Communications and Media

Cinema has always played a crucial role in defining the social standards and charting out new courses. Animated cinema, especially cartoons, played an even bigger role during the 1930s and 1940s in establishing the racial stereotypes in children and adults. Stereotypes and racism embedded into cartoon shows explicitly  and implicitly  affect a childs mentality and instills the negative or positive attitudes about the broader segments of society and different lingual, ethnic and racial groups. American cartoon films before, during and after the Second World War are perfect examples of racial and ethnic stereotyping with visible hints of white supremacy. These films, banned by TV channels and cinemas, should remain so as Americans cannot afford any rekindling of racial hatred.

Television has played an important role in demolishing racial and ethnic stereotypes but the initial years of TV were not free from racial prejudice. Earlier, it was films, both animated and real, that exploited racial stereotypes to their fullest. Cartoon shows, however, had the opportunity to take a new course of racial integration but they followed the strategy of their real world counterparts. Racial stereotypes and offensive storylines were common before the Second World War. They reached their peak during the WWII with racial epithets hurled towards the Japanese and Germans. Blacks remained the butt of jokes even after the WWII and it was only in the late 1950s and early 1960s that animators stopped playing with racial stereotypes. United Artists, being the copyright holder of Warner Brothers cartoon films at the time, censored the most racially offensive cartoon films in 1968.
These cartoon films remain banned to this day with Cartoon Network, other outlets refusing to broadcast these animation films even after the copyrights went back to Warner Brothers, and there are no legal restrictions on re-broadcasting.

Racial undertones in cartoon movies date back to late 1930s when cartoons literally took over American cinemas, giving tough time to the best flicks of that era. Jungle Jitters, part of the Merrie Melodies series of Warner Brothers, was released in theatres in 1938 and comprised of a single-reel film. The cartoon movie depicted an African village with natives going about their daily tasks. The movie intertwined village life with the modern world with the same villagers enjoying merry-go-round.
The very opening of the movie scene is derogatory and is a clear example of outward racial stereotypes. Black-faced characters  with nothing but leaves tied around their private parts and ethnic jewelry  beat drums and dance around their tents. A woman is wearing a tight necklace around her neck and she is skipping with the rope placed on her big pouted lips. The movie shows good maneuvering and skipping exercise but the racial stereotype is very much present and paints a derogatory picture of Africans (CommTen, n.d.).
The cartoon film proceeds to introduce other stereotypes that correlate African villagers, stereotypically shown as savages, with the modern African Americans, the movie paints both with the same brush, with a message that Blacks are uncouth savages that should remain subservient to whites. In further elaboration of the racial stereotypes, the movie shows a white woman as the queen of the village. She is the one that saves a traveling salesman from the savages as they were planning to cook him in a large cauldron. The movie implies that whites are morally and racially superior and thus are best suited to rule the world.
Another example of racial epithet is Hiawathas Rabbit Hunt where Bugs Bunny beats and humiliates a dwarf-like Native American  based on tribal leader Hiawatha  who was out to make a stew out of Bugs Bunny. The cartoon film, which was part of Merrie Melodies series of Warner Brothers and was released in 1941, depicts Bugs Bunny, which was widely presumed as animated incarnation of an All American white male, as the clever among the two that ultimately forces the Native American to abandon his plan and run away.
Tokio Jokio, a 1943 release when the WWII was at its peak, is an excellent example of war propaganda. The film depicts the Japanese as cowards, ignorant and mentally retarded. Two Japanese men that prick needles into each others butts operate the civil defense siren system in Tokyo and the loudspeakers amplify the resultant shrieks as attack sirens.
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943) takes racism to another level. The cartoon short took enormous creative liberties and transformed the traditional Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story into an African American social drama during the WWII. The wicked queen of the original story is a food hoarder in the African American edition who is out to make great profits during the tumultuous time. Her daughter is an archetypal Black dame that does all the household chores and laundry. While her mother summons a prince charming through her magic mirror, expecting to ask for her own hand, the prince, however, falls in love with her daughter.
Infuriated, the queen summons Murder Inc. service that offers its services for 1, and free murder for the Japanese. The animation film does not paint every African American as criminal as the dwarfs are patriots with enough patriotic imagery and flags to boost public moral during the wartime. Nevertheless, the main premise of the movie contains strong racial undertones that do not auger well with the African American sentimentality.
The self-imposed ban of TV channels and movie theatres is a commendable effort given the racial sensitivities. It is the moral duty of broadcasters and film studios to abstain from exposing modern audiences to old stereotypes of race and ethnicity because it can corrupt their minds. Children are especially at risk and it is a better idea to ban a racially controversial animation or film rather than inculcating old-fashioned racial stereotypes into the minds of unsuspecting public.
Chaos and racial clash will follow in case of rebroadcast of the Censored Eleven cartoon films. Editing is not an option given the strong racism prevalent in the plot and editors will have to reduce films to a few seconds if they cut all racial innuendos. United States still has issues with race relations but public activism and civil rights have advanced to a degree where no one can publish or broadcast any overtly offensive material. These safeguards protect the physical, mental and emotional rights of every race, religion and ethnicity and thus the Censored Eleven cartoons should remain banned for eternity.