Others may cherish this stuff as a tribute to free thinking or whatever, but I’m happy to see the lack of distribution as a sign we’ve learned some things. This isn’t Chesterton’s Fence or the Mona Lisa, this is just racist humor aimed at boomer kids.
Not including this stuff where it belongs is gaslighting. Black people should know what their boss laughed at when he was a kid.
It's also literal whitewashing to take all of the black people out of the past, even if white people depicted us as clowns and monsters. I should be able to say "your grandfather depicted me as a clown and a monster." Better than being a problem swept out of frame.
There's still tons of it around! The Marx Brothers movies are a great example of high-quality content with questionable segments that perfectly capture those old stereotypes. And as a classic movie fan, there are tons of movies with incidental black characters like that. I don't think those should all go in the bin, they are a product of their time.
The WB content is aimed at kids, and I think that makes a difference.
I don't think anybody is arguing for those Censored Eleven to be shown on TV. They're still out there for any adult who cares enough to find, I think that's enough.
For that matter, I wasn't even criticizing the OP document for missing those eleven. Given the time it was written it's quite possible the author didn't even have access to them. In any case, the omission of those few from what seems to be an otherwise comprehensive document is, I thought, notable.
Technically you are correct, which is the best kind of correct. Should have said “pre-boomer”. But many were made or reissued in 1944, and as I understand it, cartoon shorts were replayed for years.
Don't care; there is a huge push to whitewash history including most if not all of Looney Tunes for "racism". I find that nothing short of stupid and disturbing, 1984 isn't supposed to be a manual of our future and present.
Who specifically is pushing for the whitewashing of most looney tunes episodes? Can you provide any evidence on that claim or sources?
There really are just 11 specific episodes that are very obviously and nefariously racist.
And to be clear, the US government isn’t censoring them. You are allowed to go watch them if you can find them. 3 are in the public domain. It’s just that the company that owns the rights to them (United Artists) isn’t interested in airing them or selling them.
If you wrote a book or a song and decided later that you didn’t want to sell it or perform it anymore, that’s just you exercising your personal copyright and property rights, not 1984-style government censorship. That is actually the opposite of state control.
>Who specifically is pushing for the whitewashing of most looney tunes episodes?
Most so-called "liberals", aka "the Left". Of course, this concerns everything overall instead of just Loonie Tunes. This is not unlike villifying Columbus or the Founding Fathers or the Confederate boots on the ground and attempts to remove them from history. Who- or whatever the subject being put up for whitewashing is, it's stupid and disturbing and they are not getting my vote come hell or high waters.
We must appreciate and respect history, both the good and the bad, lest we are doomed to repeat them.
>It’s just that the company that owns the rights to them (United Artists) isn’t interested in airing them or selling them.
The media goes where the money is, for better or worse. The money right now is in whitewashing everything including history. "Diversity", "Equity", and "Inclusion" (aka DEI), which you might be more familiar with.
Speaking as a minority (Japanese-American), sincerely fuck that noise with a rusty spork.
Others may cherish this stuff as a tribute to free thinking or whatever, but I’m happy to see the lack of distribution as a sign we’ve learned some things. This isn’t Chesterton’s Fence or the Mona Lisa, this is just racist humor aimed at boomer kids.