 Slowpoke Rodriguez Tags: media, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, internalized racism, socialization, stereotypes, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2010 Length: 2:30 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip features ten excerpts from late 20th century cartoons, which have been sharply criticized for their illustration of ethnic and racist stereotypes. The stereotypes on display include the scheming, buck-toothed Chinaman, the Jazz loving Black entertainer, a disruptive Black child who is easily appeased with watermelon, the gun-wielding but perpetually lazy Slowpoke Rodriguez, and the Black mammy who has trouble spelling the word "out." What is striking is how blatantly racist these scenes are in a medium which is primarily enjoyed by children. The depiction of Blacks as slaves, presumably for humorous effect, is particularly appalling in an excerpt from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Students can be reminded that stereotypes are unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences. Because stereotypes work to reduce complex people and groups into caricatures, and in this way confound understanding, they are perhaps always harmful. However, one could argue that they become truly racist when they promote ideas about people along racial lines and particularly when those ideas can be easily arranged in a hierarchical order. Slowpoke Rodriguez's laziness and inclination toward violence, then, reaffirms a negative stereotype about Latinos, but it is also one that works in tandem with ideas about whites as inherently non-lazy and non-violent. The clip might also lead to a useful discussion about the idea of internalized racism, or the idea that stereotypes are one way in which members of minority groups subconsciously come to incorporate negative ideas into their own racial identities. Submitted By: Lauren McLendon and Lester Andrist
9 Comments
Margaret Austin Smith
6/9/2014 09:09:33 pm
Thanks for this!! This clip is great and works well for a variety of course levels. Because these scenes are taken from cartoons from the 1950s to the present, the clip works to illustrate both the cultural studies concepts of representation and stereotype (and representation as a practice of asserting power over those represented) as well as Omi and Winant's concept of racial formation. The racism of the 1950s cartoons is particularly overt, and students can see here the ways that racism becomes encoded in particular representations in decades following the Civil Rights movement and in the decades of political backlash against gains made through the Civil Rights movement. Potential questions for class discussion include: 1) Who made these images (likely NOT people who identify as members of the groups being represented)? 2) If the image-makers/cartoonists/producers are not members of that group, what kinds of relationships and interactions do they have with the group being represented? 3) How do social structures (like schools, governments, media) shape those relationships and interactions?
Slowpoke Rodriguez
12/17/2014 12:49:44 pm
I'll speak solely about Slowpoke. He is slow because he is a pothead, and references are made in the show to this by him singing "La Cucaracha." They also refer to him as being intelligent, but physically slow (because he is a pothead). I am a Latino, my family all grew up watching this show and no one thought it was negative, in fact, they found it hilarious. How about instead of trying to be a warrior defending "minority" groups over every incident, you focus your energy on issues that tangibly affect the lives of us and others on a daily basis. A stereotype on TV has zero impact on us, especially if it is in good humor, being locked up in prison for non-violent crimes and being blacklisted for life does. Please stop taking on this patronizing persona as if we cannot defend ourselves, please stop saying your opinion as if you represent us (both of you, like the creator of the show, are not one of us), all you make us look like is a group of people who can't take a joke. These cartoons are from 1959, times were different, in fact we should be impressed at the progress that has been made in Television since that time, and that progress will only continue. So again, please stop with your patronizing, that in itself is racist as you believe that we are unable to come up with our own opinions and defend ourselves. Don't kid yourselves, liberals can be just as racist as conservatives, they just hide behind a veil of false benevolence. No different from those slave owners who believed slaves could not care for themselves.
L
11/10/2017 05:21:11 am
Preach!
Henry Kobasky
3/16/2021 04:10:46 pm
Very well said! Thank you. 5/8/2019 07:38:52 am
You really should show the cartoons you're talking about, because without examples, there's no way for people to really understand what you're saying.
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xXx
1/18/2024 05:24:10 pm
Look at this SJW, when they don't eat they're protesting. Bringing America to shit. Should wipe them soon.
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