16th July 2009, 6:40 PM
I kind of see your point lazy, but don't you think it's a double standard to get upset about the portrayal of stereotypical fat people in media and not the same about races being stereotyped? That is what this is about - stereotypes marginalizing a group of people. I especially disagree with you thinking that Japanese propaganda was A-OK. I don't even know what to say in response to that.
Huey from the Boondocks is the same as a black kid eating a watermelon? Really? What if it were a black guy eating fried chicken and smoking crack while stealing a stereo?
I don't think you can equivocate the watermelon kid with Huey. Huey has an afro, that's about it. He's well-spoken, intelligent, level-headed (aside from having radical liberal beliefs), interested in Kung Fu and Japanese culture (like Aaron MacGruder) and provides the commentary for the show. Riley is more of a stereotype. Besides, the comic/cartoon were created/written by a black man, and they have certain privileges about that sort of thing. Unless you think that, for instance, white people should be able to say nigger as liberally as black people, which is looking at things from a dichotomy that makes no sense.
I don't know if some of these images are racist per se, but it's very racially insensitive, reinforcing the same image of poor, simple black people in that particular case.
Historical context makes it what it is, and most people say words with racist overtones with that very intent. Not all, but most. Don't be obtuse.
[edit]
One more point. Although I disagree with racial insensitivity, I don't think history should be censored to take those sorts of things out. I disagree with editors cutting out parts in cartoons that depict racist things, like Jerry in Tom & Jerry falling into a bottle of ink and coming out in blackface. We should look at that and recognize it at a time when people were still ignorant and callous to minorities, not erase it entirely.
Quote:If it was called Nigger Ice Cream 'The Watermelon ice cream for stupid niggers!" then i'd gladly accept its racist tones. But a drawing of a black kid that looks just as ridiculous as today's characitures of blacks (from Boondocks to the PJ's) for an ad for ice cream is not hateful at all, there is nothing there that says its putting anyone down.
Huey from the Boondocks is the same as a black kid eating a watermelon? Really? What if it were a black guy eating fried chicken and smoking crack while stealing a stereo?
I don't think you can equivocate the watermelon kid with Huey. Huey has an afro, that's about it. He's well-spoken, intelligent, level-headed (aside from having radical liberal beliefs), interested in Kung Fu and Japanese culture (like Aaron MacGruder) and provides the commentary for the show. Riley is more of a stereotype. Besides, the comic/cartoon were created/written by a black man, and they have certain privileges about that sort of thing. Unless you think that, for instance, white people should be able to say nigger as liberally as black people, which is looking at things from a dichotomy that makes no sense.
Quote:I said logical arguments, all you guys are doing is saying 'its racist because there's a race depicted'
I don't know if some of these images are racist per se, but it's very racially insensitive, reinforcing the same image of poor, simple black people in that particular case.
Quote:And no, just because a word is used on a black it doesnt make that word suddenly racist. My great grandfather called me and my sister 'little picaninny terrors' because its a southern term and we were on his farm in Alabama.
Historical context makes it what it is, and most people say words with racist overtones with that very intent. Not all, but most. Don't be obtuse.
[edit]
One more point. Although I disagree with racial insensitivity, I don't think history should be censored to take those sorts of things out. I disagree with editors cutting out parts in cartoons that depict racist things, like Jerry in Tom & Jerry falling into a bottle of ink and coming out in blackface. We should look at that and recognize it at a time when people were still ignorant and callous to minorities, not erase it entirely.