Cartoons that have dealt with racism

E

ewick173

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This is a serious topic, so lets not let it get out of hand. That said, what are some cartoons that have dealt with racism. Yogi's gang and superfriends both did eps about racism and prejudice (the eps mr. bigot and prejudice respectively) and there was a robocop ep called "the brotherhood" about a gang which was out to destroy all robots (though in that case the topic is done more subtlely). King of the Hill also had a couple of eps dealing with it (the ep where bobby wants to be a comedian and recites racist jokes, and the one where ladybird is accused of racism when she attacks the black plumber.
 
Static Shock did a couple times I think, and JL did a subtle jab when they go back in time to Sgt. Rock era and GL is told he's a credit to his people. That was more funny than anything, but they handled it well.
 
The Simpsons made a few jokes about Racism





Mayor: I declare the highest state of emergency, code black!

(everyone gasps)

Lenny: Black, that's the worst color there is!

(turns to Carl, a african american friend)

Lenny: No offense, Carl

Carl: Eh, I get that alot.
 
Of all things, the kiddy cartoon for Super Mario Brothers 3 did it. There was an episode where the koopas somehow manage to color everybody in the Mushroom Kingdom red or blue and devise means to pit one color against the other. This even works on Mario and Luigi, until everyone finally comes to their senses for some reason and realize how stupid they're being.

Geez, I can't believe I still remember this after all of these years.

There's also the anime Code Geass, where racism is firmly entrenched in the conquering evil Empire. Needless to say, its depicted as a bad thing. One soldier who thinks only "pureblood" citizens should be in the military ends up being paying the price for his views when he's accused of being multiracial and is disgraced.

I suppose Gundam Seed does this too with its futuristic prejudice between standard humans and genetically engineered and enhanced ones (coordinators). The anti-bigotry statement is made very clear, as prejudice went beyond persecution into a war that escalated to the point where both sides were literally prepared to destroy the other.
 
In the Proud Family episode where Penny is assigned to live with an Indian family in the cultural exchange program, near the end Penny and the Indian family go to a resturant after fasting for Ramadan.

They run into Penny's family at the resturant, they have a good time together, and then they walk home together.

When they walk up to the Indian family's home, they see it's been vandalised and has the phrase "Go back to your country!" painted on it.
 
The anime, Eureka 7 deals with racism since Dewey's racist against the Coralians.

Also Elfen Lied, since the humans (well, I shouldn't say every human. Mostly military figures) are racist against the diclonius.
 
Plus there's that jab at real worlders for not making the same realization that made the episode.



That was in Legends where they met the Justice Guild. While the world was the early 2000s, they had a 1950s mentality.


Also, while X-Men used racism as a racial metaphor, the episode One Man's Worth has Bishop, Shard and an alternate reality Wolverine & Storm traveling to the 1950s to prevent the death of Xavier. While they're at a diner, the one of the employees notices and attacks them because of observing Wolverine and Storm showing affection (despite their race differences).
 
There's a very nice scene in the anime Black Lagoon where Dutch, an African-American, talks on the phone with an old Nazi SS officer. You can somewhat feel the sort of seething tension disguised as somewhat congenial conversation. That is until the SS Officer calls him something derogatory term in German about his colour, and laments extensively at it is a shame that Dutch is black. The officer finally ends it with a stated resolve to make sure he (and any remaining Nazis) exterminates Dutch and his kind from the Earth. Dutch then promptly destroys the phone.
 
Teen Titans "Troq" comes to mind. Seems everyone in the galaxy hate Starfire's race due to them being of the peaceful sort, and they have a slur for it, the afformention title. Also Cyborg saying him being discriminating agaisnt due to him being half robot is just covering up for the fact that he black.
 
Might I say, those aforementioned Static Shock and Teen Titans episodes were excellent. I still love that exchange in the TT episode:
"You're one of the few good ones. (everyone coldly stares at him) What? It's supposed to be a compliment."
"So why does it still feel like an insult?"
 
Of course, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids did a racially driven episode.

It was one of the later episodes, after Fat Albert and the gang were bused to an ethnically diverse school. Two students (on black, one white) were running against each other for student body president. Each of them tried to play the race card to persuade other students belonging to the same race to vote for him.
 
I always thought that episode managed to handle the subject a lot better than most childrens' cartoons.
I really love the fact that Val-Yor differs from the standard unlikeable jerky racist that normally serves as the antagonist. Before you realize that he's exremely prejudiced towards Tamaranians, he seems like a likeable stand up guy.
His animosity towards Star starts out subtle and slowly becomes more apparent as the episode goes on. He's a fairly realistic prejudiced character, IMO, especially towards the end when he calls Starfire "one of the good ones". It's also pretty noteworthy that he doesn't do a moral 180 and suddenly learn his lesson at the end and decide to be tolerant and wonderful, he's the same racist jerk he always was.


I'd not so much say it was covering up the black analogy, as it was more keeping in step with not directly reffering to actual, real-word racism. It's a lot less complicated that way. Still, it desn't take a genius to notice the analogy in that scene.

I really love the start of it as Cyborg cheerfully call her "Troq", thinking it's a term of enderment, not getting what it really means, not unlike how certain... other words are tossed around carelessly.
But that bit might just be me over anylizing
 
That ending was embarassing to watch. Seriously. It was tacked on, had nothing to no with the storyline at all, and was rediculously preachy. And I usually like badly done social commentary (because I'm a masochist), so that's saying something coming from me.

[nitpick]Also, they weren't Indian, they were just Muslim. Never mentioned their actual nationality[/nitpick]



Well yes, I'm aware of that. What I meant was I wasn't sure if what I read out of particular bit was intentional on the writers' part. (And if it was indeed intetional, major kudos to them.)
 
True, that was a really good episode, but they did cop out with Cyborg.

Exosquad: Great show that really dealt with the issue of prejudice. The Neosapien's desire to be treated as equals was understandable.

Gargoyles: Alot of fear and paranoia. All of the "Hunter's" stuff as well as the stuff with the Klan like Quarrymen in TGC.

American Dragon in a round about way with the Huntsman.

There was a really good episode of Buzz Lightyear written by Greg Weisman that dealt with Mira having an interacial (in the most literal sense) relationship.
 
Surprisingly, Mahou no Mako-chan had an episode that dealt with racist discrimination. Not something you'd expect from a 70's magical girl show. It also gave us some anime renditions on a few familiar faces.
 
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