I’ve heard a lot of arguments for giving classic cartoons and comics a break for their odd bouts of rather extreme racism. “It was a different era, back then! That was the popular taste, the style of the day! We were at war!” The last is a reference to the buck toothed, bespectacled image of the Japanese in WWII era toons. This last argument falls flat when you realize the Chinese weren’t treated any differently and the caricature existed from the birth of the animated medium until as late as the 1960s (Johnny Quest comes to mind, IYYYEEEEEEE!). The other arguments ring equally hollow. More »