The only thing appropriate for kids in these old cartoons was the distracting music. After watching the old Betty Boop cartoon, I can see why it was banned from television. I’m not sure what year it was made, but really that should be no excuse. Even if the creators thought they were being ‘cute’ or ‘witty’ and trying to poke fun at stereotypes, these are the reasons why racism has lasted for too long. The cartoon’s host Betty Boop is a caricature version of a young, hip, Jewish women who exploits babies for their natural talents. Russian babies, Chinese babies, White babies, and Black babies, any baby goes. So when the Black babies come out on the stage, they are chained together and crying, and in order to stop their crying, they are given a watermelon. Then in the audience, a Black baby starts to cry and what does the mother give it, you guessed it, a watermelon. These stereotypes and caricatures were maybe meant to be funny, but really they are just reinforcing the fact that racism was popular. There is nothing funny about this, at all!
I sincerely hope that children were not allowed to watch these parades of indignity, but judging by how many people still have racist opinions, I’m sure they were.
The only love in this cartoon is the love for hatred and spreading racist views. John Leland says, “Without the Africans, there is no hip”(18), so why are African Americans viewed so negatively? If that is hip, then I don’t want to ever be hip. There is just something so disturbing about this cartoon and I’m not sure if it’s the weird babies, the racism, or the fact that Betty Boop doesn’t have a neck? Either way, at least someone had enough sense to ban the horrific nightmare that should have remained a delusion in someone’s head.
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