Not Like the Old Days

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So do you see a problem with racial/ethnic stereotypes?

Deleted post previously presented a video of Speedy Gonzales cartoons saying that was the good old days and that today's kids wouldn't understand what was wrong with it.

(Jul 24, 2024 07:22 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: So do you see a problem with racial/ethnic stereotypes?

Deleted post previously presented a video of Speedy Gonzales cartoons saying that was the good old days and that today's kids wouldn't understand it.

I was surprised to see that METV's Cartoon Network features Speedy Gonzales. I thought all the old cartoons of him had all been cancelled. (Maybe it's just the ones with Slowpoke Rodriguez -- who knows.)

EDIT: I guess it was the white or Anglo opportunists who were troubled by the character, as is often the case. They make moral decisions for everybody.

Why do so many Mexican Americans defend Speedy Gonzales?
https://www.latimes.com/california/story...-americans

EXCERPTS (Gustavo Arellano): And yet time and time again, Mexicans — the very group you’d think would hate Speedy the most — rose to defend his honor.

During the 1990s, college students cast Speedy as a proto-Zapatista who fought against American imperialism before it was cool to do so. In 2002, the League of United Latin American Citizens asked the Cartoon Network to free Speedy from his jail — a spokesperson told Fox News, “How far do you push political correctness before you can’t say anything about anything anymore?”

In the wake of Blow’s columns, Mexicans famous and not spoke out on social media against those who dared decry their man. “U can’t catch me cancel culture. I’m the fastest mouse in all of Mexico,” tweeted comedian Gabriel Iglesias, who’s voicing Speedy in the upcoming “Space Jam” reboot.

“We LOVE Speedy because he’s smart and fast,” wrote Eugenio Derbez, another comic who will voice him in his upcoming Speedy feature.

Meanwhile, just a handful of Latinos were nominated for this year’s Academy Awards — but Iglesias, Derbez, and other Speedy defenders don’t seem to care. I actually get it: In the 100-plus years of Tinseltown, he remains the most popular and successful Mexican character ever created. When we don’t have much, we gotta protect what we have, you know?

[...] I’m no spoilsport or wokoso (a portmanteau of “woke” and a mocoso — a snot-nosed brat) about the cute rascal. I never saw a stereotype when I first saw his cartoons as a boy — I saw my culture at a time when the English-language media didn’t bother with us outside of crime and immigration. He danced our dances and dressed like a jarocho (a native of Veracruz) and sounded like my country cousins, to be honest. He was the only Mexican in Hollywood I knew who never lost — well, him and Cheech and Chong.

I love Speedy so much, I keep a large painting of him in my home office. His kind smile and brown skin takes me back to my childhood — and reminds me of where we as Mexicans exist today.

(Jul 24, 2024 07:22 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: So do you see a problem with racial/ethnic stereotypes?

Deleted post previously presented a video of Speedy Gonzales cartoons saying that was the good old days and that today's kids wouldn't understand what was wrong with it.

I don’t see a problem at all. I can look back on those days and confidently say I never gave stereotyping a thought when I was a kid. But I grew older and by the time I was an adult I realized the cartoons were poking fun at Mexicans.

My point was going to be if the cartoons reflected today’s Mexican then what would we see, immigrant and drug cartel spoofs? I see more things wrong with an adult who fears stereotyping as the biggest problem facing mankind. Hardly. I’d give anything to see how Mexican cartoonists would have portrayed North Americans back then.

Today I have to wonder what’s worse, censorship or stereotyping? Difference is I can laugh at how people portray me and I’m ok with it. An adult should be able to function without thinking about what some cartoonist drew in their younger days. Maybe Mexico should work on their image.

The video I erased was a montage of SG cartoons segments where the hero is a well known womanizer amongst his peers and things are said that no kid is going to understand.

I like to think we have become more enlightened over the decades regarding what's ok and what's offensive. Back in the 60's and 70's these cartoon figures were delightful to us and accepted. But now there's a sensitivity that these figures can be taken as stereotypical and demeaning. And despite what many Latinos say, I prefer to err on the side of caution and not risk offending anyone. And I think corporations pursue the same policy:

I think everyone in my elementary school had a Frito Bandito erasure at one time. Frito-Lay prefers we forget about it.

Frito Bandito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbYj7ZyqjYY

Pissed me off that I gave in to deletion. Must be my compassionate side that took over. I wasn’t afraid of a Charlie Hebdo but more worried that Stryder might get in trouble for not removing it. But that’s the way it is now, damn shame.

(Jul 24, 2024 10:32 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Pissed me off that I gave in to deletion. Must be my compassionate side that took over. I wasn’t afraid of a Charlie Hebdo but more worried that Stryder might get in trouble for not removing it. But that’s the way it is now, damn shame.

I was like Bigfoot-sighting freaked out when I chanced across Speedy on television two or three weeks ago, going in sequence through the channels. But didn't have enough interest then to look for an explanation. Thanks to this thread, I no longer have to wonder.

(Jul 24, 2024 11:45 PM)C C Wrote:

(Jul 24, 2024 10:32 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Pissed me off that I gave in to deletion. Must be my compassionate side that took over. I wasn’t afraid of a Charlie Hebdo but more worried that Stryder might get in trouble for not removing it. But that’s the way it is now, damn shame.

I was like Bigfoot-sighting freaked out when I chanced across Speedy on television two or three weeks ago, going in sequence through the channels. But didn't have enough interest then to look for an explanation. Thanks to this thread, I no longer have to wonder.

C’mon CC show a little love for the much maligned Mexican mouse community. Their feelings are important.

Tried to pull plug on thread but too slow.

My 6 yr old grandkid visited us last week. First thing she asked me was if I would play Roadrunner cartoons on my IPad for her. I had showed them to her a year ago and she never forgot. Made my day.

On the downside she told me her kindergarten teacher told her there were no boy things or girl things. Maybe that’s what prompted me to get upset about woke culture this time around.

Trying to find some curmudgeon jokes.

Seems cute and likeable. I don't see what the problem is.

Why is it only white people seem to be the most sensitive on behalf of other races who are not?
Savoir complex? That's the real stereotyping and offensiveness we should really be concerned with. It implies that other races are inferior and need white folks to save them. Even if they don't know they need saving.

Speedy Gonzales, Go Go Gophers, etc. are great cartoons.