# Holy crud! Racist Tom and Jerry episode on Cartoon Network Japan **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370 "2018-12-19T15:06:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/1 "2018-12-19T15:06:29Z")
I just came home a few hours ago to find my kid watching an old Tom and Jerry episode on Cartoon Network. Tom has Jerry and Tuffy trapped in a closet. How will they get past him!? Then, Jerry finds a tin of boot polish! (“No… this can’t be about to happen” I start thinking.) Jerry begins smearing the boot polish over his face. (“No… noooo-no-no-no-no-no!” I plead out loud to the TV.) Jerry wraps a red and white polkadot handkerchief around his head. (“Oh My God No!”) But there is no god; and, yes, Jerry waddles out of the closet dressed as a mammy caricature, followed by Tuffy all blacked up as a Pickaninny “Honey Chile’”. I was flabbergasted. (Well, to be honest, I was simultaneously laughing and cussing at the TV in incredulity.) I looked it up, and the episode we saw is titled “Milky Waif”. As I said to my kid, I remember seeing similar things in cartoons when I was a kid, but can’t believe I’m seeing it now, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be aired on Cartoon Network in the US. This is Japan, so I think there’s probably a lot less sensitivity to that kind of thing, but I figured, if I’ve got the time to write about it here, I might as well write a complaint to the network. Now I feel a little like a fussy old parent, but I’m damned if I’m gonna let them show that shit to my kids when I’m paying for their service. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/2 "2018-12-19T15:09:01Z")
So, did the disguises work? ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/3 "2018-12-19T15:54:10Z")
Dude, you’re in Japan. They’ve got their own problems with racism, but an American-specific blackface isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/4 "2018-12-19T16:13:02Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > So, did the disguises work? It almost did. But as Tuffy was walking away, his diaper fell exposing his grey ass to Tom. Then the chase was back on again. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/5 "2018-12-19T16:24:00Z")
[https://vimeo.com/90734719](https://vimeo.com/90734719) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/6 "2018-12-19T16:41:41Z")
This is Japan, so I think there’s probably a lot less sensitivity to that kind of thing [Ya think](https://imgur.com/gallery/NnNrc)? ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/7 "2018-12-19T17:16:24Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This is Japan, so I think there’s probably a lot less sensitivity to that kind of thing > > [Ya think](https://imgur.com/gallery/NnNrc)? That’s nothing to do with American blackface; Ganguro is an exaggerated tan with bleached hair. [It’s a deliberately noisy, bright and trashy aesthetic as a subversion of received Japanese notions of how women ought to look and behave.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro) Ganguro girls were fun. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/8 "2018-12-19T17:34:22Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > That’s nothing to do with American blackface [Still looks like it](http://soulfulbeauty.com/asian-obsession-the-ganguro-girls-blackface-fashion-trend-or-racism/). ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/9 "2018-12-19T17:43:16Z")
American racial context is not every culture’s racial context. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/10 "2018-12-19T17:48:45Z")
I was trying to remember a movie I had seen featuring an especially brutal depiction of ganguro, and [this](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/04/19/voices/historically-japan-is-no-stranger-to-blacks-nor-to-blackface/) article happened to mention it. Check out [this](https://youtu.be/RH8N0FN8vcY?t=857) scene (there are others if you search.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/11 "2018-12-19T19:15:19Z")
There have been complaints in the past about obvious blackface caricature characters, dolls, and cartoons in Japan. I think they’re either oblivious to it, or else don’t care – it’s part of some other nation’s racist history. as the articles below indicate, though, it’s becoming part of their considerations as the internet-connected world continues to shrink. > **[Japanese TV show featuring blackface actor sparks anger](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42561815)** > > Opinion is divided over whether it was racist for a comedian to use makeup to mimic Eddie Murphy. > **[Time for Japan to scrub off that blackface — for good](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2018/01/10/our-lives/time-japan-scrub-off-blackface-good/#.XBqYAmfsYdU)** > > Oops, they did it again: offensive makeup for laughs on TV. But some Japanese viewers are far from amused. [http://www.mit.edu/~rei/manga-ethnic.html](http://www.mit.edu/~rei/manga-ethnic.html) > **[Japan's blackface problem: the country's bizarre, troubled relationship with...](https://www.vox.com/2015/3/17/8230783/japan-racism-blackface)** > > The long, tangled history of Japan's issues with race and racism come out in its tolerance of blackface. > **[Historically, Japan is no stranger to blacks, nor to blackface](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/04/19/voices/historically-japan-is-no-stranger-to-blacks-nor-to-blackface/#.XBqYlGfsYdU)** > > I am a black Japanese half. I was bullied because of my skin color in elementary school, so I have a strong complex about my skin color. If Japanese truly [http://originalpeople.org/blackface-and-sambos-in-japan/](http://originalpeople.org/blackface-and-sambos-in-japan/) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/12 "2018-12-19T19:50:37Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Dude, you’re in Japan. They’ve got their own problems with racism, but an American-specific blackface isn’t one of them. That would make sense if we were talking about some bit of Japanese culture that happened to look like blackface. But this is them showing an American cartoon–it is definitely blackface. And Americans clearly consider this to be racist. Also, if **Darren** ’s links are to be believed, it seems Japan very much does have that problem, having imported the minstrel shows same as Western countries. And there has actually been protest from within Japan to try and stop this. It may not have the exact same history, but it’s still racial stereotyping, and still considered offensive. Blackface is not “American-specific.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/13 "2018-12-19T19:54:26Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Check out [this](https://youtu.be/RH8N0FN8vcY?t=857) scene (there are others if you search.) I will say that this does not look at all the same as the ganguro you linked earlier. The movie definitely just looks like blackface. But the fashion trend looks plausibly like it could be just a style with heavy tanning and white lips, without any black signifiers. In other words, can you confirm that these two are actually both ganguro? That the video you linked is just plain blackface? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/14 "2018-12-19T20:00:11Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I > In other words, can you confirm that these two are actually both ganguro? That the video you linked is just plain blackface? [Feel free to browse links](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=kaIaXM6MEumfjgSp9o3wAw&q=vampire+frankenstein+girl+ganguro&oq=vampire+frankenstein+girl+ganguro&gs_l=psy-ab.3...26371.28813..29307...0.0..0.1056.3591.6-3j1......0....1..gws-wiz.uEAApCwcV1k). (And\* all four\* of those characters are supposed to be Japanese gangaru girls.) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/15 "2018-12-19T21:42:04Z")
Ganguro is unrelated to blackface. It’s the Japanese equivalent to something like “Jersey Girl-chique”. Though, I would expect the style to have died out by now…? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/16 "2018-12-19T22:21:17Z")
We were traveling in France, and I was watching some Tom & Jerry cartoons in the hotel room. I thought I had seen every single T&J ever created, but I found myself watching one I had never even heard of. It was “His Mouse Friday”. It was made in 1951, and it was set on a cannibal island. You had better believe there was blackface galore. Also, Jerry spoke! (He was trying to fake out Tom that he was one of the natives and was speaking cannibal gibberish.) I guess this cartoon had been banned in the U.S., but France had no problem showing it uncut. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/17 "2018-12-19T22:59:33Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Ganguro is unrelated to blackface. You are the second person on this thread to make that assertion, but it still remains a face tinted dark, and at least Japanese director [Yoshihiro Nishimura](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Nishimura) made that association when satirizing ganguro in the movie I linked above. Put it this way–if someone in America died their face black, then claimed that it wasn’t blackface, how well would that fly? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/18 "2018-12-19T23:03:59Z")
These howlers from other cultures aren’t limited to Japan. Here’s one from Italy. > **[Prada vows to 'do better' after backlash over 'racist' key chains and figurines](https://www.today.com/style/prada-accused-racism-blackface-over-pradamalia-figurines-t145256)** > > The company released a new apology. For context, Prada has had these little novelty items for several years, designed to hang off your handbag or something like that. The earliest ones I remember were like robots. These in the article somehow managed to make it to market for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reindeer_flotilla/32/3024_2.png) [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/19 "2018-12-19T23:23:31Z")
In 2011 the remastered and completely uncensored first Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts were [released for purchase](https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Jerry-Golden-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B0058O1FHK/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1545260298&sr=1-1&keywords=tom+and+jerry+blu+ray). As part of the remastering process the decision was made to preserve them as created, warts and all, for historical purposes. This includes obviously all the racially insensitive caricatures (along with restoring Lillian Randolph’s original voice work) and all the cartoon violence which MGM sort of lead the pack compared to other studios. (Check out the old original Screwy Squirrel shorts as an example.) The disc contains an introductory disclaimer to warn viewers whom hadn’t ever seen the uncensored versions about the contents and an explanation on why the major restoration of these classics from original pristine 35mm film elements should preserve their history. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370/20 "2018-12-19T23:41:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … I think they’re either oblivious to it, or else don’t care – it’s part of some other nation’s racist history. I think it’s a little of both. A lot of Japanese comedy is broad farce, including dress-up, make-up and exaggerated mannerisms, so a lot of folks here probably don’t see the harm. Also, Japan still being somewhat culturally insular, and rather ethnically homogeneous, I think there’s much less awareness of the problem with blakface. It’s good to know this is changing. > [@](#): > > [Ethnic and Racial Stereotypes in Manga](http://www.mit.edu/~rei/manga-ethnic.html) Yep. I remember that. Reminded me of the time Hey Hey It’s Saturday, a popular Australian show I watched as a kid, got told off by Harry Connick Jr for showcasing a blakface lampooning of Michael Jackson. Australian broadcasters certainly should have known better by that time. Now it’s one of the first things to come up if you search for the show on You Tube. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crud-racist-tom-and-jerry-episode-on-cartoon-network-japan/826370.md?page=2)