Shows that are racist/homophobic that should never be seen again

[bb]

Last night a group of us was watching video tapes. One of them was a Blondie-Dagwood movie from the 40s that I had taped off AMC years ago. In the movie the Bumsteads went and stayed at a haunted house. One scene featured a Black man. Talking in broken English and such the movie made him looked well stupid. My girlfriend tells me that in another Blondie movie Dagwood is seen telling Baby Dumpling , after he asked a Black man a question"...stay away from that person, his kind knows nothing". I myself never saw that scene.

A friend of mine( who is white) was very offended at this and told me that movies like Blondie, Little Rascals, Three Stooges, and many 50s sitcoms should NOT be seen on tv because they protray Blacks as being stupid. How do you feel about this? Should these shows be banned from tv?

Same thing with homosexuals, I remember reading somewhere that some pro-gay rights group got Cartoon Network to take off the 70s cartoon show Wait til Your Father gets home because some shows featured rather cruel
gay jokes.

Same thing with Eddie Murphy's 1983 HBO special, cracking jokes about AIDS and such.

[PPatters]

These are historical and should be appreciated for their historical value, not for their barbaric views. If we did this, then we wouldn't have an All in the Family anymore, because it surely would be off the air.

[ThomasE]

Well All in the Family was a show that made fun of racial stereotypes.

[TV Guy]

I agree with you, PPatters. As much as I dislike intolerance, I dislike censorship even more. People need to understand that some of these shows were a product of their time.

[cp]

All in the Family showed how stupid prejudice was.

[PPatters]

But it was very prejudice, even if it, in it's own small way, sort of made fun of how dumb prejudism is, some of it was very prejudice, and serious prejudice and funny prejudice aren't all that different, except one of 'em can make people even MORE mad. (I'm sure that all black people responded greatly to how AITF made fun of a very real, very devastating subject like prejudice against black people.)

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by PPatters:
These are historical and should be appreciated for their historical value, not for their barbaric views. If we did this, then we wouldn't have an All in the Family anymore, because it surely would be off the air.

I can understand your concern bb, and I think your intentions are good, but I feel that PPatters makes an excellent point.

Also, we need to be very careful about censorship - you can start out by banning the very obvious shows and movies, such as "Amos and Andy", but from there, we could start down a slippery slope where you can find something in just about every show that offends somebody, somewhere. For example, should we ban "I Love Lucy" because Lucy often makes fun of Desi's accent? What about "The Honeymooners? After all, Ralph often waves his fist in the air, and threatens to send Alice "to the Moon!" - that's promoting wife beating! (even though we all know that Ralph would never lay a finger on her!).

I think something more dangerous than the unfair sterotypes seen in old movies and TV shows is the "thought control" that would be imposed on all of us if the "Politically Correct" crowd had their way. (I'm not referring to you, bb, with that statement!)

By the way, I had to chuckle when someone else mentioned "The Three Stooges" as one of the programs where Black actors were not shown in a favorable way. That may be true, but if you think about it, Moe, Larry, and Curly don't exactly present a very flattering portrayal of White people! I think we need to lighten up a bit, and not go out of our way to look for these kinds of issues!

[Sean Snow]

I have to disagree here. Not just for these shows, but also "Amos 'n Andy". Now, most of us haven't seen this show, so you can't really judge it. Remember, this was the 60s, and a lot of people were cleaning up their images. And the reasons that it's not shown is in "Gone With the Wind"-but that was on Turner South last week! They were just trying to get laughs. Then "I Love Lucy" was also racist, it portrayed redheads as silly people who make up silly schemes. And "Three's Company" since it presents a view that some blondes object to. You'd pretty much have every show banised in the end, even "The Brady Bunch"-since it portrayed families that is pretty much to high a standard for most families to live up to!

[cp]

Im also a big fan of the Jeffersons and found it to be a very funny show and i am white. George often used the word "Honkie".
George was like Archie from a black point of view and i still love both George and Archie. Hasent offended me.

[dawsongirl]

Originally posted by Jimbo:
should we ban "I Love Lucy" because Lucy often makes fun of Desi's accent?

Do you guys realize that only Lucy (his wife that supposedly loved him) was allowed to make fun of Desi's accent? No one else. So in their own little way, they were fighting prejudice within.

[Jimbo]

Dawsongirl: I did not Know that! Thanks for the information. That's one of the things I enjoy about this site - you can learn all kinds of things!

(Say "Hello" to Tod and Buz for me!)

[dawsongirl]

You're welcome. And I'll tell the guys Jimbo says HI!

[Robert Tilton]

Hey to Jimmy.

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