OH NO! CENSURED MEDIA!

Here in the US, we're supposed to have freedom of the press and all of that -- you know, censorship is supposed to be a big no-no here.

This having been said, some of we the people of the land of the supposedly free and the home of the allegedly brave gone against our US Constitution and have banned some media -- books, films, etc - much to the chagrin of those of us who wish to protect our Constitution and our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

The twist is that some of this banned media has been preserved by the Library of Congress, apparently for it's historical value, and some of those preserved works have been uploaded to YouTube and Google.

I have decided to show some of these banned cartoons on the cinema site's media pages on a page called "censured cartoons".

Some of these cartoons are being called racist because of their depiction of blacks, indians, and japanese. Some are just plain "politically incorrect". I, personally, do not understand the where the alleged racism occurs in these cartoons, although one of them shows some black people being lazy. I still don't see what's wrong with that, there are cartoons that do the same with white people, too, and don't we all have our moments of laziness? (I'm actually having one right now. I spent all morning lazing out on my sofa eating fresh blueberry muffins, and the only reason I'm sitting at my computer at this very moment is that I've had to force myself to get up and go push a few buttons to upload this week's additions to this site. What does that say about the rest of us American(ized) Irish-folk, then? Are we all lazy, loafing blueberry muffin eaters? I can only speak for myself, and yes, I am, thank you. lol!)

I don't know how our UK visitors will feel about the showing of Popeye The Sailor's "Spinach Fer Britain". I can only imagine how the Japanese might feel when seeing "Tokio Jokio", but keeping in mind that this was made during a time when the Japanese were enemies to the US (having bombed one of our Air Stations, killing several hundred of our soldiers in the early 1940's), it's understandible to see why, at the time, the US would make fun of them. There was just as much anti American sentiment in Japan during that time period, so I suppose we're even on that scale.

The Germans may take exception to the anti-Nazi cartoons, because at the time these were made, Germany was under Nazi rule. Ironically, the Nazi party, as seen by the US, feels that the anglo is the superior race, so this in itself is racist. To consider anti-nazi cartoons as "racist" escapes my full understanding, although I speculate that perhaps it's because people equated Germans with Nazi's. In this day and age, I think it's safe to say that we aren't doing that anymore.

We've come a long way in our ability to see and understand differences and societal changes, and I hope that as viewers see these cartoons, they realize that they are only cartoons. I can't see them having been meant at the time of their creation to be hurtful or spiteful, but I could be wrong about that, I suppose.

At any rate, the cartoons are not meant to offend anyone, and are being shown for their historical value. We apologize if anyone is offended by any of these cartoons; and your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

-- Lexi
Classic Cinema Online