I wanted to post this because I am a huge fan of Looney Tunes cartoons. And I also wanted to show the strong racism in early Looney Tunes cartoons.
The first time I ever experienced racism was on a family trip to Disneyland in the early 90s. That was a first-hand experience. The first time I ever saw racism was on the television, when I was much younger watching Looney Tunes cartoons. Blatant racism as well as stereotypes towards African-Americans, Japanese, Jews and Chinese. These cartoons were eventually withdrawn from distribution and are known as the ‘censored eleven’. In 1999 all Speedy Gonzales cartoons were made unavailable because of their stereotyping of Mexicans. But because the level of stereotyping was minor as well as the protests of many Hispanics who said they were not offended and fondly remembered Speedy Gonzales cartoons from their youth, these shorts were made available for broadcast again in 2002.
I don’t believe children should be exposed to racism, at all. My parents were different. And because of that, I spent my early years thinking that every white person in the world was racist. That probably sounds funny, but keep in mind that I never made any close white friends in elementary school because of this. It’s not one of those things you forget growing up either. I’ll always remember the ‘mamies’, the pickaninny and the black face. And On the flip-side I don’t regret having seen any of this at a young age.
People were racist as fuck back in the day, and the intended audience for Looney Tunes was, as Friz Freeling partially admitted, intended for racist white people. Not young impressionable Black, Latino or Asian kids.
[Above: “Scrub Me Mama” is a 1940 Cartoon from Universal Pictures]
