But you also need to remember that Warner Bros. NEVER swept this fact under the rug. They have, as a company, fully admitted to the way that these stereotypes have dominated (in the case of the Censored 11) or have been present in their cartoons are no longer acceptable. The Censored 11 remain off TV today because they revolve entirely around the stereotype and offer little enjoyment for anyone who doesn’t support these stereotypes (such as the case of the original Speedy Gonzáles cartoon – while MANY Latinos (it’s a debatable subject) have grown up viewing him as a sort of Robin Hood-esque character, his debut short characterized him purely as a selfish thief with little room for interpretation:
Which, when viewed, most Latinos unanimously agree is an offensive stereotype. And this was ALL the short revolved around, if you’re familiar with Speedy cartoons.) These aren’t something to be viewed in leisure, they should be viewed in an educational context, thus, they don’t air on TV anymore, as Time Warner owns leisure-oriented channels.
And Warner Bros. have attempted to go this educational route before. Their cartoon documentary series on Cartoon Network, Toonheads, hadn’t strayed from covering heavier subjects, such as the wartime cartoons, which were jam-packed with racist caricatures and adult themes:
(A screenshot of said program, I strongly recommend looking up Toonheads in general as a series) unfortunately, Toonheads was a kind of niche program with a rather small following. I, for one, want to see it return (I loved watching it as a kid) but there are plenty of replacements online now, honestly.
And even in the absence of a fully educational environment, Warner Bros. has continued to answer for the depictions of marginalized groups that have appeared in their older cartoons. There is the infamous opening card to the Golden Collection that has made its way around the internet, for example:
(Transcript: “The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today’s society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”)
Followed by a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg, which was present in most Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera (Tom and Jerry) DVDs:
Which basically states the same thing.
Warner Bros. is spreading an important message. Absolutely they’ve done less than savory things in the past – by today’s standards. But they aren’t willing to hide from this fact like many other companies (*cough*Disney*cough*) and people are so desperate to do. The 11 cartoons deemed too insensitive to be aired exist, as do many other problematic aspects in our beloved cartoons, but today, they’re meant to be learned from, not forgotten in an attempt to paint all studios as infallably pure.
Just, y’know, to give some context to this TIL, because I know there are people out there who don’t know all this stuff, yet.
