The Censored Eleven

Ever heard of the Censored Eleven? In 1968 United Artists witheld a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from syndadicataion because of their racist nature. The toons make use of blackface(exaggerated likenesses of black people thaat in my opinion look like dogs) caricture and ridicule the religious practices of black people. In "Sunday go to Meetin Time" several characters that stereotype and mock the black community are seen for example, a woman stealing a bra to use as a bonnet for her twins, a mammi shining her two pickanniny children's heads etc. There are several other cartoons that were removed from circulation but have not been added to list. They include cartoons about the Japanese during the world war two era and Native Amercians with targets painted on their backs.

Some of this type of animation is released for public veiwing through editing of certain words and acts that point directly to racism but innuendos remain and those that are 'clean' may be viewed on television by anyone.

With these cartoons removed from circulationn, it seems that there are no problems. This is not so. The companies that originally own these cartoons kept the leash on them tight but after many years of passing over hands and eventually landing in the hands of Turner Broadcasting, the grip weakened and many of these films can be bought on hhome video and seen on tv or video searchies. Some have been named the greatest cartoons of all time. With a label like that, how can you keep it from the people? Do you beleive that at the time these cartoons were drawn they were meant to be seen as such? Do you think that those of us who watch these now have the same thoughts about how discriminatory these films are?


The cartoons in the Censored Eleven are:
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931, directed by Rudolph Ising)
Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (1936, directed by Friz Freleng)
Clean Pastures (1937, directed by Freleng)
Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937, directed by Tex Avery)
Jungle Jitters (1938, directed by Freleng)
The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938, directed by Avery)
All This and Rabbit Stew (1941, directed by Avery)
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943, directed by Robert Clampett)
Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943, directed by Clampett)
Angel Puss (1944, directed by Chuck Jones)
Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (1944, directed by Freleng)


Info. from Wikipedia.
Try a google video search. see for yourself. Are they racist? Should they be even be releases on private home videos? Was Turner Broadcasting wrong for releasing these videos to tv?