Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Come On, Are Racist Cartoons REALLY Racist?


Inexplicably there are people out there that actually believe that these cartoons are racist. Say what?

Sure, your eye is immediately drawn to the centre of the picture where an overweight man with exaggerated Polynesian features (with his cap turned backwards, the international symbol for low-class degenerates, I've seen Police 10-7), crows about getting handouts (taxpayer handouts!) so he can spend extra money on lotto, booze, smokes and rabid attack dogs, BUT if you stare really closely, and take the time, you can definitely make out some possible gingers (probably the drunken Irish) and they're kind of white, meaning this could not POSSIBLY be racist.

There is also a couple of slim people depicted off to the side, so not size-ist, and it couldn't possible be class-ist because that dog looks like it could be a pure breed. Is inferring that people who find themselves needing help do so because they're low-life shitty parents and we should be repulsed by them really such a bad thing?

So there. Context people, you can't take something as just stand-alone.

Plus it adds to the rich cartoon history of 'telling it like it is':

I mean really, this just depicts a woman surrounded by children watching her bake. Obviously not racist and targeting marginalised people by depicting them in a dehumanising way in an effort to reaffirm stereotypes and repulse the viewer. And obviously not a practice that happened today in modern day New Zealand, 2013, no apology given.

No comments: