I tried the search but didn’t find anything, so bear with me if this is a repeat.
Several weeks ago I received a Gumby DVD in the mail as a gift from my mom. I was thrilled but not excited enough to watch it just then. So, a couple days ago, I threw it in the DVD player and started watching while my sister-in-law was present. She’s visiting from out of state and not only works for a Native American tribe but is herself part Sioux.
The DVD is a collection of some old episodes, and my sister-in-law mentioned that they make her feel old. Then, out of the blue, in one of the episodes Gumby and Pokey encounter the “Pesky Indians,” and Pokey expresses his fear of “getting scalped” by the “savages.” The episode continued, and the “Indians” are depicted as simpletons with poor language skills.
We were stunned. We couldn’t believe it was so over the top racist. I can never look at my favorite green friend the same way!
What was the date on the offending cartoon? Don’t forget to put it in context and compare it with other stuff in the same genre from the same period. Not that this makes it any less in poor taste by today’s standards…
For extreme examples, look for Popeye cartoons made during WWII. One of my favorites is when he returns to visit his four identical nephews, and one asks “Did you kill a lot of Japs, uncle Popeye?”
You don’t notice those things when you’re a little kid. I watched that episode tons of times when I was little and never noticed it. I think when you are still small you don’t care what they are talking about on TV, you just want to watch Gumby turn himself into a bunch of little Gumbies or something. That’s where the real entertainment is.
I think if you watch Dumbo again you will see that the crows in it also follow a stereotype, but as a kid you don’t notice those things. If you go back and watch all of your favorite childhood movies you will be shocked at the things they talk about and you never paid attention to.
Gumby doesn’t think too deeply about these things.
I don’t think I’m overgeneralizing when I say most people in certain geographic regions were racist–only as a result of ignorance.
There was no one there to teach them.
Inter-racial marriage was against the law in many states USA, Jim Crow, separate toilets and drinking fountains, separate seating in restaurants, no voting rights for non-Whites–things we had to fight for in the 1960s.
At least one of the Christian Terrorist groups–the KKK–thought Inter-racial marriage was against God.
Gumby is kinda like a kid–you can’t really blame him–he just epeats what the adults around him say. He doesn’t think too deeply about these things.
I just learned that Gumby is a racist, and now you’re telling me he doesn’t think too?!?!
I can’t find any dates on the DVD. Maybe it’s a bootleg. I don’t know where my mom got it. Some of the music sounds like it’s made from crude analog synthesizers, so I’d guess sometime in the 60s.
This doesnt have to do with racist, but everyone should watch Alice in Wonderland, but not watch it visually, just listen to the context of the movie, it makes tons of sexual references, drugs, its pretty funny if you ask me, and it might have racism in there, I dont remember though, Ill have to go listen to it again.
In the first season of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers show, the yellow ranger was an Asian voice actor and the black ranger was an African American. By the end of the first season, however, both actors left the show and the “mistake” was never made again in the series. Power Rangers on Answers.com
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all. Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.
When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said:
“Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head”
