s-era stereotypes the cartoons contain.
Among the caricatured groups who may be offended according to Cartoon Network execs, are Blacks, Indians, Eskimos, Japanese and Germans(these last two being deadly enemies of the United States at the time the cartoons were made).
The decision which was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, included titles suchs as "ALL THIS AND RABBIT STEW", in which Bugs dissuades a gullible Black hunter into a dice game; "ANY BONDS TODAY?", a war-time short in which Bugs dons Black-face and impersonates AL JOLSON; and "FRIGID HARE", in which Bugs calls a caricatured Eskimo a "big baboon".
The cartoon purisits who consider the Cartoon Network to be some sort of television church of animation, are accusing AOL TIME WARNER which owns the Cartoon Network, of bending over backwards to be politically correct.
I'm generally in agreement with those who say you can't change the past by snipping all the offensive stereotypes out of TV shows. And I was tempted to go along with the criticism being leveled at the Cartoon Network. But then I began to look at it another way.Maybe, instead of criticizing a TV network that chose to avoid presenting programs it thought would offend some viewers, we ought to take a whack at the people who made old films, and stop defending thyem with the lame excuse that they were merely innocent products of their times.
Since I'm not African-American or Indian, I simply cannot know how it feels to watch old movies and cartoons and see all the buck-toothed braves and the black characters in chauffer;s or porter's uniforms shuffling their feet and bugging their eyes out.
To many people, the old cartoons and movies are reminders of how their group was once regarded by another group which harbored a warped sense of it's own superiority.
The Cartoon Network "June Bugs" marathon includes 176 cartoons.Will you really miss the 12 that the network pulled?
Enjoy the show.
Well I disagree with MR. BUCKMAN on some of his comments, yes indeed...I for one will certainly miss (and yes, they still SHOULD be included) the twelve censored cartoons for this year's marathon. this story just not want to go away untill something is done.
Anyone has any comments on this article???? Lets here it
BIG BAD BUGS...Wascaly Wabbit A wacist? By Adam Buckman
Maybe the people who made the Bugs Bunny cartoons were a bunch of racists, you ever think of that?
How else can you explain all the ethnic stereotypes in the old cartoons?For most of the last century, that's how white America viewed everybody who didn't look like them-like they were all lower beings.
Why should the CARTOON NETWORK celebrate that dubious heritage just because a bunch of cartoon fanatics think it's heretical to do otherwise?
The cartoon-heads are up in arms over the network's decision to cut 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons from it's annaul "June Bugs Marathon"(starting this Friday night at 11pm) because of the 1940s-era stereotypes the cartoons contain.
Among the caricatured groups who may be offended according to Cartoon Network execs, are Blacks, Indians, Eskimos, Japanese and Germans(these last two being deadly enemies of the United States at the time the cartoons were made).
The decision which was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, included titles suchs as "ALL THIS AND RABBIT STEW", in which Bugs dissuades a gullible Black hunter into a dice game; "ANY BONDS TODAY?", a war-time short in which Bugs dons Black-face and impersonates AL JOLSON; and "FRIGID HARE", in which Bugs calls a caricatured Eskimo a "big baboon".
The cartoon purisits who consider the Cartoon Network to be some sort of television church of animation, are accusing AOL TIME WARNER which owns the Cartoon Network, of bending over backwards to be politically correct.
I'm generally in agreement with those who say you can't change the past by snipping all the offensive stereotypes out of TV shows. And I was tempted to go along with the criticism being leveled at the Cartoon Network. But then I began to look at it another way.Maybe, instead of criticizing a TV network that chose to avoid presenting programs it thought would offend some viewers, we ought to take a whack at the people who made old films, and stop defending thyem with the lame excuse that they were merely innocent products of their times.
Since I'm not African-American or Indian, I simply cannot know how it feels to watch old movies and cartoons and see all the buck-toothed braves and the black characters in chauffer;s or porter's uniforms shuffling their feet and bugging their eyes out.
To many people, the old cartoons and movies are reminders of how their group was once regarded by another group which harbored a warped sense of it's own superiority.
The Cartoon Network "June Bugs" marathon includes 176 cartoons.Will you really miss the 12 that the network pulled?
Enjoy the show.
Well I disagree with MR. BUCKMAN on some of his comments, yes indeed...I for one will certainly miss (and yes, they still SHOULD be included) the twelve censored cartoons for this year's marathon. this story just not want to go away untill something is done.
Anyone has any comments on this article???? Lets here it