Was there any racism in GA ads?

[malaprop]

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc164/nanapong1/img110.jpg

This is from Super #25, May 1940. Check out the top of the RH column of fireworks.

[capt.steel]

Someone needs to alert kwm333!

[malaprop]

I'm sure he would first find it sad, then eventually it would make him physically ill.

[spacecitycomics]

That particular item was sold well into the late 1960's.
In of all places that bastion of liberal thinking, eastern Ohio.
When I was a young boy, being born in Texas, I was told that
all of the south was biggotted, inbred, and backwards. Pretty
much the carpet bag mentality holding on even after 100 years.
In Ohio, especially among what I viewed as the upper crust ,
there was actually more bigotry than when we moved back to
Texas.

[pasnat54]

Wow. It's really a different world today than it was then.

Anyone remember the controversy when Warren started reprinting The Spirit in magazine format? A lot of people strongly objected to the depiction of Ebony White, his sidekick, who devolved from a cab driver to a young kid.

I recall reading letters from African-Americans on both sides of the issue, some saying they shouldn't reprint those racist characterizations, others saying that while the racism marred the strip, the Spirit itself was a classic and deserved to be presented to a new audience.

My feeling was that they should go ahead and print them, and explain that this is simply how blacks were depicted back then. Unfair to be sure, but what Eisner did was not out of tune for the attitudes of his time, as anyone who has watched old movies from that time period can attest. In fact, Ebony was treated with more genuine affection and care than his contemporaries, who were mostly there for comedy relief, lightening the moment by watching them shuffle or run away from the creepy old house the minute the door opens by itself. (Bill Cosby did a great routine about that.)

It's weird to look back.

[malaprop]

I've always found it strange that E-bay ads will gleefully point out instances of racism in the comics they auction, as if that's a badge of honor that makes it worth more. Shouldn't they be saying this is still a worthwhile comic, in spite of the racist attitudes it reflects?

[Quato]

Racism is an an attitude and a bias. It is not a word. 50 years ago, people used that word without hostility just as much as it was used with hostility. You can't take today's connotations and place them on an ad 50 years ago.

Q

[nocutename]

In the 80's they were still calling those bottle cap rockets the same thing. I personally never liked the name. When I lived in the Bronx you would not hear that word but up in Westchester county yes. Now not so much. But it was like night and day for me when I first moved.

[malaprop]

I guess I was mostly shocked because I never heard that expression before. But in Wilmington Delaware as a kid they had licorice candies at the corner store called (blank) babies.

[toz1960]

Down south creme drops were called_____ toes.Strange!!!

[capt.steel]

This reminds me of a debate I was having recently with a friend.

We were discussing the "Our Gang" / "Little Rascals" comedies (and the whole rumor that Bill Cosby bought most of them because he didn't agree with the way blacks were portrayed in them. I still don't know if that's true.)

Anyway, I felt those films were anything BUT racist!
They depicted white kids and black kids all playing & hanging out together (which probably was not the case in reality).
Characters like Stymie emerged as leaders - there was no discrimination shown in those films - the children were all treated as equals.
The black kids and white kids all went to school together and shared the same classroom - there was no segregation shown.

People argue that Buckwheat couldn't annunciate, but neither could his best friend Porky (a white kid). And in most instances Buckwheat was shown to be far wiser in the end than most of the other kids.

These comedies depicted a racial utopia of friendship and social equality - they were way ahead of their time.

[pasnat54]

When you view Little Rascals in context of its time, I think the issue of whether it's racist or not becomes almost moot.

On the one hand, I seriously doubt the producers of that program had any serious intent to denigrate blacks. As unnerving as it is to us today, the fact is that is how blacks were depicted back in the 1930s.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure blacks were included for their comedic value... to be laughed at, not with. That the black characters evolved beyond their stereotypes, and if the show presaged racial harmony in any way, those were probably unintended consequences, though certainly positive.

You just don't notice this type of thing when it's the norm; I used to love Zorro, but looking back, maybe Sgt. Garcia was a racist caricature of a lazy Mexican who'd rather eat and sleep than work. But it didn't bother me then, and it doesn't bother me now.

Times change. If W.E.B. Dubois were around today, would he name his organization The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?

[capt.steel]

I don't disagree with you, pasnat.

It's just funny how people can view things in opposite ways; (some people see "Our Gang" as racist and I see it as a proclamation for civil rights long before the movement came to the forefront).

It may be true that black kids were included to be laughed at, but it went both ways - the white kids were to be laughed at as well - they engaged in antics that were just as stupid, they were just as inarticulate, etc.
The producers didn't seem to discriminate as to who was to "play the fool". (If they were biased against blacks, one could make the arguement that they were biased against fat kids, poor kids, kids with infirmities, kids with speech impediments, lower-class whites, people rendered moneyless by the depression, girls, women, cops, etc.)

Those films went out of their way to include blacks and portay them as equal members of a social microcosm at a time when it was unfashionable to do so.
Why would the producers team Buckwheat up with a white kid who was obviously his mental inferior? Why would the gang even include black members when that was unheard of in adult society at that time?

If anything, I say those films were anti-racist and cultivated a spirit of brotherhood in defiance of the reigning cultural norms.

[Quato]

Comedy always depicts anyone different as a joke. They made fun of Ricky Ricardo on "I love Lucy". Fez on "That 70's Show". I don't really find it funny, but mocking what's different is part of life. So it is for people that had mullets or or old women that wear leopard pattern leotards for pants. The "n" word was part of culture back then. If there was no hatred behind it from a certain segment of people, no one would care about that word today. I work with people from all over the world. I'm always amazed when someone dislikes a person because of their accent or the color of their skin. It's absurd. Not one person chooses what color their skin will be when they pop out of the womb or what accent they will have after they do. At least get to know someone before you hate them, and don't make it because of a word... a noun.

Q