Is Tom and Jerry Racist?

[the_bloke]

Judging historical works of fiction with the current accepted views of society is a slippery slope.

 

Some of those Tom and Jerry cartoons are 70 years old, made in a time when segregation was still alive and well in the U.S.

 

Some of these Tom and Jerry cartoons also depict smoking and boozing, but Amazon don't seem bothered by that, so who is the message there to protect:

 

a) the parent who wants to decide if it's suitable to watch

b) Amazon, covering themselves in case they get sued

 

The answer of course, is b).

[savage86]

I remember seeing a scene in Tom and Jerry some years back in which Tom destroys the house, the house collapses and Tom emerges from the rubble with his face blackened by coal from the coal cellar (and if I remember correctly he also for some reason had bigger than usual brown lips like a few stereotypical black cartoon characters) just as the black lady Mama returns. She says to Tom "have you seen a cat around here?" Tom replies "no ma'm, I ain't seen no cat, no way, no how" spoken in the kind of accent you'd expect from a black character. Whether this is racist or not I don't know, I personally don't find it offensive but I suppose I could see why some black people would. This is the only example of supposed racism I've seen in Tom and Jerry and upon subsequent viewing on Cartoon Network this scene was edited out of reruns of the episode.

 

Like someone mentioned above, apart from being scared of mice, the black lady seems like a strong character. She keeps her house in check and certainly demands Toms respect.

Edited October 2, 2014 by savage86
spelling

[Mecky]

People will just say anything. America doesn't have a glamerous history of treating ethnics despite most of them being ethnics in the first place. OK so T&J had a black housekeeper with what you might call a black voice, but you can't say it never happened and whether it was right or not is a different matter. You can't say something is wrong and try to defeat it by simply giving something a name and making it look ridiculous e.g. racism and islamophobia etc i.e. knuckledraggers, it just doesn't work.

 

anyway, I bought some old T&J cartoons on DVD week - In fact was Tom called Jasper in some of them and I laughed my head off

[firemanbob]

People will just say anything. America doesn't have a glamerous history of treating ethnics despite most of them being ethnics in the first place. OK so T&J had a black housekeeper with what you might call a black voice, but you can't say it never happened and whether it was right or not is a different matter. You can't say something is wrong and try to defeat it by simply giving something a name and making it look ridiculous e.g. racism and islamophobia etc i.e. knuckledraggers, it just doesn't work.

 

anyway, I bought some old T&J cartoons on DVD week - In fact was Tom called Jasper in some of them and I laughed my head off

 

She was his owner and it was a the voice of a Black African American actress.

[Mecky]

She was his owner and it was a the voice of a Black African American actress.

 

Here's some info

 

http://tomandjerry.wikia.com/wiki/Mammy_Two_Shoes

 

http://mammytwoshoes.tripod.com/history.html

[firemanbob]

Here's some info

 

http://tomandjerry.wikia.com/wiki/Mammy_Two_Shoes

 

http://mammytwoshoes.tripod.com/history.html

From your link.

 

 

Mammy was originally voiced by well-known African-American character actress Lillian Randolph.

 

Hanna and Barbera seemed to suggest, through dialogue and occasional behavior, that the house was Mammy's own. In one occasion, she goes to her bedroom. This suggests she owns the house and is its sole human occupant.

Edited October 2, 2014 by firemanbob

[Phanerothyme]

It certainly perpetuates stereotypes about mice and cats.

[tzijlstra]

No it isn't racist, the issue we have is that we are applying an increasingly distorted paradigm to relics that used to disappear with time but are now preserved due to the nature of our media changing so dramatically over the last century.

 

This is coming to the fore in all sorts of situations and is only going to get worse.

Edited October 2, 2014 by tzijlstra

[Sheffvlad]

Its Gollywog. Not Golly.

 

 

Can't believe Boyfriday hasn't jumped on this thread yet.

[Tagnut]

Can't believe Boyfriday hasn't jumped on this thread yet.