Communications and Media

Early this year, China banned James Camerons blockbuster animated film Avatar.  Western media outlets condemned China for favoring the movie Confucius over the Golden-Globe winner.  But a film that seems to mimic Adolf Hitlers bisexual fantasy and obsession for the supremacy of the Aryan or Indian race seems to be enough to ban it.  Similar animated films were created during World War II that depicted certain stereotypes.  Some people think that they are all harmless.  But subconsciously, they devour childrens minds and teach them negative stereotyping.  Therefore, films should be changed or banned if it exposes modern audiences to old stereotypes because it is harmful to society.

Warner Brothers produced numerous racist films during World War II that portray negative stereotypes.  In 1943, Warner Brothers Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs parodied Walt Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It depicts a young coal black girl whose name is So White, searching for Prince Chawmin.  Shes up against an evil black queen who hires the services of Murder, Inc. which exterminates midgets for half the price and Japs for free.  But she meets seven black midget soldiers from the army who save her from the queens poisoned apple using a military secret after Prince Chawmin failed to revive her with a kiss.

But they are not the only ones depicted as freak fighters.  Hiawathas Rabbit Hunt (1941) portrays a Native American or American Indian as an evil dumb hunter.  Bugs Bunny parodies his dance steps and ridicules his intelligence, eventually escaping from him.  At the end of the day, he paddles into the sunset empty-handed while Bugs imitates his accent and traditional stories.  But he suddenly returns to shore and gives Bugs a gay kiss.

Warner Brothers Jungle Jitters (1938) also depicts African natives like circus performers or carnival clowns and freaks.  They rob a Western door-to-door salesman and attempt to cannibalize him for lunch.  But he is saved by the natives queen, an old white woman desperate for a husband.  After she forces marriage on him, he quickly runs away and jumps into the natives cauldron, preferring to be cannibalized than to be married to what seems to be an environmentalist.
            
Warner Brothers Tokio Jokio (1943) also portrays the Japanese as military freaks and clowns.  Japanese news announces new technologies first, a new air raid siren, which is actually two spectacled and buck-toothed men kicking or pushing each others buttocks to mimic an air raid siren.  Then, their listening post is another buck-toothed man listening to several key holes on a post.  Their aircraft spotter is actually a man who paints leopard-like spots on their planes.  And their Fire Prevention Headquarters are burned to the ground.  An incendiary bomb, which is not supposed to kill someone, blows up a Japanese man.  It also makes fun of Japanese cooking, fashion and sports.

Admiral Yamamoto is also shown in stilts due to his shortness.    It also shows some foreign news from Germany.  Adolf Hitler is shown receiving a postcard from Rudolf Hess in a prison camp, wishing he were there.  And from Italy, Roman ruins depict a ruined Italian military officer, perhaps Mussolini.  Going back to the Japanese navy, a submarine under construction prematurely runs under the sea and crashes.  Then, a plane is launched from an aircraft carrier using a wooden sling shot.  A planes landing gear shows a man on a bicycle, and the aircraft carrier is shown in ruins.  The navy mine sweeper is then depicted with a mechanical hand and broom sweeping mines that finally explode on it.

If children watch these cartoons, they will learn to be racists.  They will think that all blacks, Native Americans or Asians are that way.  Childrens brains absorb information like sponges and unlike adults, they cannot truly distinguish yet which information to accept or reject.  This mind set will continue even when they become adults, and it will be difficult to remove or fix later.

Unfortunately, even today, similar films are still being shown.  Some of Cartoon Networks animations actually show the Chinese as evil tyrants who want to dominate the whole world.  And lately, the movie Avatar depicts Asian Indians symbolically through their blue mother goddess Kali.  They are shown to be helpless until a white soldier transforms himself like a transsexual into their kind and attempts to save them by killing other whites.  Some internet blogs (St.Michael, 2010) describe Avatar, derived from the Indian word avatara, as a depiction of Hitlers bisexual fantasy.  Some historians like Lothar Machtan describe him as a repressed homosexual.  He narrates this in his book Hitlers Secret The Double Life of a Dictator.  Hitler also hailed the supremacy of the Aryan race (the Indian word for noble or spiritual) and used the Indian female swastika as the official emblem of the Nazi party.  (Camerons movie calls the blue Kali-like creatures as Navi like Nazi.)  And after sending a Nazi team to Tibet to discover their Aryan roots, his Nazis go back to Europe and destroy their fellow white Europeans.  Hitlers story seems to be very similar to Camerons Avatar, and China banned it in favor of the movie Confucius, which teaches good morals and right conduct to the Chinese people.  Later, CNN reported that Avatar causes depression and suicidal thoughts.  This is probably one of the reasons why it didnt win anything except for the technical awards in the Oscars.  The judges probably saw more than what ordinary folks or the Golden Globe saw.

In the end, the government should create media laws to protect the people from harmful films.  While Chinas actions may be viewed by some as censorship, it is actually sensible.