Satirical cartoons that air on television, such as The Boondocks and Black Dynamite, deal with racial topics and are viewed as humorous forms of entertainment. These cartoons are not taken seriously since many audience members misinterpret the cartoons’ context. Viewers not understanding the context of the shows and repeatedly viewing these images cause many to associate these events in the cartoons towards reality, which is one of the effects of the Ideomotor Theory. Fans of these shows also go on to social forums and post racial comments to get “upvotes” while others support the comments resulting in the reinforcements of poor behavior, which is an example of the Reward System theory. Overall, audience members not taking the satirical cartoons
…show more content…
For instance, a scene from The Boondocks depicts a racist character named Uncle Ruckus who is African American. In the scene, Uncle Ruckus discusses as to how “white” people should “rotate their racial slurs.” The character does this in a thirty-three second scene by explaining how African Americans have gotten used to the “N-word” and then ends his argument by stating, “You gotta rotate your racist slurs. Now I know it 's hard cause nigga1 just rolls off the tongue the way sweat rolls off a nigga 's forehead, but we cannot let that be a crutch. Especially when there are so many fine substitutes: spade, porch monkey, jiggaboo. I say the next time you gonna call a darkie a nigga, you call that coon a jungle bunny instead" (yyomommacallinme, 2008). This scene was aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim broadcasting station without any censorship of the discriminating words towards African American people. Many people claim that these events that are shown in cartoons are not real, which makes it “okay” to represent African American people in this way or any other race. This is why many audience members find these racial events humorous since it did not actually happen (Am I missing Something, 2014). However, the creators of The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder, and Black Dynamite, Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, and Scott Sanders, have used events that have happened in reality to point out the terrible acts that take place in the world (Thomas, 2015). This has resulted in audience members viewing the racial oppressions the African American community faces in reality as a joke instead of a serious
For instance, a scene from The Boondocks depicts a racist character named Uncle Ruckus who is African American. In the scene, Uncle Ruckus discusses as to how “white” people should “rotate their racial slurs.” The character does this in a thirty-three second scene by explaining how African Americans have gotten used to the “N-word” and then ends his argument by stating, “You gotta rotate your racist slurs. Now I know it 's hard cause nigga1 just rolls off the tongue the way sweat rolls off a nigga 's forehead, but we cannot let that be a crutch. Especially when there are so many fine substitutes: spade, porch monkey, jiggaboo. I say the next time you gonna call a darkie a nigga, you call that coon a jungle bunny instead" (yyomommacallinme, 2008). This scene was aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim broadcasting station without any censorship of the discriminating words towards African American people. Many people claim that these events that are shown in cartoons are not real, which makes it “okay” to represent African American people in this way or any other race. This is why many audience members find these racial events humorous since it did not actually happen (Am I missing Something, 2014). However, the creators of The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder, and Black Dynamite, Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, and Scott Sanders, have used events that have happened in reality to point out the terrible acts that take place in the world (Thomas, 2015). This has resulted in audience members viewing the racial oppressions the African American community faces in reality as a joke instead of a serious