Who (or what) is Mr. Popo?

[eledoremassis02]

As for Japan, they were introduced to the world (and views of blacks) via encounters with America in the past. (1800's to the occupation)

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... kids-play/

I don't think the Japanese view "sambo" as inherently racist or anything- they just see it as a goofy form of comedy that the Americans introduced to them and they never had 10,000,000+ black people in their country fussing to outlaw it everywhere. (I think Admiral Perry's men did sambo plays while meeting with the Japanese or something?) Nowadays though, "sambo" characters are pretty rare- all the black dudes in Bleach/Naruto mostly just look like regular black guys instead of Mr. Popo, so I think there's some awareness in international industries like manga/anime that that doesn't really play quite as well abroad so it's something you rarely see anymore. Non-international industries don't really care and find it strange/bizarre that foreigners in other countries demand they ban/censor stuff that's not even targeted at them so they could care less.

Mr. Popo is ultimately a holdover from a less sensitive era before anime/manga had huge foreign followings. Contrary to what Carole Weatherby might claim to drum up page views, he wasn't intended as a symbol of racism to make people view blacks as inferior and dumb, he was just intended a silly comedy device naively introduce by Toriyama that played well to local audiences but not quite that well to foreign audiences years later before most anyone in Japan had any idea that Mr. Popo might trouble people abroad.

Reading this again, I agree 100% Sambo himself is in fact Indian (which explains Popo's get up) and even perhaps his rather simple child-like life (childrens book). So he's most likely a reference to that story in the same Goku is to Wukong.
This may be over reaching but maybe popo got his name from taking Bo (from sambo) and playing with the voicing. "Bo" is a voiced "ho" which can also be voiced as "po" as in Popo. In Japan Sambo is pronounced Sanbo. If you play with the voicing it become "Sanpo" which means to walk or stroll, a leisurely activity

[GS7X7]

Btw, have there been any podcasts about the controversy with Mr. Popo?

I know there was one about General Blue.

[LuckyCat]

The world book describes Mr. Popo as 天界の人々 (People of the Cosmos). So among that group, he's really no more absurd than King Kai or Kibit. Toriyama gives all the people of the Cosmos a mixture of Asian-themed clothing from various Asian gods.

As I look into this more, I have read that both Krillin and Goku have stereotypes issues as well. Goku turning "white" to defeat bad guys. As for Goku, I would suggest the color is more of a reference to Son Wukong himself

People always overthink Goku's transformation. Heroes in just about any kids show wear primary colors. Yellow hair and blue eyes are just more uses of primary colors to make Goku stand out as good to children. Also note that when Goku reaches SS God later on, he turns all red, yet another primary color transformation.

[Big Momma]

Isn't he referred to as a Dijinn somewhere?

Not in the series itself or any official secondary sources, as far as I'm aware. But he looks kind of like a genie/djinn, what with the turban and magic carpet and whatnot, so I see fans describe him as such fairly often. I don't think there's anything more to it than that.

Ah, okay. Gotcha.

[GS7X7]

What did the average Japanese tv-watcher and manga-reader think upon being introduced to Mr. Popo?

Sambo designs were really popular in anime/manga back in the day so it probably wasn't a very big deal to them.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Great Saiyaman,I love you and all, but no, Sambo stuff is NOT Ok. Its silly to take offense when Japan doesnt really see anything wrong witht the stereotype, but its far from harmless and innocent. Japan doesnt have a huge Black population to begin with and are extremely xenophobic so they arent really all that politically correct.

Kanzenshuu's expert Dogasu can explain it better than me.

So I've disproved the majority of the popular beliefs about what Rougela is based on. But now it's your turn to ask: Why would the Japanese creators base Rougela on something like Little Black Sambo? Why would they intentionally create an overtly racist character?

The answer lies in Japan's homogenous society. The country doesn't have the ethnic diversity that America has, and what the typical American thinks of as black people are pretty much non-existent in the land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, nobody's going to be upset when someone like Rougela or Dragon Ball Z's Mr. Popo appear in children's shows. To the Japanese, they're just these funny characters who appear in the movies and in rap videos. Gross overgeneralization? Perhaps, but it's been my experience that Japanese people don't have the daily contact with black people that Americans have.

The lobby card for Sunday Go to Meetin' Time"Even so, black people need to chill out and shouldn't get so bent out of shape over one character." The reason people are so upset over Jynx in the first place is because African Americans were some of the most cruelly stereotyped people historically. Just take a look at some of the cartoons released when animation was just taking off as a medium in the early 20th century. "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" shows a black man constantly running into bad luck after sneaking out of church to steal some chickens. "Scrub Me, Mama, with a Boogie Beat" has a huge and appalling collection of black stereotypes. For a while, Tom (the cat in Tom and Jerry) was constantly afraid of a black maid, Mammy Two-Shoes. There are a lot more (read this Wikipedia article for more details about various racist cartoons), and all of them have been banned from American television. In fact, Cartoon Network originally intended to air all the Bugs Bunny cartoons for their 2001 "June Bugs" Looney Tunes marathon, but decided not to air eleven of the cartoons because they were so racially offensive.

Mr. Popo loses the lips for the English versionMr. Popo loses the lips for the English version
But don't think for a minute that Rougela is the only character being picked on. In May of that same year, another article surfaced about both Rougela and Mr. Popo (from Dragon Ball Z) that was brought to my attention through the famous Dragon Ball Z fansite, DBZ Uncensored. The article, which repeats some of the same arguments from the first article, added Mr. Popo into the mix, proving that the ice pokemon isn't the only character being targeted by the media. While Mr. Popo is too embedded in the Dragon Ball Z storyline to erase (unlike Rougela), American localizers have found a way to censor the character. In early 2004, Viz, the company that translates and publishes the English language version of the Dragon Ball manga, began to digitally reduce the size of Mr. Popo's lips in an effort to soften its racist image (click on the images, provided by Daizenshuu EX, to see larger versions). And in February 2004, a Spongebob Squarepants valentine was recalled because a printing error caused it to resemble the Little Black Sambo a little too closely.

The debate that Mrs. Weatherford started all those years ago was that, despite the pokemon's supposed origin or character model, the end product still resembles African American stereotypes a little too much. Was Mr. Popo based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. Were the misprinted Spongebob valentines based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people.

Was Jynx based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. That's why the character's caused so much controversy.

[eledoremassis02]

Spoiler:

Great Saiyaman,I love you and all, but no, Sambo stuff is NOT Ok. Its silly to take offense when Japan doesnt really see anything wrong witht the stereotype, but its far from harmless and innocent. Japan doesnt have a huge Black population to begin with and are extremely xenophobic so they arent really all that politically correct.

Kanzenshuu's expert Dogasu can explain it better than me.

So I've disproved the majority of the popular beliefs about what Rougela is based on. But now it's your turn to ask: Why would the Japanese creators base Rougela on something like Little Black Sambo? Why would they intentionally create an overtly racist character?

The answer lies in Japan's homogenous society. The country doesn't have the ethnic diversity that America has, and what the typical American thinks of as black people are pretty much non-existent in the land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, nobody's going to be upset when someone like Rougela or Dragon Ball Z's Mr. Popo appear in children's shows. To the Japanese, they're just these funny characters who appear in the movies and in rap videos. Gross overgeneralization? Perhaps, but it's been my experience that Japanese people don't have the daily contact with black people that Americans have.

The lobby card for Sunday Go to Meetin' Time"Even so, black people need to chill out and shouldn't get so bent out of shape over one character." The reason people are so upset over Jynx in the first place is because African Americans were some of the most cruelly stereotyped people historically. Just take a look at some of the cartoons released when animation was just taking off as a medium in the early 20th century. "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" shows a black man constantly running into bad luck after sneaking out of church to steal some chickens. "Scrub Me, Mama, with a Boogie Beat" has a huge and appalling collection of black stereotypes. For a while, Tom (the cat in Tom and Jerry) was constantly afraid of a black maid, Mammy Two-Shoes. There are a lot more (read this Wikipedia article for more details about various racist cartoons), and all of them have been banned from American television. In fact, Cartoon Network originally intended to air all the Bugs Bunny cartoons for their 2001 "June Bugs" Looney Tunes marathon, but decided not to air eleven of the cartoons because they were so racially offensive.

Mr. Popo loses the lips for the English versionMr. Popo loses the lips for the English version
But don't think for a minute that Rougela is the only character being picked on. In May of that same year, another article surfaced about both Rougela and Mr. Popo (from Dragon Ball Z) that was brought to my attention through the famous Dragon Ball Z fansite, DBZ Uncensored. The article, which repeats some of the same arguments from the first article, added Mr. Popo into the mix, proving that the ice pokemon isn't the only character being targeted by the media. While Mr. Popo is too embedded in the Dragon Ball Z storyline to erase (unlike Rougela), American localizers have found a way to censor the character. In early 2004, Viz, the company that translates and publishes the English language version of the Dragon Ball manga, began to digitally reduce the size of Mr. Popo's lips in an effort to soften its racist image (click on the images, provided by Daizenshuu EX, to see larger versions). And in February 2004, a Spongebob Squarepants valentine was recalled because a printing error caused it to resemble the Little Black Sambo a little too closely.

The debate that Mrs. Weatherford started all those years ago was that, despite the pokemon's supposed origin or character model, the end product still resembles African American stereotypes a little too much. Was Mr. Popo based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. Were the misprinted Spongebob valentines based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people.

Was Jynx based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. That's why the character's caused so much controversy.

There is a lot of truth to this but also at the same time, when do we stop? There are other stereotypical/racist things in Dragon Ball. In fact FUNimation made Killa even worse by the awful voice acting. Bora and Upa and General Blue (more so in the Japanese version) weren't exactly PC either. I mean, since there is a good case that Sambo was the basis for the design of Popo, I no longer have issues with VIZ censoring Popo on the basis of that's part of translation (making martial relevant to the receiving culture) and in this case, racially sensitive designs getting altered. However, I have an issue with Jynx because there is a fair amount of evidence that she might be based on Yamauba and Gangoro.

That's a big part of my problem with Carole Boston Weatherford article (that got them to censor in the first place) was that she gave no evidence to how these characters are stereotypes (outside of "They look like it). She pointed out many examples of what these stereotypes look like and that Hong Kong kept "Black Mans toothpaste" on the label (which was sorta racist assuming bother HK and Japan would act the same because they're both in Asia) but none respective to each character she accused. Will they revert Jynx back now that there is a good amount of evidence showing shes not blackface? Probably not. Is that itself wrong because it shows that us Americans wont take the time to learn about another culture and just sit on out own negative assumptions about said culture? That's a Pokemon argument however, so I'll stop there.

However, should we alter General Black and Killa (viz has) because they retain features associated with Black face? Should we re-voice Killa (I approve!). Shouldn't Popo be changed in every release? Why just toonazi and viz if he's that negative of a stereotype?

[GS7X7]

I'm not saying Sambo is okay or that it's totally awesome and we need more of it or anything. But I'm not really in favor of censoring Mr. Popo- turning him blue or erasing his lips. Viz censors a lot in their mangas (One Piece has had some violent scenes toned down- one example is editing out a notorious pirate crucifying someone, and another is a prison that throws people into burning water as torture). Popo still looks quite odd with erased lips, so why not go all the way with making him inoffensive and turn him blue like 4Kids or simply give him light skin?

If we get into the censorship argument, why not alter "Confederacy of Dunces"? The author is clearly homophobic and insults gay people numerous times so shouldn't the book be banned or edited to conform to modern times? I don't think so but that doesn't mean I hate all gay people though. Older works will often time contain offensive things but I don't think the past should be banned or censored, just viewed through the prism of that's how people viewed the world in the past and maybe given a warning sticker beforehand at best. Nobody's going to watch DBZ or "Nip the Nips" with Bugs Bunny and then start hating all black people or Japanese people.

As for Jynx, Jynx had nothing to do with black stereotypes- it was based largely on the Ganguro Girl craze (Japanese girls that dye their hair blonde and tan their skin dark) as well as that Japanese demon. That's why I'm against editing Jynx because it's conforming to an imagined insult by an easily offended woman who didn't bother taking the time to research Jynx's origins before declaring Jynx to essentially be the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. If Jynx was deliberately created to insult black people (which it wasn't) then I wouldn't object to Jynx being censored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro
http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0504/p9s1.html


As for Sambo, it's pretty much a dead trope in new animes/mangas but, there's still at least one offensive show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Tribes

There's actually no sambo in Tokyo Tribes but it's one of the most idiotic shows conceived. The basic plot is that half a million black people (virtually all of whom are apparently Americanized males for some reason) have unexplainably immigrated to Japan- leading to an absurdly massive rise in crime rates including murders, rape, kidnappings, pimping and gun violence. And black dudes dressed in shogun outfits riding around in tanks during gang wars. How'd they ever get there when Japan makes it so hard to immigrate to and why are only black American men immigrating? And why nearly all of them violent, mean criminals? It's a mystery with no answer so Tokyo Tribes doesn't bother to explain it. It even features a giant, ugly black guy named "Big Bubba" who brutally rapes pretty, young, light-skinned men which I guess was designed as a "loving tribute" to prison rape in America or something. The show was created as a "tribute" to hip hop and very bizarely it was created to show love and honor to it by the author! I'm actually surprised that Tokyo Tribes never generated any controversy given than it's a million times worse than either Popo or Carole Weatherby's false assumptions about Jynx.

Even without the racist stereotypes though, (even if you changed every black person to Japanese) Tokyo Tribes is still my least favorite manga of all time and has one of the least likable casts in a show ever. I did like the touching storyline with that black cyborg guy, but that was about the only worthwhile or original thing in the series.


Also, I actually thought that Officer Black was a really cool villain in DB and I was disappointed when they replaced him in the last DB Movie since I liked the original character so much.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Spoiler:

Great Saiyaman,I love you and all, but no, Sambo stuff is NOT Ok. Its silly to take offense when Japan doesnt really see anything wrong witht the stereotype, but its far from harmless and innocent. Japan doesnt have a huge Black population to begin with and are extremely xenophobic so they arent really all that politically correct.

Kanzenshuu's expert Dogasu can explain it better than me.

So I've disproved the majority of the popular beliefs about what Rougela is based on. But now it's your turn to ask: Why would the Japanese creators base Rougela on something like Little Black Sambo? Why would they intentionally create an overtly racist character?

The answer lies in Japan's homogenous society. The country doesn't have the ethnic diversity that America has, and what the typical American thinks of as black people are pretty much non-existent in the land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, nobody's going to be upset when someone like Rougela or Dragon Ball Z's Mr. Popo appear in children's shows. To the Japanese, they're just these funny characters who appear in the movies and in rap videos. Gross overgeneralization? Perhaps, but it's been my experience that Japanese people don't have the daily contact with black people that Americans have.

The lobby card for Sunday Go to Meetin' Time"Even so, black people need to chill out and shouldn't get so bent out of shape over one character." The reason people are so upset over Jynx in the first place is because African Americans were some of the most cruelly stereotyped people historically. Just take a look at some of the cartoons released when animation was just taking off as a medium in the early 20th century. "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" shows a black man constantly running into bad luck after sneaking out of church to steal some chickens. "Scrub Me, Mama, with a Boogie Beat" has a huge and appalling collection of black stereotypes. For a while, Tom (the cat in Tom and Jerry) was constantly afraid of a black maid, Mammy Two-Shoes. There are a lot more (read this Wikipedia article for more details about various racist cartoons), and all of them have been banned from American television. In fact, Cartoon Network originally intended to air all the Bugs Bunny cartoons for their 2001 "June Bugs" Looney Tunes marathon, but decided not to air eleven of the cartoons because they were so racially offensive.

Mr. Popo loses the lips for the English versionMr. Popo loses the lips for the English version
But don't think for a minute that Rougela is the only character being picked on. In May of that same year, another article surfaced about both Rougela and Mr. Popo (from Dragon Ball Z) that was brought to my attention through the famous Dragon Ball Z fansite, DBZ Uncensored. The article, which repeats some of the same arguments from the first article, added Mr. Popo into the mix, proving that the ice pokemon isn't the only character being targeted by the media. While Mr. Popo is too embedded in the Dragon Ball Z storyline to erase (unlike Rougela), American localizers have found a way to censor the character. In early 2004, Viz, the company that translates and publishes the English language version of the Dragon Ball manga, began to digitally reduce the size of Mr. Popo's lips in an effort to soften its racist image (click on the images, provided by Daizenshuu EX, to see larger versions). And in February 2004, a Spongebob Squarepants valentine was recalled because a printing error caused it to resemble the Little Black Sambo a little too closely.

The debate that Mrs. Weatherford started all those years ago was that, despite the pokemon's supposed origin or character model, the end product still resembles African American stereotypes a little too much. Was Mr. Popo based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. Were the misprinted Spongebob valentines based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people.

Was Jynx based on a black person? No, but it's still close enough to the old stereotypes to be offensive to some people. That's why the character's caused so much controversy.

There is a lot of truth to this but also at the same time, when do we stop? There are other stereotypical/racist things in Dragon Ball. In fact FUNimation made Killa even worse by the awful voice acting. Bora and Upa and General Blue (more so in the Japanese version) weren't exactly PC either. I mean, since there is a good case that Sambo was the basis for the design of Popo, I no longer have issues with VIZ censoring Popo on the basis of that's part of translation (making martial relevant to the receiving culture) and in this case, racially sensitive designs getting altered. However, I have an issue with Jynx because there is a fair amount of evidence that she might be based on Yamauba and Gangoro.

That's a big part of my problem with Carole Boston Weatherford article (that got them to censor in the first place) was that she gave no evidence to how these characters are stereotypes (outside of "They look like it). She pointed out many examples of what these stereotypes look like and that Hong Kong kept "Black Mans toothpaste" on the label (which was sorta racist assuming bother HK and Japan would act the same because they're both in Asia) but none respective to each character she accused. Will they revert Jynx back now that there is a good amount of evidence showing shes not blackface? Probably not. Is that itself wrong because it shows that us Americans wont take the time to learn about another culture and just sit on out own negative assumptions about said culture? That's a Pokemon argument however, so I'll stop there.

However, should we alter General Black and Killa (viz has) because they retain features associated with Black face? Should we re-voice Killa (I approve!). Shouldn't Popo be changed in every release? Why just toonazi and viz if he's that negative of a stereotype?

Actually, General Blue WAS changed, he's no longer gay or a pedophile in the Broadcast versions of Dragon Ball's Funimation dub and I welcome the change.I dont like editing Mr Popo though. And Bora and Upa while stereotypical arent as in IN YO FACE as Mr Popo is. There is no evidence Jynx is not a blackface.What are you talking about?

Also, but even the whole Ganguro thing is not true.

Again, thanks to Dogasu.

Jynx isn't based on black people! It's based on the Japanese ganguro fad from a couple of years ago!

About X years ago, there was a fad among Japanese girls called ganguro. The ganguro, which is often translated as "black face," was a fad in which girls would dye their hair blonde or white and tan their skin as dark as they could get it in an attempt to be "trendy." You can read more about it here. There are many people out there who are absolutely convinced that the pokemon is based on the fad, and they will argue with you all day to argue their point.

There are several problems with this argument. Why would the Japanese producers pick that one particular fad to turn into a pokemon when there are plenty of other things going around Japan that could have just as easily been turned into a pokemon? That's like basing a pokemon on POGs or Beanie Babies; sure, it'll get some laughs at the time, but it won't be too long before the joke begins to show its age.

Besides that, the date of the pokemon's conception would predate the fad by a few years. If we are to believe the Time Magazine article that states that Pokemon Red and Green took six years to complete, and the game came out in 1996, then that means that the pokemon was created some time between 1990 and 1996. The ganguro fad was at its height in 1995, so if Tajiri Satoshi was going to base a pokemon on the fad, then he would have only had a year to do so. Character concepts / creation would have been one of the first steps completed in the creation of the game, so in 1995 the character would have already been long past completed. Tajiri Satoshi wouldn't have been creating characters in 1995; he was most likely busy trying to program the game and finding a way to keep his company from going bankrupt month after month.

Then there are other features that link Jynx to a racist stereotype rather than the ganguro girls; for one thing, the ganguro girls didn't have oversized lips, and they wore white or pink lipstick--not red. Their skin was tanned or dark brown, but they were never jet black the way Rougela's was. The bottoms of their feet weren't a different color, while Jynx's feet (as seen in "Stage Fight") are a lighter color than the rest of her.

And to finish, that Confederacy nonsense book is for ADULTS.And its going to get banned one of these days and it will be glorious. If a kid sees Mr Popo and thinks that's an acceptable portrayal of black people things are going to get ugly. I'm not PRO censorship because they SHOULD release uncut stuff for adults that understand that blackface is wrong. But I'm most CERTAINLY not pro-Lets not care about minorities feelings.

[eledoremassis02]

Actually, General Blue WAS changed, he's no longer gay or a pedophile in the Broadcast versions of Dragon Ball's Funimation dub and I welcome the change.I dont like editing Mr Popo though. And Bora and Upa while stereotypical arent as in IN YO FACE as Mr Popo is. There is no evidence Jynx is not a blackface.What are you talking about?

Also, but even the whole Ganguro thing is not true.

I'll give the pass on Blue but Upa and Bora are rather in your face. The darker skinned war painted stoic natives who live in tee pee while living the spiritual life is about as in your face as it can get. It's just that Sanbo and sterotypes revolving African Americans are a much bigger deal because it's talked about more and the sad fact a lot of people think Native americans are non-existent or still live the same way we've lived traditionally, but believe me, as a Native American it's rather in your face.

As for Jynx https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8X3l_Tt8VE
While I do agree that the Ganguro theory is a little weak but it seems the "black face" is a more modern Ganguro (aslo a Yamauba ganguro as well *see game theory*). Ganguros (in the warly 90s) were inspired by 1960's and 70s style of America and Europe. But blond hair is something that's not usually (if ever) associated with Black face.

The fact they're is some evidence to suggest Popo is visually influenced by Sambo, I have no problem changing him, but again, why not other Black characters like Killa?

[Cure Dragon 255]

Blackface is a Special Kind Of Racism. Native Americans have been stereotyped and opressed but they keep it to themselves. Native Americans were more vocal about their displeasure you can kiss them goodbye. And Dragon Ball was never reaired in the USA so there's no need to censor them anymore.

[GS7X7]

Thanks for the info on Ganguro girls- I forgot just how old Pokemon is. Still, wouldn't didn't Pokemon come out slightly after Ganguro Girls craze started? It wouldn't have been that odd for a Japanese game to take a current fad and use it in the work- DBGT did that with "Don Para Para" in GT. (that actually was a real dance craze at the time, as silly as it was!) Pokemon has 150 characters so I wouldn't be surprised if they were still tinkering with them a year before, despite Dogasu's conjecture. I mean, the game Limbo altered the final level shortly before release.

"Confederacy of Dunces" really doesn't have anything to do with glorifying the Confederacy in any way. The people who are in the "confederacy" in the book are all raving idiots- thus the name "Confederacy of Dunces"!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confeder ... daptations

It's a highly beloved story mainly because it's completely hilarious! Chris Farley even loved it and wanted to turn it into a movie, until his unfortunate demises. It's a great book and it'd be a shame if it did get banned.

As for the homophobic remarks, that only constitutes one or two sentences in a single paragraph in a 300-page book. Most of all pop culture/writings was extremely hostile towards gays before 1999, if CoD has to be banned or censored then that would be countless thousands of other works would need to be as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8X3l_Tt8VE

[Cure Dragon 255]

I dont know what the confederacy is, I just said "Confederacy" because that's the word that stuck out the most. I meant that its going to get banned for all the negative stuff you mentioned and if its really that bad its going to be for the better.

EDIT: Read your post better, so if its not all that offensive then it shouldnt get banned. But nobody is calling for the ban on Blackface! Mr Popo either, he still lives on in uncut DVD's and streams.Even 4kids' shortlived website Toonzaki had him uncut! But its not going to fly on National Television and that's fine too. As long as there are uncut versions I couldnt care less about how The CW edits him.

[eledoremassis02]

Blackface is a Special Kind Of Racism. Native Americans have been stereotyped and opressed but they keep it to themselves. Native Americans were more vocal about their displeasure you can kiss them goodbye. And Dragon Ball was never reaired in the USA so there's no need to censor them anymore.

I assume you mean "[If] Native Americans were more vocal about their displeasure you can kiss them goodbye" why would that be? We were vocal about Johnny Depp playing Tonto and nothing was done, and that was essentially Red face.

But while Dragon Ball is not re-aired the manga is still printed. Should there be edited DVDs where they censor these things? Why just Vortex and not Nick or Cartoon Network? One channel did not solve a problem. And that is what annoys me. I did not fix or correct anything... Jynx is perminaltly changed but Popo has more evidence against him than Jynx. Shouldnt Blue Popo be the new Popo or at the very least no lips popo (as VIZ has done).

[Cure Dragon 255]

It was a massive flop. People have no tolerance for that sort of shit these days. That's why Viz Media/4kids was so afraid to give Uncut DB to the masses. I fricking hate that Viz Media doesnt provide an Uncut version of the manga. And in fact its pretty hypocrytical to delete Mr Popo's lips and then keep Upa and Bora as is. If I were in charge I would make sure an adult uncut version with a disclaimer similar to the uncut Looney Toones DVD's and Tom And Jerry's uncut streams. So yeah, I'm on the same page with you on this.

[eledoremassis02]

It was a massive flop. People have no tolerance for that sort of shit these days. That's why Viz Media/4kids was so afraid to give Uncut DB to the masses. I fricking hate that Viz Media doesnt provide an Uncut version of the manga. And in fact its pretty hypocrytical to delete Mr Popo's lips and then keep Upa and Bora as is. If I were in charge I would make sure an adult uncut version with a disclaimer similar to the uncut Looney Toones DVD's and Tom And Jerry's uncut streams. So yeah, I'm on the same page with you on this.

I think that would be fine and I'd have no problem with that (same goes for the Goku, Bulma censor issue). I don't think they will fix Popo and I can understand why. If they can prove that Jiynx is not black face and Yamauba then I would make the argument to change her back because then it's racially/culturally offensive the other way. Like a lot of the Ganguro are not "Black Face" They were originally inspired by Retro 70's American/Europe pop culture. The B-girls are inspired by Hip hop/rap culture and darken their skin and a lot of them like the culture in the same way we have people that like Asian culture and going overboard People just need to chill.

[Cure Dragon 255]

If people stereotyped and mocked you, would you be so willing to be "Chilling"?

[eledoremassis02]

If people stereotyped and mocked you, would you be so willing to be "Chilling"?

ummm...I have been mocked and stereotyped on both sides (White and Native Americans both direct and indirectly).

In the case I am referring too, people doing it unknowingly, then yes I think people need to chill. As in, making assumptions without any facts and ignoring other possibilities, such as Jinx being based on Yamauba or cultural misunderstandings.

Sambo may not be considered racist in Japan

Japanese often peg foreign Sanbo-related allegations of racism as historically and linguistically reductive. An anonymous writer on blog.goo.ne.jp argues that the words “sambo,” “smart” and “talent” are all used in Japanese differently than in English, so it follows that “there is no reason that the word ‘sanbo,’ even if not part of the Japanese language until translated from ‘sambo,’ ought to take on the English meaning. - Japan Times http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... NQahp3F8uc”

and B-girls (I wouldnt say all of them) are copying what they see in magazines and such and like what they see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPYLUyGR7Ms

but that doesn't mean they are out to be-little anyone (the act of mocking and being racist) in the same way when Japan, or most people in the U.S, make stereotypical assumptions about Native Americans or wear Native American fashion, or tan their skin, or lighten their skin, etc.In many ways it's not much to different to that of some of the most extreme american or western otakus who mimic what they see in Dramas and Anime. It would seem that they are being racist themselves, does it not? Or they doing it to embrace a foreign culture or do they do it to insult and mock them? Should be call out Lolita cosplayers or school girl cosplayers as being racist or anyone sporting a J-Rock hairstyle, etc.

JERO became Japans first Black (he's also 1/4 Japanese) Enka singer. He even won Best New Artist Award in 50th Japan Record Awards in 2008. He shook things up in music videos like this (https://vimeo.com/41383840) by not wearing traditional Enka clothing and expressing his African-American culture (there was some backlash by older Enka singers). Was he insulting Japanese traditions and culture, or expressing the mix of his own? Was Avril Lavigne's hello kitty music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiaYDPRedWQ) being racist even though it was released and produced by Sony Japan? I think this sums it up perfectly

Hiro Ugaya, a Tokyo-based journalist and media commentator, is one of those forgivers. "I assume that images of cultures outside of one's own in mass media are always different from the reality," he says, acknowledging that pop culture will reduce anything to a digestible pap. "When you're trying to reach the majority of consumers, images tend to be lowest common dominator."

Nobuyuki Hayashi, a well-known Tokyo-based tech and social media expert, concurs. "Searches in the Japanese Twittersphere and blogsphere show that most of the reactions were favorable," he says, adding, "The people who are blaming the artist for racism are non-Japanese … but most Japanese people are not taking it that seriously." http://www.billboard.com/articles/colum ... tion-tokyo

There is a clash of culture and sometimes things are not what they seem. Thats what I mean by "chill"

[GS7X7]

Carole- "The character Jynx, Pokémon #124, has decidedly human features: jet-black skin, huge pink lips, gaping eyes, a straight blonde mane and a full figure, complete with cleavage and wiggly hips. Put another way, Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a racist stereotype from a children's book long ago purged from libraries."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8X3l_Tt8VE

The Game Theory episode here basically explains Jynx's style of dance and why the game pokedexes obsess over her dancing as a primary character trait. It had nothing to do with "Big Momma's House" or the "Klump Family" or any other "obese, black drag queens"- that's not really a trope in animes or videogames at all, so why would Pokemon randomly be "inspired" by that?! It's clear Carole Weatherford did zero research into Japanese culture before writing up her article and demonizing Jynx.


Btw, I recall that a number of people years ago accused Psaros of being "racist" since he did a post semi-jokingly defending the character Mr. Popo on his site. He did the response when a "Mr. Popo" (forgot name of comedian DBZ site guy) "hacked" his old website and posted an article about Popo being accused of being racist.

It wasn't most people but a small, vocal handful on the PN boards or something were really angry at Psaros. It bothered him enough that he referenced it in a response later.

[rereboy]

If people stereotyped and mocked you, would you be so willing to be "Chilling"?

In the case of Mr. Popo, I think people need to chill. He's not a representation of anything, and he has nothing to do (design or otherwise) with the actually black people that appear in the manga.

Over-sensitivity is a problem, just like lack of sensitivity is a problem.