Many viewers who grew up watching Tom and Jerry cartoons don’t think of the cartoons as racist, but are they? Amazon has recently added the shows to their lineup, and a warning about racial stereotypes has many re-evaluating their childhood viewing, or, alternately, defending it, and suggesting that Amazon should be the one to re-evaluate.

Do the old cartoons really depict racist stereotypes? Well, of course, media is a product of its time, and Amazon lists the offending season of the series as having been created in 1952. There’s no question casual racism was more of a norm in 1952 than it is today. For an idea of the time, consider that in 1952, it would still be two years before the Supreme Court took a stand on the desegregation of schools.

While that doesn’t make racial stereotypes acceptable or appropriate, it certain indicates that they wouldn’t have been uncommon at the time the episodes were made, and suggests that any insistence that Tom And Jerry couldn’t have carried such stereotypes is rather ludicrous.

As for exactly what content was considered racist, consider this: according to The Daily Beast, two episodes from 1948 and 1952 are actually not being offered on Amazon, both likely due to the characters donning ‘blackface’ for their performances.

Furthermore, in the area of racial stereotypes, many viewers may not be aware that the heavyset woman who is often depicted chasing Tom with a broom or shrieking in fear at the sight of a mouse carries the name ‘Mammy Two Shoes’ and has actually been edited out of some later showings of the cartoon, according to the Tom and Jerry Wiki. This editing is specifically due to her character being recognized as a racist archetype.

It isn’t easy or comfortable to look back and see the casual racism of our childhoods, but watching a few episodes of the cartoon from an adult perspective quickly eliminates much of the question. The depictions may not have been intended as malicious, but they very clearly depict stereotypes and archetypes that, in 2014, society simply doesn’t write off and overlook as ‘harmless’ anymore.

[Image: Tom & Jerry – Puss Gets The Boot]