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Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?

radcen

radcen

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Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_Gonzales

Concern about stereotypes

Feeling that the character presented an offensive Mexican stereotype, Cartoon Network shelved Speedy's films when it gained exclusive rights to broadcast them in 1999 (As a subsidiary of Time Warner, Cartoon Network is a corporate sibling to Warner Bros.). In an interview with Fox News on March 28, 2002, Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg commented, "It hasn't been on the air for years because of its ethnic stereotypes."[5]

Despite such controversy over potentially offensive characterizations, Speedy Gonzales remained a popular character in Latin America.[5] The Hispanic-American rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens called Speedy a "cultural icon", and thousands of users registered their support of the character on the hispaniconline.com message boards. Fan campaigns to put Speedy back on the air resulted in the return of the animated shorts to Cartoon Network in 2002.[6]

On the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD box sets, the Speedy cartoons are prefaced by a disclaimer[citation needed] that states:

The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were false then and are still false today. While the following does not represent the WB view of society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as to claim these prejudices never existed.
Click to expand...
Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always and without exception the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...

I remember Speedy Gonzales. I liked that cartoon. Speedy himself was hardly a stereotype because the actual stereotype was lazy, loafing, and slow. Of course, there was always this fat mouse character who talked really slow and whiny, and there were often pictures of mice taking siestas... Still, I am not surprised that Latinos find nothing offensive about it. Speedy was a hero.
 
I was more offended by Slowpoke Rodriguez. :mrgreen:
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...





Speedy Gonzales, he is my hero.


 
No, but his brother Flojo Gonzales was.
 
Then there's Elmer Fudd who represents the dumbass country bumpkin.
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...

lol

They have that same disclaimer on the old Batman cartoons.

What it really is: corporate paranoia.
 
How can Speedy be ethically insensitive when he made every character who chased him was made to look stupid and incapable? I mean Sylvester never got the better of Speedy and for that matter, even Slowpoke Rodriguez while being slow and often caught was always either rescued or outsmarted his foes too. If anything, Porky, Elmer, the Coyote, Sam and let's not forget the 30's mobsters and 40's monsters always were characterized as mentally slow, short sighted, incapable and downright dopey.
 
Great, more PC run amok...
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...

Oh for ****S SAKE.

Do you know how POPULAR SPEEDY is in South America?

I'm so ****ing sick of people getting butt hurt for the dumbest ****ing reasons. Don't like it, DON'T ****ING WATCH IT.
 
Some people go out of their way to be offended.
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...

Just as ethnically challenged persons sitting on a fence may no longer be sung of I am afraid Speedy must go.
 
You know what people are missing, don't you?

he is actually a thief, and thinks it's okay to steal from hard working honest people.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
lol

They have that same disclaimer on the old Batman cartoons.

What it really is: corporate paranoia.
Click to expand...
Do they really? :lol:

I was aware that Speedy Gonzales had been "banned", but was unaware that they let him back in until I did the research for this thread.
 
Ockham said:
How can Speedy be ethically insensitive when he made every character who chased him was made to look stupid and incapable? I mean Sylvester never got the better of Speedy and for that matter, even Slowpoke Rodriguez while being slow and often caught was always either rescued or outsmarted his foes too. If anything, Porky, Elmer, the Coyote, Sam and let's not forget the 30's mobsters and 40's monsters always were characterized as mentally slow, short sighted, incapable and downright dopey.
Click to expand...
Precisely. Speedy was, by far, the most intelligent one on the screen.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
lol

They have that same disclaimer on the old Batman cartoons.

What it really is: corporate paranoia.
Click to expand...

What it really is is lawyers keeping the fees coming in.
 
radcen said:
Is Speedy Gonzales ethnically insensitive?


Seems the only people who were offended were white Americans. Latin Americans seemed to like it. The League of United Latin American Citizens seems to like it.

One aspect that I have always noticed, yet never seen anyone else note, was that Speedy Gonzales was always the smartest and most intelligent character in the cartoon. He defeated his foes as much with his brains as he did with his speed. But I guess that isn't a Hispanic stereotype. :roll:

Bonus question: Is the disclaimer in the DVD box set necessary?
Click to expand...

I would have to be hispanic to know for sure whether it's insensitive or promotes a negative stereotype. I'm not hispanic, so whatever hispanics think, I'll go along with that.
 
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