QUOTE(MR_MOE @ Jan 27 2007, 06:39 PM) [snapback]1518948[/snapback]
This is one of those cases where people take things too seriously. Just look at what era they were made in, generally a lot of people back then were racist. Same reason all the main Scooby Doo characters are white.
Oh?
Well, Scooby Doo was brown! Obviously a minority! And don't you think that Scooby and his blonde buddy were just a weeee bit too close! And that phrase, "Scooby Snacks." Puhleezzee ... obviously a code word for something deviant. I don't wanna know.
Yogi Bear was brown! Boo Boo was yellow! Atom Ant was red! Sylvester is black (with a white belly and muzzle, admittedly).
Why, there are all kinds of minorities in the old cartoons if you just open your eyes!
And if you ask me, Wilma and Betty were unnaturally close too, if ya know what I mean.
<grin>
Actually, there were two crows in the cartoons of the 40s and 50s that were definitely made to emulate blacks of the day, with their mannerisms and speech. In the turbulent 60s and 70s they became "racist," just as Amos and Andy were. Or Rochester, Jack Benny's servant. Yet, they were funny then and still are today.
I especially liked Rochester because, though he seemed ignorant to his employer Jack Benny, he always got the best of him. Rochester was actually mighty sharp, and they often showed this.
Are they racist? Oh definitely. But then, we still see portrayals of whites as being unhip, lacking rhythm, dressing weird and speaking blandly. Many black comedians over the years have poked fun at whites --- and as a white man I wasn't offended. I laughed! Richard Pryor did some hysterical routines, in which he emulated unhip whites. So have Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock.
Mel Brooks, a Jew, often makes fun of his own. So have a host of Jewish comedians through the years.
What the heck, it's still funny!
I'm a short, fat, ugly desert cat --- and I often describe myself that way to others. The name "Gatofeo" means "ugly cat" in Spanish.
If you can't laugh at yourself, you're missing the best audience.