The black character's lips

[ShinRogafuken]

No, that's not racist. Sheesh, at least they have black characters in it...I mean some shows only have all-white characters. I don't see people complaining about that.

What's really racist was what 4kids did in One Piece Episode 5. There was this black pirate dude for Buggy the Clown and 4kids changed his skin color from black to tan.

[Adamant]

I'll say the same thing about this that I say about Resident Evil 5 and other matters of racism in Japanese media. It's not really racist. It's just culturally insensitive.

I'm not even sure you can call it that, since it's "insensitive" towards a non-existant culture. As mentioned earlier, there aren't really any black people in Japan, and Dragonball in all it's incarnations was made by the Japanese, for the Japanese. Neither authors, censors or the public gave any thought to the fact that "hey, if some other country wants to translate this and release it in their country at some point down the line, maybe there's some stuff in here that some group somewhere in the world will complain about?"

If foreigners have a problem with some imported goods, then it's up to the foreign distributor to change the goods, not for the original creator to make something that no one anywhere could possibly ever have a problem with.
Or to use an example, Red Bull is illegal in Norway due to a law stating that products with more than x amounts of caffeine are not to be sold as beverage. You don't see anyone complaining to Red Bull about being insensitive to countries with such laws by putting too much caffeine in the drink, do you?
(yeah, I know, it's not really the same, but whatever)

[TheGreatness25]

At least they have black characters in it, but they are usually just bystanders or victims of something.

It might be a little racist, but all animation gives black people big lips (Justice League, etc). The only difference is that the animation itself in DBZ makes people look goofy, and that goes for all bystanders and characters who aren't really the main characters. So that makes it look even worse than probably intended.

[NeptuneKai]

It always seems to me that the people who shout "IT'S NOT RACIST!" either are foreign to the northern territory or are too young to know about/ never studied up on the "sambo" stereotype.

[B]

Anyone else think it's kind of racist that all the black characters have these big donut looking lips? I'm white and it has always bugged me, so I can't imagine what black folks think of this.

Yeah, it's sterotypical, but I wouldn't say racist. Toriyama doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd care what color you are.

Slightly unrelated, but I can't help but chuckle when a white person is bothered by this stuff.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I guess it's comparable to always drawing British people with huge, horrible teeth.

The British are white. It's impossible to be racist against whites.

Actually, it is possible to be racist against whites. There are some racist insults made for white people that I don't want to mention here.

[The Tori-bot]

I guess it's comparable to always drawing British people with huge, horrible teeth.

The British are white. It's impossible to be racist against whites.

Actually, it is possible to be racist against whites. There are some racist insults made for white people that I don't want to mention here.

I think he was joking.

[XanatosVanBadass]

It always seems to me that the people who shout "IT'S NOT RACIST!" either are foreign to the northern territory or are too young to know about/ never studied up on the "sambo" stereotype.

Pretty much this. Its not so much that there are black people drawn with big lips, rather its the WAY they are drawn that looks rather reminiscant of those old racist cartoons from back in the day (Little Black Sambo for instance) that is too similar to be coincidence.

Keep in mind also that the most prominent black characters in DB both have racist names (General[?] Black, Mr. Popo). You could NEVER get away with something like that today (Unless you're the Black Ranger ). I'd also like to make note that, in the Japanese version, Mr. Popo speaks in very broken dialog, almost a dumb way of speaking.

One last thing, I've always speculated that the whole bit where Popo meets Bulma to get her to come with her to Kami's spaceship (after the Vegeta fight) that Bulma was SO terrified of him because he was black and had never seen a black man before. lol

[SHINOBI-03]

One last thing, I've always speculated that the whole bit where Popo meets Bulma to get her to come with her to Kami's spaceship (after the Vegeta fight) that Bulma was SO terrified of him because he was black and had never seen a black man before. lol

DBZA

[Son Sebbe]

I guess it's comparable to always drawing British people with huge, horrible teeth.

The British are white. It's impossible to be racist against whites.

Are you being sarcastic?

[rereboy]

It always seems to me that the people who shout "IT'S NOT RACIST!" either are foreign to the northern territory or are too young to know about/ never studied up on the "sambo" stereotype.

Pretty much this. Its not so much that there are black people drawn with big lips, rather its the WAY they are drawn that looks rather reminiscant of those old racist cartoons from back in the day (Little Black Sambo for instance) that is too similar to be coincidence.

Keep in mind also that the most prominent black characters in DB both have racist names (General[?] Black, Mr. Popo). You could NEVER get away with something like that today (Unless you're the Black Ranger ). I'd also like to make note that, in the Japanese version, Mr. Popo speaks in very broken dialog, almost a dumb way of speaking.

One last thing, I've always speculated that the whole bit where Popo meets Bulma to get her to come with her to Kami's spaceship (after the Vegeta fight) that Bulma was SO terrified of him because he was black and had never seen a black man before. lol

That all comes down to what I said. Its not the lips that makes it racist, its what came before that makes it look that way, since I don`t believe that the author meant to be racist.

And I disagree with General Black being a racist name... All the generals in the Ribbon Army had a name after a colour and had that colour present in the design (general white had white hair, general yellow was a tiger, general red had red hair, etc...), so I think that presuming that General Black`s name is racist is incorrect.

[caejones]

Anyone else think it's kind of racist that all the black characters have these big donut looking lips? I'm white and it has always bugged me, so I can't imagine what black folks think of this.

Yeah, it's sterotypical, but I wouldn't say racist. Toriyama doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd care what color you are.

Slightly unrelated, but I can't help but chuckle when a white person is bothered by this stuff.

*forehead-smack* It took me until this post to remember...
I dunno, I read an editorial on Daizex that brought up rati-racist implications in DBZ. The saiyans and all that, and their racial supremecy thing. The editorial made it sound like Toriyama was somewhat discrimonated against at Toei (Oh, the Japanese have their own racist history...), and whether or not that's truly there, Toriyama stated somewhere that Vegeta was initially an amalgam of all the people he didn't like. The fact that he's got the race/class pride thing going on... well, there you go.

So yeah, I find it hard to believe that Toriyama devotes a lot of attention to a character/Story arc based around "Who gives a crap about Race or class or that social construct? Goku still gonna lay down the law!", but giving a whole three characters dark skin and big lips makes him racist...?

As for Sambo, I certainly see that in Popo. Never mind that he has rather high standing...
... But Black? Umm... Quoi?

[JAPPO]

Anyone else think it's kind of racist that all the black characters have these big donut looking lips? I'm white and it has always bugged me, so I can't imagine what black folks think of this.

It's totally racist, lol.

[Tsukento]

That is why Viz edited them out.

Not entirely.

Black kept his lips. And they forgot to edit Popo's lips on one of the chapter covers in the back of Z volume 3.

[Saiyan-Professor]

I see it as unintentional ignorant racism, Toriyama did not do it to be racist he just saw a racist stereotypical image and carried it over to his manga. He was ignorant of the history behind such images because of the fact that Japan was isolated from the outside world for so long. Yet, even after Dragonball came to completion his later works had black people portrayed in an exaggerated fashion. Someone definitely needs to talk to man.

[Tsukento]

It's not being ignorant or racist, it's just the typical stereotyping gag Toriyama's known for. It's not like he's done it with blacks only, either. Take a gander of Otokosuki at the end of the manga.

[mister yummy]

Rascism requires intent, not just action. Hence, the appearence of Adjuctant Black is no rascist.

As for Mr. Popo, he's not even a man, he's a genie. How can a portrayel of a fictional species be rascist?

Toriyama-sensei didn't intend to offend anybody, he just drew caractitures of people so you could tell what they were supposed to look like. No ill intent = no rascism.

[Tsukento]

Besides, if he wanted to be really out there, he'd have had Popo's favorite foods being fried chicken, watermelon and grape juice. >>

[B]

Besides, if he wanted to be really out there, he'd have had Popo's favorite foods being fried chicken, watermelon and grape juice. >>

Great, I am now picturing Popo at Goku's pod landing while Trunks is pulling out grape soda from his fridge.

[Herms]

I find it interesting that Black from the red ribbon army kept his lips while Mr. popo didn`t.

Though Viz didn't completely remove Black's lips like they did with Popo, they did black them in with screentone, I guess to make them less obvious.