Racist Stereotypes In Cartoons

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Nothing was better than waking up early on Saturday mornings and tuning in to watch cartoons. When kids watched cartoons such as Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry, they never took to consideration what the episode is actually trying to say. They just notice the different animations and sound effects that each cartoon did during the episode. Now as adults, re-watching those old cartoon episodes open up people eyes and helps the viewer capture the actual meaning of the content of that particular episode. Watching a few Bugs Bunny cartoons, one would notice a few scenes that never would have caught their eye before and would actually see what the writer was trying to display for the audience. In some episodes of Bugs Bunny, racism and stereotypes were portrayed throughout different scenes and skits. The creators…show more content…
Certain Bugs Bunny cartoons can be categorized as propaganda films because it visually uses three argument types consistent with propaganda: appeal to stereotypes, prejudice, and fear. A fewBugs Bunny cartoons that portrayed racial minorities were “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips” and “Southern Fried Rabbit”. Racism has always been a part of American history. According to Henry Jenkins, the Provost’s Professor of Communications, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, in the article, Playing with Stereotypes in Wresling and Animation, Jenkins states “In the 1930s and 1940s in particular, there were some really racist stereotypes used in animation”. Major animation studios such as Warner Brothers, Metro Goldwyn Mayor, Walter Lants, and other animation studios, produced unnecessary stereotypes of different type of ethnic groups such as Blacks, Japanese, Germans, and other groups. Racism in animated cartoons originated and were highly influenced by newspaper comic strips in the beginning of the twentieth century. Certain newspaper comic strips writers such as Winsor McCays, Will Eisner, R. Crumb, and other

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