When you are a kid, you are always happy to watch a cartoon, but you are not always able to identify the small discriminatory and deeply racist problems of these. Fortunately, today, they are becoming increasingly rare and are immediately singled out when they are broadcast. On the other hand, a few decades back, advocating racist clichés didn’t shock anyone… NO BUT SERIOUSLY, WHAT DID YOU SMOKE PARENTS TO SHOW THIS TO YOUR CHILDREN?
1. Popeye
Several episodes of Popeye are very racist and very problematic. This is the case of “Popeye Pop Pie à la mode”. In this cartoon, the famous sailor arrives on an island of cannibals. Obviously, these are black, represented with all the clichés of the earth (including the big pink lips). As the people try to eat him, Popeye manages to get away with it and ends up becoming their king. The scene ends with all the black people on the island, kneeling before Popeye, bowing down to him. A barely disturbing end scene. Barely.
2. Francine in Arthur
Basically, Arthur is a modern and open cartoon, which conveys inclusive messages and which advocates tolerance, by broadcasting, in particular, one of the first gay marriages in a cartoon. Everything seemed perfect, but there is a big “BUT”! Francine, Arthur’s friend, is black. So far so good. But here it is… PATATRA: she is represented as being a monkey, just like her parents. A poor family, children who sleep together in the same room (the only siblings in the cartoon to be in this case), a garbage collector father whose daughter is ashamed… In short. Racist and demeaning clichés galore. Disappointed with Arthur.
3. Aladdin and the portrayal of villains
A controversial classic! Even if we love Abu, the songs and Jasmine is clearly the most beautiful of the Disney princesses, the cartoon is a bit borderline. Let’s start at the beginning: at the beginning of the film, a traveling salesman pushes the song. The initial lyrics? « Where they cut off your ear / If they don’t like your face It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home » ( = “Over there, they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s Barbaric but hey, it’s home! »). Disney has since replaced that phrase with another, but still, it wasn’t crazy. Well that’s not all! Aladdin and Jasmine were drawn inspired by the American faces of Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly. Nothing serious, at first glance. The only catch is that all of the villain faces (Jafar, Gazeem) are depicted with stereotypical Arabic features, while the good guys are based on Western features. Mmmm, yes not phew we agree.
4. Sebastian in The Little Mermaid
Sébastien is a hermit crab, of course. But let’s say that the characteristics attributed to him, such as his big lips, his passion for reggae music and his accent, still make one think of a very stereotypical representation of a person of color. Not to mention his attributes which are already a little limited, we will add that Sébastien is a character who lives under the ocean and who boasts of the advantages of not putting anything under water while humans are working on land. Hey presto, there, it fits completely into the top of racist Disney cartoons.
5. The Siamese gang in Tic et Tac, the risk rangers
This time, it is the Asians who are the victims of racist clichés. In particular, we see Siamese cats, deceitful, dressed in Asian clothes, who own a laundromat, but who use it to carry out illegal operations in the basement and out of sight. Nickel. (Source)
6. Killa in Dragon Ball Z
Already, we can say that it is rare to come across a black character in a Japanese anime or cartoon. And when it does, it’s not always ultra-healthy… In Dragon Ball Z, Killa is depicted with big pink lips, which are greatly exaggerated. He is never at the center of a major story. In the English version, he speaks often incoherently while babbling. In short, not phew at all.
7. The centaurs of Fantasia
The first version of this cartoon is a concentrate of racism. We see in particular a black centaur, reduced to slavery. She takes care of filing the hooves, rolling out the red carpet, styling, cleaning the manes,… White centaurs with light eyes. Fortunately, these passages were deleted when the short film was reissued in 1960.
8. “Little black Sambo”
Just the title, which could be translated as “The Little Negro”, is a bad sign. “Little Black Sambo” is a cartoon adaptation of the book of the same name written in 1899, and full of racist stereotypes and illustrations. If the narrative is not frontally malicious, all the stereotypes and backward shortcuts quickly make you (very) uncomfortable. The first names of the characters (Sambo, Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo) as well as their always happy, lazy and unconscious characters, are a compendium of racist and discriminating caricatures. Pleasure.
9. The entire “Censored Eleven”
These cartoons were so full of racist clichés of all kinds that they were banned. All. “Censored Eleven” is the name given to a group of eleven cartoons, Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes, which were withdrawn from syndication in 1968, quite simply, because they relayed ethnic stereotypes about black people, considered to be deeply racist and offensive . Here is a small summary, which should quickly make you understand why we did well to banish them. It’s scary.
10. This French Fairy Tales broadcast on Youtube
Until then, some still used the rotten argument of “yeaaaah, but it was another time-haaaan”. There, it no longer works, since this cartoon was broadcast on Youtube in 2019, before being deleted for its deeply racist and humiliating character for the black community. The tale depicted a princess of “all beauty”, white, thin, with blue eyes, who, after a bad spell, turns into a black princess with frizzy hair, and cries all the tears of her body, because she is now ” ugly “. No, you’re not dreaming, it’s the content that was broadcast online by the “French Fairy Tales” account. BUT SERIOUSLY!!!!!! You really have to be the last of the big idiots to produce a cartoon like this!!