Chuck Close

When you grow up on the periphery of an Empire such as the United States, the kind of consumable culture you are exposed to is not necessarily that which would be considered popular by the Empire's mainstream standards.

So, for example, I grew up watching a lot of what constitutes today's treasure trove of Warner Bros.' banned cartoons. It was so common to see every morning jazz jivin' sambos, looney dwarf-like Hitlers and wascally wabbits dressed in drag on TV that I was actually shocked to learn those cartoons were censored and outright banned here in the U.S.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE JIVIN' BEARS (1944), is part of the now infamous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Censored Eleven. I find it fascinating that the dogs of animation, Harman and Ising, are included in this list, as well as Fritz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Robert Clampett and Tex Avery.

Harman and Ising founded Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes, and became famous for a little sambo-like character called Bosko. They basically translated the minstrel theater of the time into cartoons --and in the process made film and animation history.

I think it is unwise to ban these cultural gems from TV. Forget about the puritanical sensitivities of the political correctness police. I think that contextualized as part of the country's popular culture, they are invaluable tools for the world to understand the cultural development of the United States.