NYT: Speedy Gonzales Is 'Racist,' Pepe Le Pew Contributes to 'Rape Culture'
New York Times calls to cancel classic cartoon characters
© press
Left-wing newspaper the New York Times has suggested that popular cartoon characters Speedy Gonzales and Pepé Le Pew should be canceled because they symbolize "racism" and "rape culture."
Columnist Charles Blow made the suggestions after praising the removal of several Dr. Seuss books from circulation due to "racist undertones."
Blow argued:
“Racism must be exorcised from culture, including, or maybe especially, from children’s culture.”
He wrote:
As a child, I was led to believe that Blackness was inferior. And I was not alone.
The Black society into which I was born was riddled with these beliefs.
It wasn’t something that most if any would articulate in that way, let alone knowingly propagate.
Rather, it was in the air, in the culture. We had been trained in it, bathed in it, acculturated to hate ourselves.
It happened for children in the most inconspicuous of ways: It was relayed through toys and dolls, cartoons and children’s shows, fairy tales, and children’s books.
Some of the first cartoons I can remember included Pepé Le Pew, who normalized rape culture; Speedy Gonzales, whose friends helped popularize the corrosive stereotype of the drunk and lethargic Mexicans; and Mammy Two Shoes, a heavyset Black maid who spoke in a heavy accent.
© press
Blow defended his calls to cancel the cartoon characters on Twitter:
“Pepé Le Pew is the butt of all the jokes, who always, always, always loses in the end — usually violently at the hands of his so-called victim.”
This helped teach boys that “no” didn’t really mean no, that it was a part of “the game”, the starting line of a power struggle. It taught overcoming a woman’s strenuous, even physical objections, was normal, adorable, funny. They didn’t even give the woman the ability to SPEAK.
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) March 6, 2021
But there was push back, however.
© press
One Twitter user pointed out why he was ingoring rap music's misogyny and focusing on an old cartoon:
"What about so many songs out there, especially rap music?
"I don't think kids are going to take a cartoon seriously, but some see themselves in songs."
What about so many songs out there especially rap music? I don't think kids are going to take a cartoon seriously but some see themselves in songs.
— Diane (@SoCalValleyGal) March 6, 2021
Another wrote:
"It's a cartoon!!! You wanna pick on something...pick on Grand Theft Auto!!!"
It's a cartoon!!!
— witchywoman (@MermaidMaggie) March 7, 2021
You wanna pick on something...pick on Grand Theft Auto!!!
The news comes just over a week after the left-wing educators group, Learning for Justice, called for Dr. Seuss to be canceled.
A prominent Virginia school district caved to their liberal demands and ordered its schools to avoid “connecting Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss.”
The school district said that Dr. Suess’s children’s books contain “racial undertones” and are not suitable for “culturally responsive” learning.
The school's announcement said:
“Realizing that many schools continue to celebrate ‘Read Across America Day’ in partial recognition of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, it is important for us to be cognizant of research that may challenge our practice in this regard."
