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Tom And Jerry Racist?

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  • Tom And Jerry Racist?

    Oh the horror!

    Tom and Jerry given racism warning by Amazon

    VIEWERS of Tom and Jerry may wince slightly when the unfortunate grey cat's head is slammed in a window for the umpteenth time.

    But according to Amazon, the real danger to modern viewers of the classic cartoons lies in their inherent racism.

    People hoping to download the 70-year-old cartoons through the company's video streaming service, previously known as LoveFilm, are confronted with the warning that they contain "some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society"
    http://www.qt.com.au/news/tom-and-je...mazon/2406488/
    Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

  • #2
    That's what
    - She

    Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
    - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

    I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
    - Stephen R. Donaldson

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    • #3
      They're most likely referring to the Mammy character, who's regarded as a racist caricature from minstrel shows. It really shouldn't be hard to see this.
      Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

      I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

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      • #4
        Originally posted by seer View Post
        Oh the horror!

        Tom and Jerry given racism warning by Amazon


        http://www.qt.com.au/news/tom-and-je...mazon/2406488/
        Back when I was in college my Sociology professor was African-American who regularly railed against the racism inherent in the American system. I immediately realized how to get an easy A.

        For the rest of the semester when I got home from school I would go sit on the couch, pop open a beer (or three) and turn on Channel 17 (later became Turner Broadcasting System -- TBS) where Tom and Jerry ran from 3 to 4:00.

        I would dutifully note every instance when a firecracker blew up in Tom's face resulting in him having a blackened face and enlarged lips and kinky hair (occasionally the tune "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin Bread" would play at this time).


        After Tom stuck his head in a flower pot (?) which held a lit firecracker




        Tom, Jerry and Spike in black face


        Then of course there was the heavy-set maid, "Mammy Two Shoes," with her stereotypical black accent which was often edited out in later television showings and replaced with a slim white woman.


        I wrote up a paper on racial stereotypes in children's programming and as I said I got an easy A.

        And the truth is that yes by today's standards it is definitely racist. But whether or not it needs a warning label is entirely a different matter.





        As an aside, I remember when Cartoon Network refused to air Speedy Gonzales cartoons in the late 90s after it gained the exclusive rights to broadcasts them because they were deemed to be a racial stereotype. Ironically during this same time in Latin America Speedy was regarded as a cultural icon and was the favorite cartoon character. Protests in this country led by Hispanics led to Speedy being brought back onto TV here.

        He was always shouting "Arriba! Arriba! Ándale! Ándale!" as he outran pursuing cats

        I'm always still in trouble again

        "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
        "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
        "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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        • #5
          Better get rid of Pepe Le Peu as well. Don't want the French to think they have been labeled as lascivious skunks.


          Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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          • #6
            And Foghorn Leghorn, who is calling southerners chickens.

            Comment


            • #7
              good god, those are completely different. The Tom and Jerry creators used actual archetypes and depictions from minstrel shows, which were very much racist. This isn't up for debate.
              Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

              I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

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              • #8
                And Marvin the Martian, who may offend other races we know nothing about.


                Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by mossrose View Post
                  And Marvin the Martian, who may offend other races we know nothing about.
                  Your insistence on sarcastically throwing out other cartoon characters shows that you've missed the point. The warnings of racism don't refer to Tom and Jerry themselves, but to the Mammy character and the depiction of blackface (which, again, are both from demonstrably racist minstrel shows). In other words, the show is considered to have racist elements because it literally lifted certain elements directly from something that was clearly racist.
                  Last edited by fm93; 10-02-2014, 11:00 AM.
                  Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

                  I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    How is depicting a maid as black racist? Are you saying it is racist to hire minorities to work as maids?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by mossrose View Post
                      Better get rid of Pepe Le Peu as well. Don't want the French to think they have been labeled as lascivious skunks.
                      Isn't truth a defense any longer?

                      I'm always still in trouble again

                      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by square_peg View Post
                        Your insistence on sarcastically throwing out other cartoon characters shows that you've missed the point. The warnings of racism don't refer to Tom and Jerry themselves, but to the Mammy character and the depiction of blackface (which, again, are both from demonstrably racist minstrel shows). In other words, the show is considered to have racist elements because it literally lifted certain elements directly from something that was clearly racist.
                        I completely understand the issue. I am not stupid.

                        I am merely trying to point out the lengths to which liberal-minded folk will go to erase every tiny thing that smacks of political incorrectness in this day and age.

                        And when television stops making fun of Christians I will cease pointing out the hypocrisy of liberals.


                        Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                          How is depicting a maid as black racist? Are you saying it is racist to hire minorities to work as maids?
                          It's the style of depiction, not merely having a black maid. Again, "Mammy" is from minstrel shows, which were created specifically to mock and lampoon black people. In the slavery days, slavemasters were known to sexually exploit their somewhat lighter-skinned female slaves. Minstrel show writers tried to whitewash this fact. They de-sexualized the maid by depicting her as obese and old and exaggerating her dark skin tone. In other words, they made the character represent everything that society considered ugly back then. They also made her extraordinarily subservient to her white family and portrayed her as being perfectly happy and content with her status as a slave. It was an attempt to propagate the myth of the happy slave, to suggest that slavery was a humane and benevolent institution. They wanted to convey the idea that black women were unattractive and fit only for service labor, and the slaveowners were kind-hearted individuals who took them in for that purpose.
                          Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

                          I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by square_peg View Post
                            It's the style of depiction, not merely having a black maid. Again, "Mammy" is from minstrel shows, which were created specifically to mock and lampoon black people. In the slavery days, slavemasters were known to sexually exploit their somewhat lighter-skinned female slaves. Minstrel show writers tried to whitewash this fact. They de-sexualized the maid by depicting her as obese and old and exaggerating her dark skin tone. In other words, they made the character represent everything that society considered ugly back then. They also made her extraordinarily subservient to her white family and portrayed her as being perfectly happy and content with her status as a slave. It was an attempt to propagate the myth of the happy slave, to suggest that slavery was a humane and benevolent institution. They wanted to convey the idea that black women were unattractive and fit only for service labor, and the slaveowners were kind-hearted individuals who took them in for that purpose.
                            You are so full of crap. You didn't even know who "Mammy Two Shoes was until you read the OP article. Please show me a clip where she is "so subservient to her white family" and "content with her status as a slave"

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                              You are so full of crap. You didn't even know who "Mammy Two Shoes was until you read the OP article. Please show me a clip where she is "so subservient to her white family" and "content with her status as a slave"
                              In all the episodes I have ever seen, they never even showed her interacting with anyone other than Tom. In some of the episodes it seemed that she owned the house.

                              Comment

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