Clips, betty boop, bugs bunny, coal black and the sebben dwarfs, discrimination...

The five racist cartoons Google wants you to see, but no one else does

Google's YouTube hosts 11 Warner Bros. cartoons banned since 1968 for their racist content, New York Times reports. Google flack Ricardo Reyes told the paper it is up to users to flag offensive content and up to copyright holders to notify Google when infringing content is uploaded. "The cartoons are despicable," the NAACP's Richard McIntire told the Times. "We encourage the films' owners to maintain them as they are — that is, locked away in their vaults." But hiding the videos goes against Google's mission to organize all the world's information, including — it seems — records of our hateful past. Should the five racially offensive cartoons embedded below be so easy to share? Google never asked.

Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs

Bugs Bunny in a racist U.S. War Bonds commercial.

Little Black Sambo from 1932

Betty Boop in a banned cartoon.

Anti-Japanese war propaganda.

8:40 AM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
3,273 views
7 comments

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seanpercival at 09:59 AM on 04/28/08
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No, NAACP go complain about something relevant why dont ya.
sample032 at 10:04 AM on 04/28/08
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Why not link to Disney's self-censored Song of the South while you're at it?
sample032 at 10:19 AM on 04/28/08
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That Japanese one reminded me of the Life Magazine story on how to tell Japanese from Chinese: [www.english.uiuc.edu]
Filament at 11:01 AM on 04/28/08
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We bitch regularly when the Japanese sweep the nasty bits of their imperial history under the rug, but somehow censoring these is ok. Records like this should be kept available. If we pretend that it didn't happen, we make it possible for it to happen again.

For those interested in stuff like this, see the book Dr Seuss Goes to War, or the on-line version. Both are collections of his WWII political cartoons, many politically incorrect by modern standards.
SnarkTard at 12:16 PM on 04/28/08
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I agree with Filament. Good, bad or ugly, it is history and should be available for public review and debate.

BTW, I have it on good authority that Disney also has a pre-WWII Mickey cartoon where the little mouse reveals his - er Walt's - fascist sympathies.
Magister at 06:22 AM on 04/29/08
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@Filament: Great link! Thanks for sharing.
BobDope at 03:15 PM on 04/29/08
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The 'refrederator' podcast did a whole 'Black Comedy Week' chock full of embarassingly racist cartoons a while back. Some of the cartoons are not out-n-out racist, but will have a 'mammy' character or something. Man, what a bunch of racists! Must make that Kramer dude feel like he ain't so bad.