from tlchicken.com, August 2004

Okay, on a serious note: I hope that everyone understands that the intention of this comic was not to mock those of Asian or African descent. Rather, I was trying to illustrate how ridiculous the pervading xenophobic attitude of 1940s America was. I find it uniquely humorous that calling a Japanese person a "rice-eater" was not only perfectly acceptable, but even encouraged as recently as 60 years ago; I do not approve of the use of the term in anything but an ironic manner. Anyone who thinks this is meant to be offensive toward foreigners or minorities should know that I'm spoofing cartoons from that era, such as "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" or "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs". And the phrase "It takes a good slap to knock out a Jap!" is taken almost verbatim from an American World War II propaganda poster.

Cartoons and other media from that period in our country's history are certainly offensive by today's standards, but I don't think the current policy of sweeping them under the rug and pretending they never existed is necessarily the best solution. The argument to lock offensive media and film away from the public bears a striking similarity to the fairly recent petition by a Haitian anti-defamation group to remove the line of dialogue "Kill all the Haitians!" from the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. True, on its own the line is offensive, but it's something that a racist Cuban gang lord at war with a rival Haitian gang would say. Just as the dialogue is far from politically correct but is true to the character saying it, 1940s propaganda is an honest indicator of the climate of the world at the time it was made. I personally am fascinated by the content of old Vaudeville acts or Little Black Sambo cartoons-- or the packaging of Cherry Clan candy-- because they illustrate just how far our culture has progressed.

...or not, if you take into account the new crop of ethnic slurs being created almost daily for Middle Easterners. What's that saying about those who don't learn from the past?