Those Warner Brothers cartoons were chopped to the point
that it became almost impossible to follow the story. Having
grown up with them since the '50s, it wasn't such a problem
for me, but I can imagine a child watching them for the first
time and feeling confused.
As for racial slurs, during World War II it was commonplace
for real people to refer to the Japanese as "Japs" or "Nips."
They attacked us at Pearl Harbor, after all; they were the
Al-Qaeda of that generation. So when Bugs Bunny hands
a Japanese soldier a hand grenade disguised as an ice-cream
bar and says, "Here y'are, slant eyes," he's saying what real
people would most likely have said at the time. Remember,
this WAS the 1940s, and political correctness was hardly "in."
As for non-cartoon shows, people should go back and listen
to a few Jack Benny shows. They'll find that Rochester was
smarter than his boss and frequently put him down. As for
Amos 'n' Andy, the Kingfish's schemes always backfire for the
same reason Ralph Kramden's do: there's always something he
didn't think through. That is NOT the same as being outsmarted
by a white person (in fact, you rarely saw a white person on
Amos 'n' Andy).
I have to agree. In order to understand American society in
the 1940s and '50s, these cartoons and other shows need to
remain intact. We don't have to approve, but neither do we
need to rewrite history.
