40acres said:

I haven't seen a Speedy Gonzales cartoon for many, many years. How did he play on racist stereotypes? Genuine question.

I just thought he was :gulp: mexican!

SuperC said:

I disagree, for the reasons I stated before.

Boss Nass? Captain Tarpals? any other Gungan?

40acres said:

BorisFishpaw said:

We are talking about Jar Binks right now. That is what has fuled this thread. Don't avert attention from Jar Jar. So what and Samuel Jackson's character had a respectful role. It still doesn't change what Jar Jar is in the film.

mcmeekle said:

From what I can recall, he was just a very fast, Mexican mouse. He didn't seem to be racist to me.

They didn't make him run around mowing lawns, blowing leaves, crossing the boarder illegally or anything else that I can see being offensive. If I recall correctly, he just defeated everyone who tried to fuck with him.

IceNine said:

But all of his buddies just layed around doing nothing all day with big sombreros(sp) on their heads.

SuperC said:

As far as I know, Mexicans are more willing to work harder than anyone that I know... so that is not a good stereotype, as I have never heard of Mexicans being lazy.

Also, they always talked about it being during a siesta... they are supposed to lie around and sleep at that time.

SuperC said:

Fishpaw went for the okey-doke lol

this thread is comedy...from beginning to end.

SuperC said:

But that's my point...

Boss Nass & Captain Tarpals are gungans like Jar Jar
They both speak with the same accent as Jar Jar
They move in the same way as Jar Jar
They both have bug eyes like Jar Jar
So why are they not considered a 'racist stereotype'
like Jar Jar? The only difference (bar screen time)
is that Jar Jar is the only gungan played by a black
man. If Jar Jar had been re-voiced by another (white)
actor, I don't think that the racism accusations
would have appeared.

IceNine said:

Then please tell me what you think of this?

Cartoon Network officials have banished Speedy Gonzales from their day and prime time lineups for fear of offending Mexican Americans, but fans of the Mexican mouse hero are fighting back


By VIRGINIA CUETO
HispanicOnline Staff

From Warner Bros.’ Oscar-nominated Mexicali Shmoes, 1959:


Two Mexican gatos relax atop a bridge, where, wearing floppy sombreros, they enjoy a view of the placid, picture-perfect pueblo; José cat strums his guitar and sings as his compañero, Manuel, croons along. Suddenly…
“¡Arriba, arriba, arriba, ándale, ándale, olé, olé, olé, ándale! – Hello, pussycats, you looking for a nice fat mouse for deenner?”

Manuel pounces, unsuccessfully.

Manuel - (bewildered) – “Andale, pues, pronto, pronto, el ratito…”

José – (shaking head) – “Ah, no… It’s no use, Manuel. This mouse fellow, he’s Speedy Gonzales.”

Manuel – “Speedy Gonzales? Who’s he?”

José – “Speedy Gonzales, he’s the fastest mouse in all Méjico. You don’t catch heem with the feets, you got to catch heem with ze brains.”

Manuel – “Brains? Where we get zees brains?”

José – (laughing) – “You don’t need no brains, I gotta ze brains. Come with me. We get thees Gonzales fellow…”


Like those Mexicali gatos, many cartoon fans would love to catch Speedy too. But nowadays, they’d need more luck than brains.

The veteran Looney Tunes hero, star of more than 40 cartoon shorts and winner of an Academy Award—for 1955’s Speedy Gonzales, his second outing co-starring Sylvester, the “greengo” pussycat—has been all but retired from the airwaves in the United States.

Since the late nineties, Speedy has been noticeably absent from the Cartoon Network’s daytime and prime time lineup, apparently for fear of offending Mexican Americans. And aficionados have launched a campaign to get him back, alerting other fans to join a letter-writing campaign to request that Cartoon Network restore Speedy to its rotation.





Latino Groups: FREE THE MOUSE!

Read what leading Latino organizations say about Speedy Gonzales



The decision seems to be a preemptive move on the part of Cartoon Network, which now owns the exclusive rights to all Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. [The Cartoon Network did not respond to several calls from HispanicOnline.] Jon Cooke, who runs the Unofficial Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Page, said he had received many e-mails about the absence of Speedy from such Cartoon Network shows as the Looney Tunes Show, Acme Hour, and the Bugs and Daffy Show.

“I get e-mail from cartoon fans all over the world, and in the five years I have been running my page I have yet to receive an e-mail from anyone who finds Speedy offensive,” Cooke said.


But CN officials say the network was instructed by its owner, Ted Turner, to stop showing the Speedy cartoons because of racial stereotyping.


“The problem with [Speedy cartoons] is the references to drinking, laziness, drug use, and womanizing (‘Speedy knows my sister, Speedy knows EVERYBODY’s sister…’),” according to Daniel Wineman, of the Cartoon Network Programming department, in a recent e-mail posted by Jon Cooke on his site.

“This isn’t worse than most any other WB character. However, since Speedy is Mexican, we’ve shied away from these ‘toons. Turner Broadcasting has always been super-careful not to promulgate any of these stereotypes and this case is no different.”


As Wineman points out, Speedy is only one in a list of now-controversial cartoons that have been archived. Reflecting changing notions of political correctness, many older cartoons rarely, if ever, now get television airplay, including the “censored eleven,” an infamous group of shorts focusing on black stereotypes.

Other censored cartoons include those with Indians, and cartoons from the WWII era, such as the Bugs Bunny short Bugs Nips the Nips, which has spurred protest from Japanese groups.


Speedy fans point out that the character itself is not the problem. “I think it’s mainly the OTHER Mexican mice in the cartoons that they are afraid of and not loveable Speedy,” says one fan identified as “snowpeck” on the Termite Terrace Trading Board, a message board for cartoon fans. “What they don’t realize is that Speedy breaks this stereotype by being a smart, hardworking, fast Mexican.”

IceNine said:

So, he was a smart, fast mexican mouse, and his friends enacted the local customs in local dress.

Those racist bastards! :shakingfist:

BorisFishpaw said:

I'm gonna hip you to something. I thought Jar Jar was all CGI, i didn't know a MAN played him at all, let alone a black man. The thing that scares me the most is i think you are serious.

SuperC said:

WOW. I had never even heard about this controversy. Thanks for posting it, C.

EDIT: just did a google search... and dang, it was a full blown issue. Glad to hear that Cartoon Network has actually taken a look at these issues.
[This message was edited Sun Feb 9 16:09:07 PST 2003 by NuPwrSoul]

SuperC said:

What do I think of that?

I think that the Latino groups are right, the cartoons should be shown and I cannot see anything wrong with them.

SuperC said:

Are these qualities exclusively mexican?

Me? I'd be damn proud of any of those!

IceNine said:

That and Jar Jar, If you don't "C" maybe it's not meant for you to. Again i'm through.

And another thing!

Star Wars is my favourite.

I like Jar Jar, he was cool.

reminds me of a Javakosaurus.

SuperC said:

If the Latino groups are not pissed off about it, why are you???

Again, not everything is racist... maybe you should change glasses.

:LOL:

IceNine said:

Somebody was pissed, that's why it got pulled off. I could have left that bottom paragraph off, but i left you an out which you quickly took. You ran from the Jar Jar incident, by saying me , 40 acres, and rdhull see everything a white man does as racist. You never cleared that up. So yes i may need new glasses, you should work on your SOUL :LOL:

SuperC said:

Never, ever, lump RD in that category.

I don't need any outs from you and I didn't take any out. PERIOD.

theC said:

sorry, just had to remind myself what this thread was about.

My favorite is 'The Empire Strikes Back'
though I remember seeing it as a kid, and
being really pissed off with the non-ending.

The Empire Strikes Black...no wait [racist overtones omitted]

I really liked Episode 2. I liked how they put all the pieces from the other films together.

IceNine said:

THE DRUNK LIL MOUSE...
"senior SPEEDY he will come, he wahns to fuck my seester"
[This message was edited Mon Feb 10 18:29:28 PST 2003 by 00769BAD]

IceNine said:

IceNine said:
---
BUT... you will naturally think that everything that is done by a white person is racist no matter what, so it is not worth arguing.
---

RDHull said:

Ice stop generalizing..just stop it. There have been MANY subjects brought up here where race was never an issue etc..but whenever someting that is in actuality in that categrie and it is brought up you generalize that everything to certain people is racist. and that its always a factor in everything they do.. you know damn well thats not the case. Now please stop that. I respect you too much to not mention this. Of course it may seem that race is always brought up and that "folks is always comlainin" but believe me..there are many many timeswhen race COULD be brought up but it isnt for many mnay reasons. Dont damn people for when they do. It isn't like they do it for pleasure or sport. I mean damn..come on now.

---

HELLO



Awakening the edit
[This message was edited Mon Feb 10 21:26:08 PST 2003 by SuperC]

I know some people will call this a racist statement, but hey, who cares. A lot of people do not believe they are racist, because a racist mind no matter how many books they read or how many degrees they have is just stuck on stupid.

On my thread about the black family being burned out (which got deleted - and further proves my point ) I mentioned that a meeting was going to be held to discuss the issue. Well actually, it was an interracial family (black man, white woman). Anyway, the aunt of the woman stood up in front of the entire audience and admitted that she believed for years she was not racist until her neice married this black man. She had the black friends, blah, blah, blah (you guys know the story -- it's the same one everytime). She could not understand her own feelings about him and it took years for her to accept him. She had no answers as to why she felt this way, but she wanted to stress the fact that racism comes from the heart, and until one examines their own heart they will never overcome the racism issue.

No one can change another's heart. That is something that each individual must do for themselves. I pity racists and those who are but don't admit it or even realize it. To me they are just a bunch of ignorant fools. They can be and stay racists their whole lives for all I care. What I want and what I EXPECT is respect (when I give it) and equality (because it is my God given right as a human being and as an American citizen). I could care less how you personally feel about me. Racism in the hearts of racist is not my problem it is theirs. They are the ones who have to live with the hate. Let them be, but never stop striving for respect and equality.

PurpleJedi said:

Mesa looovvveee Jar jar