"The portrayal of an Indian as being lazy and dumb and stupid is what it depicts," Ronald Rocha told a panel meeting at the Mission Trails Public Library last night. "A lazy, meaningless person."

Uhhhhh no. It's just a guy taking a nap. He could be on siesta. People are way too sensitive these days. Sports team with an Indian nickname? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! You said "Polack" instead of "Polish person"? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

Many of the WB cartoons were made in Mexico at the famous "Termite Terraces". This was an early example of out-sourcing--today the work is usually done in South Korea where there is a massive work-force with the skills and aptitudes required by the animation industry.

The voice of the Circus Bear, Bruno, which sounded Eastern European to me when I was younger, is based on one of the WB bosses, who was a Mexican.

It's not surprising that Mexicans love Speedy. He is a classic "culture hero", like Coyoté, Raven, Brer Rabbit, and so forth. He is the little guy who gets the better of the powers that be and who has the style and spunk to beard the lion while he protects the defenceless.

You may not recall, since it was common before many of you were born, but the biggest racial group that was lampooned in cartoons, commercials, movies, newspaper comics and advertising images was WHITE.

White people made fun of themselves in all forms of media. Some were famous for portraying 'cowardly' traits (Don Knotts -- even before Mayberry.) Foster Brooks -- who I doubt if any of you recall, was a comedienne -- White -- whose act was built around his acting drunk all of the time.

The Three Stooges were wildly successful in portraying characters that made Whites look incompetent, clumsy, cowardly, lazy and ignorant.

I recall funny charactures of Irishmen, Scotsmen, Englishmen and even Canadian that no one considered offensive.

For every single race that was lampooned in a negative way, White people had a hundred versions of themselves. From car dealers to bar keepers, from Cowboys to cops and even 'Joe average citizen'.

Yes, there have been and are stereotypical images used in a deliberately negative and racist way, usually by racist or political groups, but there's a big difference in how they are intended to promote a message.
I recall seeing WW2 portrayals of Jews from Germany and some propaganda mills in the US depicting them has horrible, ugly and sinister people. I also recall posters depicting the Japanese and Germans as subhuman killers.

Different meanings. Different situations.

None of those images would be placed on businesses today to draw in customers. However, a goofy looking cowboy or fat, greasy-looking truck driver would.

I recall diners displaying cartoons of big, greasy looking cooks, in soiled white aprons, stogie stuck in the corner of a wide mouth, two day stubble on their faces, arms hairy, wearing an old soiled white Navy cloth cap and sporting anchor tattoos.

I don't suppose anyone recalls the cook and owner of the restaurant in the old TV show 'Alice', where the main character was a single mom waitress? It was a comedy.

Times change. Entire generations mature and grow. People need to get over themselves and realize that not every unflattering characterization of any people of any race was always negative. Mostly, it was innocent humor and NOT designed to slander.

We have tons of advertisements from decades ago which today, while innocent enough in their creation, are considered in poor taste and no longer used. Especially those used to sell patent medicines. Some are very artistic and well done, but the actions they depicted are not appropriate for today -- but no one considers then racist.

There was a trend of taking pictures of deceased loved ones, usually posed with a family group, and especially children. That was not considered offensive. Just creepy.

Families used to have a lot of images of their very young kids nude taking baths or playing -- where today such images can get you considered as a sex offender. Such images were not considered offensive or sexual back then.

Anyone recall the newspaper cartoon, 'Snuffy Smith' which portrayed a back woods, WHITE family? It later led to the comic strip called 'Lil Abner' which later became a stage play and a series of animated cartoons.

Snuffy and his wife were not portrayed as folks you'd like as neighbors and they epitomized the worst of 'Hillbillies' -- but it was funny. It was a joke. Snuffy was drunk much of the time off moonshine, irritable, tended to shoot at folks with his old long rifle and get into fist fights.

The strip was NOT considered racist or offensive. Probably because the characters depicted were WHITE.
If you want to get real technical about it, 'Peanuts' the long running comic strip was offensive because Charlie Brown, no matter what he did, was bullied and ridiculed by his friends and even his dog.

Folks need to get over themselves.

The image portrayed in the article was taken from an actual practice in Mexico, where people, during the searing heat of the middle of the day took a 'siesta' because everyone found it too unpleasant to work through the nearly lethal noon period. The big, often colorful straw hats were a clever way to deal with the heat -- often better than the Cowboy hats, made of dense felt. White or unbleached clothing reflected the heat and it's looseness allowed ventilation to cool the body.

There are many times when folks should actually take pride in a lampoon of themselves.

Grow the f**k up!

Spiralmonkey: Tom_Slick: fireclown: While we have the hood up, is "tech support indian" offensive or not?

What about Convenience Store or Casino Indian?

I thought it was casino or call centre?


I thought it was dot or feather.

Would these be better?

Speaking as a Canadian, I certainly don't mind the stereotype of a plaid-wearing hoser with a beer in his hand, slow-witted, saying, "eh?" all the time.

But that's just me.

A pic of a sombrero wearing guy taking a nap in the middle of the day????


OOOOOOOOOhh, how offensive.